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p Setting a substantial rise of the standard of living of the working people as the main task of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the Central Committee believes that this will determine not only our activity for the coming five years, but also the general orientation of the country’s economic development over the long term. In setting this course the Party proceeds primarily from the postulate that under socialism the fullest possible satisfaction of the people’s material and cultural requirements is the supreme aim of social production. (Applause.)

p From the first days of Soviet power our Party and state have been doing their utmost in this respect. But for wellknown historical reasons our possibilities were limited for a long time. Now they are substantially greater, which enables the Party to raise the question of centering economic development still more fully on improving the life of the people.

p The Party also proceeds from the fact that a higher standard of living is becoming an ever more imperative requirement of our economic development, one of the important economic preconditions for the rapid growth of production.

p This approach follows not only from our policy of further accentuating the role of material and moral labour incentives. The question is posed much more broadly: to create conditions favourable for the all-round development of the ability and creative activity of Soviet people, of all working people, that is, to develop the main productive force of society.

p Modern production sets rapidly rising demands not only on machines, on technology, but also and primarily on the workers, on those who create these machines and control this technology. For ever larger segments of workers specialised knowledge and a high degree of professional training, man’s general cultural standard, are becoming an obligatory condition of successful work. And all these depend to a considerable extent on the standard of living, on how fully the material and spiritual requirements can be satisfied.

p Thus, our aims, the greater economic potential and the requirements of economic development make it possible and 370 necessary to steer the economy more fully to resolving the highly diverse tasks relating to the improvement of the people’s standard of living. The Eighth Five-Year Plan has yielded considerable practical results in this respect. Now it is up to us not only to consolidate the achievements, but also to attain new substantial advances.

p Defining improvement of the living standard of the working people as the main task, we should refrain, of course, from approaching the matter in a simplified way. It will take time, serious effort, immense means and resources to implement the course of considerably raising the people’s standard of living. One can distribute, one can consume only what one has produced. This is a self-evident truth. Our plans derive their strength and realism from the fact that they closely connect the improvement of the living standard with greater social production, with a higher productivity of labour. But this also predicates the responsibility that devolves on the Party, on the Soviet people as a whole. How well we are living today and how well we shall live tomorrow depends on ourselves, on our success in labour.

p Allow me to report on the proposals and plans relating to the people’s well-being, which the Party’s Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers are submitting to the Congress.

p A further increase is envisaged of the working people’s cash incomes. Three-quarters of the accretion in the real incomes of the population is to be accounted for by higher payment for labour.

p During these five years the minimum monthly wage for workers and office employees will be raised to 70 rubles. The basic wages and salaries of the middle brackets in industry, transport and in other fields of material production shall be raised. The rates for operators of farm machinery shall be increased. Higher salaries are also envisaged for schoolteachers, doctors and other medical personnel and people in a number of other professions. In many branches, additions to wages are to be introduced or increased in the Urals, the European North, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan (excepting the southern part of the Republic) and a number of districts in the Far East, Eastern Siberia and Central Asia. The allowances for night work are to go up considerably.

p These measures will be carried out gradually, by areas 371 and economic branches. All in all, they will affect some 90 million workers and office employees. As a result, in the coming five years the average monthly wage of workers and office employees will rise to 146-149 rubles and the remuneration of collective farmers’ labour to 98 rubles.

p It is also envisaged to extend the tax privileges for some categories of working people.

p I should also like to touch on yet another question, comrades.

p The only way we could advance and develop the economy during the years of industrialisation and postwar reconstruction was by mobilising all our strength and resources. The people of our country understood this well. To the common cause they contributed not only their selfless labour, but also their savings, subscribing actively to government loans, which played an important part in accelerating economic development. The mass subscriptions were not only a tangible contribution to the state budget, but also an impressive demonstration of the Soviet people’s patriotism, their devotion to the cause of socialism. (Applause.)

p It will be recalled that we were able to stop issuing new government loans as from 1958. However, payment of the bonds still held by the population, of which there are about 25,800 million rubles’ worth, was foreclosed for a 20-year period, making them payable from 1977 to 1996 in equal yearly sums.

p Having examined our present resources, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers consider it possible to begin redeeming the bonds before the fixed term and to cover 2 thousand million rubles’ worth in 1974-1975, increasing the amounts payable in the subsequent years. It is planned to redeem all bonds held by the population by 1990, that is, six years ahead of the originally fixed term. As we see it, this decision is correct and corresponds completely to the Party’s policy and the interests of the people. (Prolonged applause.)

p Apart from the increase of incomes in payment for labour, the social consumption funds, too, are to be raised considerably. It is planned to increase them by 40 per cent, so that in 1975 they will amount to 90 thousand million rubles. These sums will be used for the further improvement of the medical services and the development of education and the upbringing of the rising generation.

