OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2010. The meeting discussed employment, education and healthcare development issues, and attracting investment to the region.

Dmitry Medvedev called at the meeting for a concerted effort to develop education and healthcare, and to improve the employment situation in Daghestan, where unemployment is considerably higher than in other regions.

An education programme needs to be developed and implemented that will train people for the professions the region needs the most, the President said. Healthcare too needs particular attention given the funding and equipment problems that hospitals and medical centres in the region experience.

Corruption remains a big problem in the region, is still at a high level, and Daghestan’s leadership will need to step up its anti-corruption efforts.

The President noted that efforts to attract investment to the region are moving slowly and have produced few results. Mr Medvedev instructed the Finance Ministry to make a clear decision on possibilities for providing state guarantees for a number of projects being implemented in the region. It is also necessary to step up work on establishing a branch of a Vnesheconombank-based development institution, to carry out expert evaluation of investment projects in the republic.

Plenipotentiary Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin has been instructed to examine the question of drafting a separate federal targeted social and economic development programme for Daghestan for 2011-2016, and funding it with part of the money allocated for the federal targeted programme for developing southern Russia.

The meeting also discussed the wildfires, which have hit Daghestan too. Mr Medvedev asked the region’s head, Magomedsalam Magomedov, to draft proposals for aid for those affected by the fires in the republic.

Taking part in the meeting were Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Naryshkin, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vladislav Surkov, Deputy Prime Minister and Plenipotentiary Presidential Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin, Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich, President of Daghestan Magomedsalam Magomedov, member of the Federation Council Suleiman Kerimov, and Prime Minister of Daghestan Magomed Abdullayev.