The government is looking for labor reserves – Newspaper Kommersant No. 192 (7393) of 10/17/2022

The White House intends to extend the national project to increase labor productivity until 2030 and expand it to health care, tourism, health resorts and housing and communal services. In the context of sanctions and mobilization, the national project remains one of the few tools for adapting the economy to the new reality – at relatively low costs, it is designed to stimulate import substitution by increasing output per unit of cost. In addition, in the context of the withdrawal of mobilized workers from the labor market and the already low unemployment in the Russian Federation, increasing productivity de facto remains the only tool for stabilizing production.

The Ministry of Economy proposes to extend the national project to increase labor productivity until 2030, said the head of the department Maxim Reshetnikov at the plenary session of the Productivity 360 forum on Friday. Access to the national project will be given to enterprises of housing and communal services, tourism, sanatorium and health resorts. These proposals, as the head of the Ministry of Economy said, have already been supported by the curator of the national project, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov. As a result, by 2030, more than 11.7 thousand companies will receive support, almost 200 thousand employees will be trained, who will be able to promote lean manufacturing practices in enterprises.

These are not the first government initiatives to expand the national project. In the standard mode, enterprises with a turnover of up to 400 million rubles have access to it. and the share of foreign participation up to 50% from five non-primary industries – manufacturing, agro-industrial complex, construction, transport and trade. From July of this year, under special conditions, all backbone companies of the federal list and enterprises with revenues of 400 million rubles can participate in the national project. So the authorities hoped to include enterprises united by production chains in the national project, increasing labor productivity at all stages, and thereby solve the shortage problem after foreign companies left the market. The regions responsible for the result had to justify the inclusion of enterprises in the national project.

The government’s interest in the national project is due to its availability – it does not require large financial investments and is seen as an alternative trajectory for increasing production efficiency by optimizing internal processes in the absence of investment. Half of the participants in the national project (about 2 thousand) accelerated production by a third, product development by 50% and increased revenues by 61 billion rubles. “This is four times more than the state has invested in the national project during the implementation. That is, the national project has long paid off in terms of state investments. The total contribution of the project participants to GDP growth is approaching 400 billion rubles,” Maxim Reshetnikov said.

The Ministry of Economy previously noted that enterprises participating in the project often expanded their staff in order to expand production. However, in the context of mobilization – both the direct conscription of employees for military service, and the large-scale departure of Russians from the country – the ability to solve problems with a smaller number of workers has become more relevant. We also note that the spread of the national project to the social and medical spheres may be caused by a shortage of personnel there due to the outflow of workers due to the abolition of “coronavirus” surcharges.

In addition, the Ministry of Economy intends to restart the work of the Agency for the Development of Professions and Skills to support “innovators, engineers and workers with non-standard technical thinking.” “Due to this community, the manufacturer gets the opportunity to reduce costs, and get the opportunity to maneuver personnel, and solve productivity issues,” commented Robert Urazov, director general of the agency.

Diana Galieva