Meeting of "OPORA RUSSIA" with the participation of the Minister of Construction

On June 27, an extended meeting of the presidiums of the boards of OPORA RUSSIA and the Association NP OPORA was held with the participation of the Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation Irek Faizullin. The Association Russian Timber was represented at the event by its First Vice President Andrey Goncharov, who also heads the OPORA RUSSIA Commission on the Forest Complex.

The main topics of discussion were the development of the construction industry, support for small and medium-sized businesses, reducing the administrative burden, attracting personnel and increasing the investment attractiveness of the sector.

Alexander Kalinin, President of OPORA RUSSIA: “Today, 632 thousand SMEs are registered in the construction sector - this is almost 10% of the total number of small and medium enterprises in the country. Many of the members of OPORA RUSSIA (and we unite about 400 thousand entrepreneurs) are actively engaged in individual housing construction. And this, in turn, is almost half of the total volume of housing commissioning in Russia.".

The department noted that thanks to the reduction of administrative barriers, businesses save more than 200 billion rubles annually. Nevertheless, systemic challenges remain, including personnel shortages. This topic was given special attention at the meeting.

Irek Faizullin, Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of the Russian Federation: "The past year was significant for the construction and housing and public utilities industries. The volume of work in construction amounted to 16.7 trillion rubles, which is 2.1% more than in 2023. During the implementation of the national project "Housing and Urban Environment", 577.7 million m² of housing were built, 829 thousand people were resettled from 14 million m² of emergency housing stock, 73 thousand territories were improved, including 41.1 thousand courtyards. According to Rosstat, the construction and housing and communal services industries, as key ones for the country's economy, unite 12.7 million people who work in more than 400 thousand organizations. 81% of construction work in housing and communal services, architectural and urban planning design is provided with the help of small enterprises.".

The national project "Infrastructure for Life" is currently being implemented, combining key areas of industry development - from capital construction to the formation of a comfortable urban environment.