Russian govt spends 263 bln rubles on rural development program in 2020-2024, businesses invest 17 bln rubles

MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Federal funding for the Russian government program for comprehensive development of rural areas totaled 263 billion rubles in 2020-2024, Agriculture Minister Oksana Luth said at a meeting that President Vladimir Putin held with the government on Wednesday.

"The amount of financing for the government program from the federal budget totaled 263 billion rubles in 2020-2024. And we're seeing steadily high interest from business in participating in the program. Socially responsible companies look after their employees who live in rural areas and are voluntarily co-financing social and engineering measures of the program. Our businesses invested about 17 billion rubles of extra-budgetary funds in this program in this period," Luth said.

The draft budget allocates 108 billion rubles for the program next year and another 185 billion rubles in 2026 and 2027, she said. This will make it possible to carry out about 3,000 projects under parts of the program such as beautification.

The program will also be extended to new regions in 2025, Luth said, adding that projects have already been approved.

Work on developing rural areas should be built on coordination between all sectoral programs that call for measures in rural areas, Luth said. Various measures are now included in 14 government programs, including for development of healthcare, education, culture, tourism and so on.

Over the years of the program, infrastructure projects have encompassed almost 12,000 population centers and 40% of the rural population, Luth said. By the end of this year, about 5,000 pieces of social, residential and transport infrastructure will be built and modernized and more than 13,000 improvement projects will be carried out, she said.

The program has also seen the construction of 248 schools, 155 kindergartens, 66 rural medical centers, 338 community centers and almost 2,000 km of rural roads. Furthermore, over 185,000 families were able to purchase a home, including through the rural mortgage program. This totalled about 11 million square meters, Luth said.

Putin noted that the number of projects being carried out under the program is decreasing, despite the growth of funding.

"It's clear why, because of higher prices. I don't want to go into the details, don't want to weary everyone with figures, but I would ask that you pay attention to this fact. We need to prioritize, everyone, both the government and regions, needs to work together so that prices are not jacked up for non-objective reasons for a single project being carried out in rural areas. This is a big, comprehensive job that everyone needs to do together, of course," Putin said.