December 19, 2006

Today in Khanty-Mansiysk the council of the Mayors was held and was chaired by Chairman – Governor of Ugra Alexander Filipenko. He called the meeting “a historic event”: for the first time mayors of 84 new municipalities and Government members participated in the work of the Council. He expressed confidence that such an authoritative assembly will allow to expand a number of problems, considered by this collective body of the executive authority, and to get from the local leaders the assessment of decisions, made by the Okrug Government, of the laws, adopted on the regional level, and to submit proposals to the federal authorities if necessary.

Governor made an analysis of the Okrug social and economic development last year, in detail spoke about issues, connected with the implementation of priority national projects. Speaking about increased financial assignments to the social sphere of life he said that the final result of their implementation should become qualitative changes – understandable and perceptible by each inhabitant of the Okrug. Conclusion of special agreements under which participants of national projects in healthcare and education would bear additional obligations is considered by the head of the region to be the effective measure to achieve this goal.

Alexander Filipenko said that the organizational system in the realization of the housing project allowed to put into operation housing by 1,5 times more than in 2005. To solve the key problem – availability of housing – 1,5 million sq.m of housing should be put into operation per year, to develop manufacturing of our own construction materials, especially for wooden housing construction.

Oil- and gas-producing corporations are freed from non-profile assets, to which agricultural enterprises refer to, Governor named the task of preservation and developing agriculture on a new level as one of the most important goals for all the level of the executive authorities. He demanded to avoid a bureaucratic approach, to solve problems of countrymen for them to employed all-year-round. “If such a system is created in a village, people would live there at the expense of production and not at the expense of the budget funds”, - said Alexander Filipenko.

Special attention was paid to the activities of officials of all levels: “The authorities were invented to organize life of people. Decisions about vital problems could be not simple but it is necessary to react for them immediately”.

The Head of the Local Self-Government Division of the Governor’s Administration Alexei Krylov summed up the results of the implementation of the Federal law on local self-government in 2006 and told about the goals of the municipal authorities for 2007 and said that the Okrug authorities will continue rendering assistance to new leaders under the conditions when the legislation will be further dveeloped. He paid attention of the meeting participants to the draft regulations on the Mayors’ Council. AS the body consists of 106 people, it cannot provide the quickness in the work of the Mayors’ Council and the memberships of the Council will be determined by its chair – Governor.

Deputy Chairman of the Okrug Government Natalia Zapadnova made a report about detail information about the work of the Department of Labor and Population’s Social Protection in 2006 and goals for the coming year. Next year the expenses from the Okrug budget for the social support will grow by 12 % and will amount to almost 8 billion rubles. Lately the Ugra Government introduced 9 new kinds of benefits and compensations, the project “Social-payment card of Ugra” was started, due to it different payments will be produced to clients. The salary of social workers grow, who were selected in the strict contest. But the material and technical basis of social facilities leaves much to be desired – it should become goal #1 for the local authorities.

At the Council the issues of joint work of the militia bodies and local self-governments were considered in the struggle with criminality, organized public safety, regulated commerce on markets.

In Ugra it was founded the interdepartmental coordination council to regulate the consumer market. It is aimed at promoting to high-quality improvement of services sphere, regulating the commerce, creating conditions for the observation of consumers’ rights and interests.

The key goals are to support organizations and individual entrepreneurs, who work in the Okrug, to promote to application of effective methods of increasing quality and competitive ability of provided services, to study problems of consumer market, dynamics and tendencies of its development.

The interdepartmental coordination council includes the members of the Okrug Government, who are in charge of economic issues, leaders of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and License Chamber, Foundation of Support for Entrepreneurs, division of defence of consumers’ rights, departments of construction, of the population’s civil defence, division of internal affairs, and control in the sphere of consumers’ rights protection, migration service.

The made decisions will be sent to executive bodies of the state and municipal authorities of the Autonomous Okrug and will be controlled by the Council.