In Dagestan, roundtable participants state poor efficiency of Kremlin's regional policy

Today, the newspaper "Chernovik" hosted the last roundtable with participation of candidates for Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Dagestan on the topic "Regional Policy and Dagestan". According to the participants, the measures to help in solving regional problems include changes of the tax system, update of draft laws on regional policy and development of legal framework for strategic planning.

According to Shamil Salikhov, a candidate from the CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), although the general direction of regional policy is aimed towards balancing the regions in terms of socio-economic development, the gap between rich and poor, highly-developed and underdeveloped regions is increasing. "In terms of investments into fixed assets the difference is hundreds of times," he said.

According to the Communist, the only instrument of regional policy is the 1996 Decree of Russian President "On Main Provisions of Regional Policy". Mr Salikhov named three bills that are "gathering dust" in the State Duma: on state regulation of regional development in the Russian Federation; on state support of depressed regions; and on federal target programmes of territorial development. They have not been adopted. Now, these drafts need revision and update, said the Communist.

Rafik Aslanbekov, a candidate from the Party "Patriots of Russia" supported the conclusion of his colleagues about the absence of regional policy. According to his story, now people are at a rush for money, forgetful of ideology. "We offer to revive the idea of patriotism," he said.

Abdulmazhid Bagomaev, a candidate from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (A Just Russia) focused on the activities of the Ministry for Regional Policy. According to his version, the Ministry was several times reorganized and reduced. It prompts the conclusion that the policy in this area was also "lame".

According to Mr Bagomaev, one of the ways to solve regional problems may be a revision of the tax system in such way as to give incentives for regions to broaden the taxable base.

In his opinion, the system, when most of the taxes are sent to the federal centre and are then redistributed from there, is ineffective. He highlighted another problem - when heads of subjects of the federation are appointed, the efficiency of their previous activities was not taken into account.

Shamil Salikhov added his colleague by saying that the system of strategic planning is devoid of legal basis. "As a result, we have a set of uncoordinated drafts, strategies and laws," said the Communist.

The logical outcome of the topic was made by Bagomaev: "the vertical fails to ensure the liability of bureaucrats at the federal, regional, and local levels."

Mr Aslanbekov spoke about violations admitted by the party in power during the election campaign.

According to Shamil Salikhov, the work of the outgoing People's Assembly of Dagestan on bringing draft legislation to the Russian State Duma was failed. Thus, only four bills had been brought by Dagestani MPs to the federal level. One of them was rejected because it was contradictory to the constitution; another one was purely technical in nature.