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p The social funds will also be used to finance a number of other important social measures, including improvement of the living conditions of large families and needy families, women working in production, pensioners, and students. It is planned:

p —to introduce cash allowances for children where the income per family member does not exceed 50 rubles ( applause) ;

p —to increase the number of paid days allowed for caring for a sick child and to introduce 100-per cent paid pregnancy and maternity leaves for all working women, regardless of length of employment (applause);

p —to raise the minimum old-age pensions for workers and office employees (applause);

p —to raise the minimum pensions of collective farmers and to apply to them the procedure of calculating the size of pension established for workers and office employees (prolonged applause);

p —to improve pension provisions for invalids and families that have lost their breadwinner in the case of workers and office employees and servicemen (applause);

p —to increase scholarships and extend scholarship eligibility in higher and specialised secondary educational establishments (applause);

p —to increase the allowance for meals in hospitals and urban vocational and technical schools. (Prolonged applause.)

p To carry out the new measures relating to wages and salaries and greater allowances out of the social consumption funds, aimed at raising the standard of living, 22 thousand million rubles are allocated in the current five-year plan as against 10 thousand million in the Eighth FiveYear Plan. (Prolonged applause.)

p House-building will continue on a still larger scale. In the next five years we are planning to build housing totalling 565-575 million sq m, which will enable us to improve the living conditions of approximately 60 million people. Considerable funds are also being allocated for the public utilities and for town and village improvement.

p In this connection, I should like to refer specially to Moscow. It is cherished by all Soviet people as the capital of our country, our biggest industrial, cultural and scientific centre, as the symbol of our great socialist state. 373 (Applause.) Large-scale work in the field of housing development, town improvement and the improvement of transport facilities will continue in Moscow as before. To make Moscow a model communist city is the bounden duty of the entire Soviet people. (Stormy applause.)

p Attention should be redoubled to the improvement of the country’s other cities as well. The advantages of socialism enable us to direct the natural process of urban growth in such a way as to provide increasingly healthier and more comfortable living conditions for the urban population.

p Comrades, while mapping out measures to increase substantially the incomes of Soviet people, to extend housebuilding and to improve towns and villages, the Central Committee holds that special significance now also attaches to the task of satisfying the growing solvent demand of the population for foodstuffs, manufactured goods and services. Consumer goods production must go up at a higher rate than the cash incomes of Soviet people.

p This problem will be resolved by stepping up the growth of all branches of the economy manufacturing these goods. From this standpoint, too, the Party approaches the important problem of correlating the main proportions in industry.

p The Central Committee holds that the accumulated productive potential permits of somewhat higher rates of growth for group B in the new five-year period, which will make it possible to achieve the envisaged rise of the living standard. It stands to reason that this does not invalidate our general policy oriented on the accelerated development of the production of means of production. In determining the correlation of the rates of growth of the two subdivisions, the Party, just as Lenin taught, proceeds from the concrete requirements and existing resources of each stage.

p HEAVY INDUSTRY IS THE FOUNDATION
OF THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC POWER
AND THE FURTHER RISE
OF THE PEOPLE’S LIVING STANDARD

p The above-mentioned modification of the nationaleconomic proportions does not mean that we are slackening our concern for heavy industry.

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p The Party’s policy of ensuring the priority development of socialist industry, and principally its basis, heavy industry, has turned our country into a mighty power. It will be no exaggeration to say that only the consistent effectuation of this policy has enabled us to safeguard the gains of the socialist revolution, to end the centuries-long backwardness, to achieve gigantic economic, social and cultural progress. (Prolonged applause.}

p High growth rates in heavy industry fully retain their importance in the present conditions.

p They retain their importance principally because extended socialist reproduction, the possibilities and rates of future economic growth and the building of the material and technical basis of communism are all largely dependent on the successful development of heavy industry. Dependent on its work is the technical equipment of all spheres of the economy, the supply of material and technical resources for higher labour productivity.

p They also retain their importance because without developing heavy industry we cannot maintain our defence capability at the level necessary to guarantee the country’s security and the peaceful labour of our people. Much has been done in this respect in the past five years: the Soviet Army is now equipped with all types of modern sophisticated weaponry. The further development of the defence industry, its concrete work programmes, depend in many ways on the international situation. The Soviet Union is prepared to support realistic disarmament measures that consolidate peace and do not impair our security. At the same time we must be prepared for any possible turns in the train of events.

p Lastly, the development of heavy industry is of special significance because, among other things, the basic tasks of improving the standard of living cannot be achieved without it. Heavy industry is to increase considerably the output of the means of production for the accelerated development of agriculture and the light and the food industries, for more housing, for further promotion of trade and community services.

