Governor Alexey Ostrovskiy attended a meeting of the State Council

The main issues on the agenda of the joint meeting of the State Council and the Presidential Commission for Monitoring Targeted Socio-economic Development of Russia were measures to implement presidential executive orders. The meeting chaired by Vladimir Putin discussed the three issues in particular: the development of education, modernization of the housing and utilities sector, and increasing labor productivity.

As the Head of state noted, not all the regions are involved in the work on implementing the 2012 executive orders. “In some cases, this has happened for objective reasons, while in others there are clear omissions and mistakes,” – stressed Vladimir Putin. After the meeting Alexey Ostrovskiy commented on the implementation of the executive orders in Smolensk region: "As the Governor of the region, I am absolutely satisfied that in none of the reports presented at the State Council meeting Smolensk region was mentioned as a negative example of work in this or that direction. This means that the programs determined by the federal center, as well as the ones adopted by the regional Administration under my leadership are being implemented in the region. On the other hand, of course, we still have a lot to work to do to be mentioned among the positive examples. So far, unfortunately, we haven’t been on the list of such examples at the State Council Meeting".

Particular attention of the meeting was paid to the issue of resettling people living in dilapidated properties. Vladimir Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that at the moment the situation in this area is still very difficult. The deadline for the work on providing people living in properties recognized to be in an emergency state with normal housing is September 1, 2017. Only four percent of the 2013 plan has been fulfilled: a little over 1,500 people have been resettled out of the planned 42,000.

As Alexey Ostrovskiy noted, resolving the issue related to old and dilapidated housing is one of the key tasks of the state. He also spoke about the state of this sector in the region: "The work of Smolensk regional Administration was organized in such a way that we, as a federal entity, have been among the first five entities that signed the agreement on the Fund of reforming housing and utilities sector assistance, and Smolensk region will be among the first to receive the money”.

In addition, the Governor commented on the education development issue discussed at the meeting. "The key issue which was raised the State Council meeting and which is highly relevant for the residents of our region is an opportunity to get a job in the place where they got education. And, of course, there is so much work to be done in order to create new jobs. But we have achieved some success in this area too. We, the Administration of the region, understand that it is crucial for people to have an opportunity to get education and then to get a job corresponding to their education, but not the way it usually happens", - said Alexey Ostrovskiy.