Doctor of Political Sciences Pavel Seleznev about the Agency's tasks
Last week, President Putin held a meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) and outlined the future tasks of the Agency and government departments. In particular, he stated that coordinated actions of all levels of government and the entire society are necessary for the development of the country and the implementation of planned plans. And here special attention is now being paid to the participation of society, whose active involvement in the development of management decisions is facilitated by the ASI. It is this mechanism that allows the initiatives of businesses, public associations, and individual citizens to be not only heard, but also implemented.
Photo: Press service of VEB.RF
Since its establishment in 2011, ASI has been supporting scientific and business initiatives for regional development. That is, integration into state policy and planning of private ideas and projects, which for various reasons may not reach decision makers in regional governments and sectoral departments. Since 2014, the Agency has been compiling a National Rating of the state of the investment climate in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation — thus, the organization has also begun to perform an “audit function”, which allows an independent and realistic look at the results of the activities of economic blocs of regional governments and federal executive bodies. In all this work, the ASI Expert Council has a big role. It is headed by the head of VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov, and its members include business representatives, economists and scientists who also take part in the formation of state policy. It is through this mechanism that the selection and evaluation of ideas and proposals takes place, as well as their further “refinement and bringing to mind.” This year, the work of the Expert Council on the selection of ideas was significantly strengthened — in a number of Russian regions, ASI, together with VEB.RF, carried out an additional collection of ideas and initiatives within the framework of special business missions. And the result was not long in coming. Some of the initiatives collected by the Agency were included in the President's Address to the Federal Assembly, which Vladimir Putin did not fail to mention at a meeting of the Agency's Supervisory Board, thanking the members of the council and its head, Igor Shuvalov.
At the same meeting, President Vladimir Putin proposed using national rating of the quality of life in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, prepared by ASI experts, to assess the actions of the government and regions to achieve national goals. That is, in fact, this is a kind of public control over the dynamics of achieving the goals set by the president in the new economic cycle.
However, in addition to this, it is important for the Agency to continue to engage in fundamental projects in the social sphere. And here again, the connection with development institutions and large companies is important. For example, in 2022, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, together with VEB.RF, began working as an operator of social impact projects in Russia. Considering the resources and capabilities of the state corporation, there is reason to believe that some of the projects can be rapidly developed and implemented throughout the country, especially since the head of the ASI Expert Council, Igor Shuvalov, can assist in the selection of optimal tools for the implementation of such projects. Another example is that in 2020, the Agency and Russian Post agreed to cooperate on the implementation of projects in the social sphere, education and employment of citizens. It is known that for many remote settlements this structure actually acts as one of the few “channels of interaction” with the rest of the country, and Pochta Bank, which often operates next to branches, provides connection to the banking system. ASI can make wider use of this experience, and also create projects on the basis of branches aimed at the socio-economic development of these territories.
Thus, over more than 12 years of history, ASI has accumulated sufficient expertise in various industries. Therefore, those projects and initiatives that the Agency selects and supports will undoubtedly continue to be taken into account by the country's leadership when forming development goals and programs.