Unemployment one of Russia's "most painful" woes - Medvedev
GORKI, near Moscow. Jan 27 (Interfax) - President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday promised to pay "serious attention" to the unemployment problem.
"I'm planning to pay serious attention to the unemployment issue right now despite the fact that a serious decline in unemployment has been in evidence recently," Medvedev said at a meeting with the governor of Russia's Tyumen region, Vladimir Yakushev.
"Lately unemployment in the country has practically reached the pre-crisis level, but this issue remains one of the most painful for the Russian economy, for Russian society," the president said.
Yakushev said that in the Tyumen region the level of unemployment is 0.7%. He briefed Medvedev on regional employment programs.
The governor also told the president about the overall economic situation in the region.
The region's gross domestic product grew 4.7% last year. "As regards the industrial production index, it grew 28%, with the manufacturing industry index growing 21%," Yakushev said.
In 2009 production started at two more oil fields, he said. "Today the TNK-BP [RTS: TNBP] company has already brought its production to 5 million tonnes under this project. They should reach the 10-million-tonne mark during the process."
