Russia to spend as much on road to China as on education
The Russian government intends to spend a similar amount on building a road to China as it will on education, according to official documents on 12 national projects and their costs over the next six years, finanz.ru reports. The country plans to spend 784.5 billion rubles (around $12 billion) on the national “Education” project, and 655 billion rubles ($10 billion) on the project “Europe – Western China”.
The Kremlin estimated its total expenditure on national projects at nearly 26 trillion rubles ($182 billion), of which just over half will be taken from the Federal budget, more than 7.5 trillion from other sources, and in excess of 4.9 trillion from the regional budgets. Another 147.8 billion will come from state extrabudgetary funds. Infrastructure development will be the most expensive, whereas education and science are among the “cheapest” of the national projects, Vedomosti reports.
Over six years, 6.35 trillion rubles ($97 billion) will be spent on the complex infrastructural development plan, including 3 trillion from the federal budget. The plan includes nine federal projects.
The second most expensive will be the national project “Safe and good quality motorways”, costing 4.78 trillion rubles ($73 billion), which includes four areas: the development of the road network, road maintenance, improving road safety and building roads for the Defense Ministry. A combined total of more than 10 billion rubles will be spent on this project and the complex infrastructural development plan.
701.2 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget for the implementation of the national “Ecology” project, as well as 133.8 billion from the regional budgets. More than 3.2 trillion rubles is expected from investors.
Several national projects are expected to cost in excess of 1 trillion rubles: Demographics (3.1 trillion rubles), Healthcare (1.72 trillion rubles), Digital Economy (1.63 trillion), as well as Housing and the Urban Environment (1.07 trillion rubles). Less than 1 trillion rubles will be required to implement the national projects International Cooperation and Export (956.8 billion rubles) and Science (636 billion rubles). An estimated 481.5 billion rubles will be required for developing small and medium enterprises and individual entrepreneurship, and 113.5 billion for the national Culture project.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree “On Russia’s national goals and strategic development tasks until 2024” in May last year. On the basis of this decree, the government has formulated national projects in 12 areas, and drafted a plan to upgrade and expand the primary infrastructure.