p That, precisely, is the ultimate purpose of heavy industry. In this connection, allow me to recall the words of V. I. Lenin: "In the final analysis the manufacture of means of production is necessarily bound up with that of articles 375 of consumption, since the former are not manufactured for their own sake, but only because more and more means of production are demanded by the branches of industry manufacturing articles of consumption."  [375•1 

p The Party is setting heavy industry yet another important task—to expand the manufacture of consumer goods directly in its own enterprises. For this all its branches possess considerable facilities. I should also like to mention the defence industry in the same context. Today, as much as 42 per cent of its output is used for civilian purposes. By virtue of its high scientific and technical level, its expertise, inventions and discoveries are of cardinal importance for all spheres of the economy.

p Consequently, far from diminishing, the role of heavy industry is continuing to gain in importance in the present stage, because the set of immediate practical problems with which it deals is growing. In the coming five years its leading branches face very strenuous assignments: to raise the output of electricity to over 1,000,000 million kilowatt hours, oil to 480-500 million tons, gas to 300-320 thousand million cubic metres and steel to 142-150 million tons. The output of the engineering, metal-working, chemical and petrochemical industries is to go up 70 per cent.

p The Party is confident that the workers of heavy industry will cope creditably with these important and noble tasks. (Stormy, prolonged applause.}

p THE PROGRAMME OF FURTHER AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

p Comrades, the rates of growth of the economy as a whole, the rates at which the living standard of Soviet people rises, depend in many respects on the successful development of agriculture. That is why so much attention was devoted to it in the period under review. Since the problems of agriculture have been broadly discussed for quite some time and since many pertinent decisions were adopted in the past periods as well, the Central Committee considers it important to inform the delegates about some of the fundamental features of the approach to these problems worked out in these last few years.

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p One of them is that, adhering firmly to the course set by the March (1965) CC Plenary Meeting and consolidated in the decisions of the 23rd Congress, the Central Committee has laid a special accent on creating stable economic conditions stimulating the growth of agricultural production. In specific terms, for collective and state farms this means stable procurement plans for a number of years ahead, introduction of such incentive prices for products delivered in excess of the plan as would stimulate the growth of production, and other measures.

p The other feature is that, since we regard isolated measures of an agro-technical and organisational nature as insufficient, we have striven to take into account the whole set of factors determining the development of agriculture, including those of supplying the countryside with the necessary machinery and fertilisers, expanding capital construction, land improvement, personnel training, and improving the organisation of production. This has necessitated a concrete analysis of the needs of agriculture and finding the means to meet them.

p On the basis of this approach, the Central Committee at its July (1970) Plenary Meeting worked out a broad, comprehensive agricultural development programme, longterm and realistic. The problems of agriculture are such, comrades, that they cannot be completely resolved in a year or two, or even in five years; it will take a much longer time and require huge allocations and enormous effort not only by the farm workers, but by all our industry.

p The targets of the present five years are based on the decisions of the Plenary Meeting. Their fulfilment will amount to an increase of farm production enabling us systematically to expand and improve in the years to come the supply of the population with farm produce and of industry with raw materials. While dealing with the current tasks, we must at the same time take a big step forward in the new five-year period in building up the material and technical basis of agriculture, which will help us in future to resolve completely the problems of agricultural production and of the transformation of the countryside, and to reduce the dependence of farming on the elemental forces of nature.

p These were the guidelines which the Central Committee followed in determining the size of investments in 377 agriculture. Some 129 thousand million rubles, or as much as in the two preceding five-year periods combined, will be invested in farming by the state and the collective farms. (Applause.}

p The nature of the tasks to be carried out in the new fiveyear period determines the growing measure of responsibility of the agricultural organs, rural Party organisations, collective and state farms. Collective farmers and statefarm workers are to raise the average annual grain output to at least 195 million tons, increasing its sale to the state under the fixed plan and in excess of the plan at higher prices, to 80-85 million tons. In the coming five years the average annual production of meat is to exceed 14 million tons, milk 92 million tons and eggs 46 thousand million. A considerable increase is also envisaged for other farm products.

p In accordance with the decisions of the July Central Committee Plenary Meeting, large sums of money and considerable material resources are being set aside for the fulfilment of these assignments. Compared with the previous five years, our agriculture will have many more new tractors, combines, lorries and other farm machinery, mineral fertilisers and various other chemicals, equipment for livestock and poultry farms, electric power and building materials. The exact figures are known to the delegates from the draft Directives.

p All this is a real and very large contribution to agricultural production, to making it more effective. At the same time, we should like specially to stress that it is necessary to make the fullest possible use of the available potentialities, of everything that agriculture already possesses. Regrettably, there are still many shortcomings and deficiencies in this respect.

p Comrades, as before, increasing grain production is still one of the main tasks in agriculture. Our grain needs have been growing from year to year. This applies not only to food grain, but also to forage grain, the production of which should be expanded in view of the necessity of rapidly developing animal husbandry.

