Expert Konstantin Krokhin commented on the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about investing 4.5 trillion rubles in the housing and communal services sector over 10 years. Thus, the amount of annual funding has tripled, Krokhin said in a conversation with Izvestia on February 21.
“Of course, this is a lot, compared to what it was in past years, even if you take a decade. I hope that these investments will be enough if they are really invested in infrastructure, in the network economy, in order to ensure reliability and stop the growth of depreciation,” the expert said.
Krokhin pointed out that the amount of investment is comparable to the annual turnover of the industry.
According to him, if in the future mechanisms are built that develop competition and allow fighting monopoly, even greater investments from small and medium-sized businesses will appear in the future.
“Housing and communal services is an industry that today has a colossal reserve for development, including in social terms. This is the development and expansion of employment directly at the place of residence. This is what we need in the domestic market,” said Krokhin.
He stressed that this is good news, but he hopes that it will not be accompanied by naked financing, but that institutional reforms will develop and the approach to market regulation will change.
Krokhin also expressed hope that the announcement of the amount invested would be accompanied by the development of institutional reforms and a change in the approach to market regulation.
The head of state announced investments in the development of the housing and communal services sector earlier in the day. Putin stressed that he had instructed the government to ensure stable funding for the program.
During his address to the Federal Assembly earlier Tuesday, Putin noted that many basic industries have now increased production rates. Agriculture showed double-digit growth. The head of state came up with a number of initiatives in the economy and proposed to encourage citizens to invest in the Russian financial sector.
As Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert from the Narodny Front, pointed out in an interview with Izvestia, as a result of such a long-term feature of the Russian housing and communal services sector as underfunding, utility bills have become depreciated. In this regard, commenting on the initiative of the Russian president, the interlocutor noted the importance of the correct distribution of budgetary funds between small and large cities, namely, the equal and comprehensive nature of the process.
