Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Mikhail Yurevitch presented a report at the governmental committee on regional development’s meeting in Volgograd.

The meeting was chaired by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin; the Deputy Prime Ministers Igor Shuvalov, Dmitriy Kozak, Alexei Kudrin, and Sergey Sobyanin were also present, as were the Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin and Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina.

The discussion largely dwelt upon the construction industry’s desperate need to cut on the administrative barriers. Mikhail Yurevitch spoke about the state of affairs in his region and proposed a number of amendments to the federal action plan aimed at reducing the red tape for urban developers.

The Governor suggested that the expert examination and the construction permits should be handled simultaneously.

‘For instance, once the experts have allowed a builder to work on the general things and the engineering infrastructures, the latter should be permitted to apply for the construction permit while undergoing a full expert examination at the same time,’ he said.

Yurevitch feels some of the functions normally performed by the non-state body of experts who deal with the design documentation could be delegated to the regional authorities. For one, at least the list of objects that do need to undergo this kind of expert examination could be compiled locally.

Secondly, the Governor is positive that Russia needs a special mechanism for eliminating the internal discrepancies among the technical regulations adopted by different authorities such as Rosprirodnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, and the Department of Emergencies.

‘It happens quite often these days that the fire safety requirements actually contradict the existing construction norms and regulations,’ he observed.

Thirdly, Mikhail Yurevitch proposed reconsidering the functions of the self-regulatory organizations.

‘The self-regulatory organizations are playing a more important part now than before. To enter these organizations, a developer needs to meet quite a few requirements, so it would be useful to differentiate the approach a bit. For example, the volume of work done over a given period could serve as a criterion. Alternatively, patents could be offered to businesses with even a small turnover,’ the Governor noted.

All of these proposals will be compiled in a report and sent to the Russian Government, the Governor’s press service reports.