News

On 14 February, Skolkovo Moscow School of Management hosted the conference New potential for the Skolkovo Fund as Operator of the Intergovernmental Programme for Innovative Collaboration between member states of the CIS until 2020. Rossotrudnichestvo [Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation], a client and coordinator of the Programme, organised the conference together with the Skolkovo Fund.
The conference attracted representatives of the CIS Executive Committee, specialist committees of the State Duma and Russian Federation Council, the Russian Economic Development Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Education and Science Ministry, the Russian Academy of Science, the Higher School of Economics, national public customers and national developers of the Programmers and representatives of the Skolkovo Fund.

Almost three quarters of Russians are happy with the quality of public and municipal services, provided by the respective Russian agencies. A survey by the Russian Academy of National Economy presents evidence that the quality of public services is rated as good and very good by 74.6% of respondents, surveyed in November 2011 in 20 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Head of the civil service directorate of the Institute of Public and Municipal Management of the NRU HSE Alexei KONOV told Kommersant correspondent Irina GRANIK what is still missing in the Russian system for public servants to declare their income.

Over the last 10 years the number of Russian civil servants across all levels has grown 1.4 times. This data is contained in the final report on adjustment of the long-term strategy until 2020, which has been submitted to the government. There is an excessive number of civil servants in Russia and they hinder economic growth, believe the government report’s compilers, and they are basically something the country can ill afford. The budgets of all levels spend about RUB 67 billion a month on their salaries alone, or RUB 804 billion a year. If their number is reduced to even just the level of the year 2000, annual savings of some RUB 240 billion will be assured. Given the expenditure on premises, transport, communication and so on, these sums could double, believes director of the NRU HSE Institute for Public and Municipal Administration Andrei KLIMENKO.

On 10 December, the Higher School for Economics held the first meeting of the International Consultative Council (ICC) on the strategy for Moscow's socioeconomic development until 2025.
The capital's government appointed a research team, representing the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration and NRU HSE, to elaborate the strategy for Moscow's socioeconomic development until 2025.  Work got underway at the two institutions of higher education in the summer of 2011 and it was decided to bring in foreign experts, too.
The ICC's objective is to assess the suggestions of the Russian experts from the standpoint of international experience of developing major cities.

The vital issue, raised at the recent meeting of the Presidium of the State Council as to which system should be used to assess the work of regional heads and whether or not, to this end, a new "synthetic" indicator of "modernisation success of the regions" should be introduced, which, according to Dmitry Medvedev, would be linked with "the governor's personal success and with his ultimate fate", is a matter of concern for the vast minority of the population. That said, this minority is extremely influential: the governors themselves, Dmitry Medvedev and the current acting head of the Finance Ministry Anton Siluanov,' writes Kommersant Dengi in its article entitled Federation on Subsidies. The matter of regional differentiation that this article raises was the subject of comment by Nadezhda SIVASHEVA and Vladimir ELISEENKO, experts from the Centre for Regional Programmes to Enhance Public and Municipal Administration at IPAMM NRU HSE.

On 15 November 2011, a meeting was held of committee heads from the Russian Chamber Commerce and Industry, dedicated to a discussion of key aspects of Russia's socioeconomic development, as set out in the Strategy-2020 project. The event was opened and hosted by President of the Russian CCI Sergei KATYRIN.
The expert reports to the meeting were preceded by a brief welcoming address by NRU HSE Rector Yaroslav KUZMINOV. Reports were also presented by head of the expert group Optimising the state's presence: reducing regulatory functions, ensuring transparency and feedback in relations with civilians and business Andrei KLIMENKO, head of the expert group Strengthening market institutions. Ensuring stable conditions for ownership and development of competition and stimulating small business Andrei YAKOVLEV and head of the expert group Human health and habitat Sergei SHISHKIN. 

On 9-10 November in Djakarta, the international forum Bureaucratic Reform: International Forum for Knowledge Management was held, organised by the Indonesian Government with the support of the World Bank.
IPAMM director Andrei KLIMENKO appeared at the conference with the report Reform of the Civil Service in Russia: Key Results and Prospects.