Russia must seek to become clever post-industrial state

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes Russia must develop towards becoming a “clever state”, towards post-industrial economy where the human being is the main value. Addressing a plenary session of the Sochi 2013 investment forum, Medvedev once again emphasized the fact that “the time of simple decisions is gone”. This is exactly how the prime minister’s article published by the Vedomosti newspaper on Friday was headlined. “Economic challenges that we are facing today cannot be underestimated. We are having a thorny section of the road in front of us,” Medvedev said. In difficult, maybe crisis to some extent, conditions, we must continue moving towards a post-industrial economy, a clever state that proclaims the human being as its main value,” the prime minister said. He believes Russia must get to the trajectory of a stable development, preserving at the same time achievements of preceding years towards reducing the poverty level, protecting least protected citizens and problem territories. “But the state I am speaking about cannot be built only through the efforts of the authorities,” the prime minister said. He expressed confidence that socially oriented persons were full partners of the authorities in that difficult task. “Understanding of this responsibility does not depend on a social status. A worker, a first-year student, an academician, a businessman and a civil servant - they all should have this quality,” Medvedev added. At the same time the authorities must also change, he stressed. According to him, they must be “in a constant dialogue with all active participants in the social life”. That is what mechanisms of the Open Government were being developed for, he noted. “And of course, all I have said will have no sense at all if carried out only in the capital city. Russia’s strength is in the strength of its regions,” he said.