Following the discussion of the socio-economic and infrastructural development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation during the "government hour" held as part of the State Duma session, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation - Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev and Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexey Chekunkov answered questions from media representatives.
Summing up the results of the “government hour”
Yu.P. Trutnev: “Today, everything was connected with the report on the results of the work. For me, this is always a slightly complicated topic, because it can always be assessed from two sides. As in the old fable, the glass is half full or half empty. When you summarize the results of the work, and we summarized the results of the ministry's work for several years, the first question I ask myself is whether the right path has been chosen and how we are moving. I will answer right away - the right path has been chosen. It is impossible to develop a territory based on how much money will be given from the federal budget, it must be earned. Hundreds of billions of new investments, hundreds of new enterprises, an almost twofold increase in the budget of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation - this indicates that the Arctic economy is growing and its growth creates conditions for improving people's lives, for providing them with jobs, for ensuring normal wages, for building new facilities, and this is right. At the same time, it seems to me that it would be a very bad story if we approached our work assessments only from the point of view of what we succeeded in. It seems to me that it is also important to find the courage to answer the question about what we failed to do. I do not agree with all the comments that were made today. For example, when colleagues say: "Let's allocate more time for resettlement." The question immediately arises: do we want people to live in the Arctic or to leave? If we want to give more money for resettlement, then they will leave. This is certainly not the best solution. At the same time, a whole series of issues were raised, which were noted in the speeches, which concern people's lives. We are obliged to think about these people. We are obliged to make decisions that will improve people's lives, that will answer all the questions that they face. In fact, this is what we are working for.”