Just four hours after assuming office for his new term, President Putin signed yesterday a 19-page decree defining nine “national development goals” with precise performance targets.
While the first goals address key social issues — from ensuring “sustainable natural population growth” and a higher life expectancy, to raising real wages and pensions, to “cutting poverty in half” — three of them are related to the country’s technological development:
- “Accelerate technological development and increase the number of organisations engaged in technological innovation to 50% of the total”
- “Speed up the introduction of digital technologies in the economy and the social sphere”
- “Support high-productivity export-oriented businesses in the basic sectors of the economy, primarily, in manufacturing and the agroindustrial complex, based on modern technology and staffed with highly qualified employees.”
(Read the decree in Russian or a shortened version in English)
The decree logically stems from the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly dated March 1, notes the TASS news agency. Both documents set Russia’s breakthrough scientific, technological, social and economic development as the government’s main goal for the next six years.
