02.10.2014 – The Gaidar Readings in Ulyanovsk

The Readings were jointly organized by the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, the Yegor Gaidar Fund and the Government and Ministry of Economic Development of the Ulyanovsk Region.

The Readings were held at the Ulyanovsk State Technical University (USTU).

Within the frameworks of the Readings, an opening ceremony of the Yegor Gaidar Lecture Hall was held at the USTU.

Sergei Morozov, Governor and Chairman of the Government of the Ulyanovsk Region sent his address to the participants in the Giadar Readings. Welcome addresses were delivered by Vladimir Mau, Rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Vadim Zhivulin, Director of the Regulatory Impact Assessment Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and Аlexander Gorbokonenko, Rector of the USTU.

Sergei Drobyshevsky, Academic Director of the Gaidar Institute was the moderator of the plenary session at which effect of the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) on development of investment and business activities was discussed.

Оleg Asmus, Minister of Economic Development of the Ulyanovsk Region took part in the debates. In his report: Development of the Regulatory Impact Assessment in the Ulyanovsk Region, Oleg Asmus touched upon the advantages of  introduction of the RIA procedure on the regional and municipal levels, as well as the effect of the RIA procedure on the investment climate in the region. In particular, introduction of the RIA procedure ensured filtration of ineffective regulatory acts. Also, Oleg Asmus pointed out that a lack of experts in regulatory impact assessment was a serious problem.

Report by O. Asmus >>>

In his address, Vladimir Mau, Rector of the RANEPA touched upon economic challenges which Russia is currently facing.

Vladimir Mau pointed out that Russia was going through three crises and each of those crises was to be handled in an absolutely different way. Firstly, the Russian economy was passing through a sever structural crisis which was similar to those of the 1930s and the 1970s; the exit fr om the crisis was related to changes in the structure of the economy and new technologies.  Secondly, there was a cyclical crisis which consisted in rather low investment and business activities. Thirdly, Russia was experiencing a crisis caused by external shocks, that is, Western sanctions against Russia.  

The main problem consists in the fact that all those three crises need to be dealt with adequately, but not always in the same way. So, the cyclical crisis should be handled in terms of the Keynesian model, that is, reduction of interest rates and considerable infusion of funds in the economy. The structural crisis is to be dealt with through upgrading of technologies and introduction of new economic models. It is to be noted that the remedies for the cyclical crisis will be destructive to the economy which is experiencing a structural crisis because the infusion of funds in a situation wh ere there is a lack of technologies will be ineffective and painful.

Exit from the structural crisis requires a more careful approach to advanced industries and formation of a new model of regulation. As was stated by V. Mau, after all the structural crises countries came out with other models of regulation. Also, V. Mau stressed that in a situation of a structural crisis there was no need to overstate the important of macroeconomic methods as it was impossible to solve structural problems of the economy by means of monetary policy measures. It is important to improve the investment climate, upgrade institutions, introduce new technologies, invest in infrastructure and human capital, change the pattern of expenditures and considerably promote security of economic activities and business.

Also, V. Mau underlined that the main economic problems had nothing to do with the present Western sanctions, but were primarily related to structural imbalances.  

Vadim Zhivulin, Director of the Department of Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation reported, in particular, that in the 2010-2014 period thanks to the RIA procedure the business managed to save from Rb 600bn to Rb 3.1 trillion. During the above period, 22,000 opinions, comments and proposals were introduced by entrepreneurs and, as a result, 2,700 conclusions were made.  In his address, Vadim Zhivulin touched upon problems related to introduction of the RIA procedure on the regional level.   

Vladimir Klemanov, Head of the Department of State Regulation of the Economy at the RANEPA delivered the report: Regulatory Impact Assessment in Conditions of Formation of State Programs in Regions in which he touched upon the problem of harmonization of state programs with the RIA process, as well as differences between introduction of state programs on the regional and municipal levels. V. Klemanov called for compliance of state programs with the objectives of strategic planning.

The evening session was dedicated to the prospects and problems of development of RIA in constituent entities and municipal entities of the Russian Federation (the moderator of the meeting was Maxim Svetunkov, Director of the Department of Program Planning and RIA of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Ulyanovsk Region).  At that session, reports were delivered by representatives of executive authorities of the Krasnodar Territory, the Chuvash Republic and Bashkortostan.