p As the Central Committee sees it, considerable potentialities exist for increasing the gross grain yield both in our main grain-growing areas such as the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the Central chernozem zones, the North 378 Caucasus, the Volga Area and the steppelands of the Urals and Siberia, and in the non-chernozem and other zones of the country. These potentialities consist in a more effective use of fertilisers and machinery, and in a rigorous observance of agro-technical rules, in improving the organisation of work and perseveringly combating losses of grain, and, to be sure, also of other farm products.

p The collective and state farms, and the agricultural organs, must persevere in the effort to improve the pattern of the cultivated land, giving priority to those crops and varieties which yield the biggest harvests. In the southern regions, for example, such as Stavropol Territory and Rostov, Poltava and a few other regions, the maize area has been unjustifiably reduced. This situation should be remedied. Also to be increased is the production of groats, primarily buckwheat and millet. The paddy systems envisaged in the plan are also to be put into operation on schedule, so that rice production should rise to 2 million tons towards the end of the five-year period, which will satisfy the country’s demand in full.

p We also face the acute and important agricultural problem of further expanding animal husbandry. A big advance must be accomplished in this field if we want to provide the population with unintermittent supplies of the most valuable food products and satisfy the growing requirements of the Soviet people in the new five-year period. Here, too, the potentialities available on the collective and state farms should be more fully mobilised.

p To begin with, they must consolidate the feed resources, the basis for expanding animal husbandry. Improving the meadows and pastures and utilising them more fully, increasing the stocks of hay, grass meal and haylage, silage and other fodder, and raising the yields of all forage crops, is still an important task. All steps must be taken to reduce livestock losses from disease and poor management. Much will have to be done to build and mechanise livestock units, improve pedigree breeding and expand beef cattle and poultry farming.

p At present, personal auxiliary husbandry still plays an appreciable role in the production of meat and milk. However, here and there this does not get the attention it deserves. While concentrating the main attention on increasing ^ social production, the necessary help should be 379 given collective farmers and state-farm employees in acquiring livestock and poultry and the essential supplies of feed.

p It should be noted that the possibilities of expanding animal husbandry are not yet being fully utilised in some republics and regions. This applies to the Moldavian, Armenian, Georgian and Turkmen Union republics, to Voronezh, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Kostroma regions of the Russian Federation, Odessa Region in the Ukraine, Karaganda and Pavlodar regions in Kazakhstan, and a few others. We hope that the local authorities will draw proper conclusions from this.

p Apart from increasing the production of grain and developing animal husbandry, it is of great economic importance to expand the production of other farm products, including industrial crops. Increasing the area of meliorated land and introducing crop rotation in Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan, will help increase the production of so valuable a crop, so essential for the country, as cotton.

p Comrades, our plans closely align the solution of the current questions of this five-year period with the basic long-term trends in the development of agriculture. The Party has defined the ways of solving this problem. First and foremost, the reference here is to the further technical re-equipment of agriculture, to its mechanisation and chemisation and to large-scale land melioration.

p It follows that increasingly broader use of the country’s general economic potential is a necessary condition for the successful development of agriculture. That is why the Party has so urgently set the task of the accelerated development of those branches of industry which manufacture means of production for agriculture and equipment and machinery for processing, transporting, storing and marketing farm products.

p Thus, agricultural growth depends not only on the collective farmers and state-farm workers, but also, in many respects, on the efforts of the workers in industry, science and technology. The Party calls on them to contribute creditably to this big, truly countrywide, national cause. (Stormy, prolonged applause.}

p In the years to come, specialisation of farming and industrial methods of producing meat, milk and other products will be still further developed. This is natural, for 380 those are processes that shape the future of our agriculture in the long term. But in carrying out this big and important work, it is our duty to avoid mistakes and not to overreach ourselves. Increased specialisation and conversion to industrial lines should be economically substantiated and thoroughly prepared in each concrete case.

p The rapid growth of agriculture leads increasingly to the spread of inter-collective-farm and state-collective-farm production associations and the establishment of agroindustrial complexes. These are able to make more effective use of equipment, investments and manpower, and make broader use of industrial methods. The Party will support these forms of organising production in the countryside.

p Comrades, fulfilling the farm output assignments will require arduous effort. A big role in raising farming is to be played by the rural Party organisations, government and land authorities and the managers of state and collective farms. The Party highly appreciates their selfless work.

p On behalf of the Congress, allow me to express the confidence that the efforts of the collective farmers, the statefarm workers and the agricultural experts will be crowned with new major successes. (Stormy, prolonged applause.)

p TO EXPAND THE PRODUCTION OF MANUFACTURED CONSUMER GOODS

p Comrades, as we have already mentioned, in the past five-year period production and sale of manufactured consumer goods were considerably increased. