Rustam Minnikhanov takes part in opening of 7th Gaidar Forum “”Russia and the World: Looking into the future”

On January 13, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in the opening of the 7th Gaidar Forum which main theme is “Russia and the World: Looking into the Future”.

The event takes place on 13-15 January at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow.

Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Medvedev delivered his opening remarks at the Gaidar Forum 2016’s plenary session.

“We meet traditionally early in the year, to discuss most pressing issues related to global development,” Medvedev said. “Of course, I have no versatile instrument to resolve the current problems global and national economies are facing at the moment, but we can try to influence the situation, even including the hydrocarbon market.

The past year was difficult, possibly the most difficult year in a decade. It has been a long time since our economy encountered a set of major challenges such as plunging oil prices, the pressure from sanctions and the nascent change in the global economic paradigm.

A number of basic principles of the global economy and its key institutions have become unbalanced, and we are yet to determine whether it is a temporary imbalance or the time has come to formulate new rules of coexistence.”

According to Medvedev, the traditional formulas are no longer effective, and the accepted systems of regulation are malfunctioning. “Structural problems are facing not only the emerging but also the leading economies, and not only the commodity-based economies but also the consumers of energy resources. A relevant example is the oil market, where supply was larger than demand in 2015 while production continued to grow. The traditional tools of coordinating the price policy, for example through OPEC, have failed to restore the balance, and even the current situation in the Middle East has had little effect on it.

Politics and geostrategy are dictating conditions to the economy. The accepted rules are disregarded or adjusted, sometimes for conformist reasons as the International Monetary Fund has done with regard to Ukraine,” he continued.

“Another manifestation of globalisation is economic decisions adopted in one country instantly affecting other countries with no time delays like before. Apparently, the global financial actors need to be more responsible in making internal decisions. With the global changes in place, we see our own structural issues aggravating: an obvious deficit of sources of economic growth and export revenues besides raw commodities, lowered business and investment activity, and, most importantly, decreased incomes,” Medvedev said.

Many people had become poorer, the middle class had suffered, he went on to explain. "These are probably the most painful consequences of the past year’s economic blows. Over the past 15 years, we have reduced the poverty rate by half. It was our deliberate policy to invest primarily in the social sphere, even to the detriment of structural reforms that are never painless for the people. Reforms always hurt, and we know that well since 1990-s. Using the surplus oil revenues we increased salaries and pensions, built hospitals and kindergartens. As a result, since early 2000es we halved poverty. Things are more difficult today. The crisis has affected the most vulnerable groups, people who can only hope for government’s help, the hardest,” Medvedev said.

Tatarstan President's Press Office. Using materials of official website of the Russian Government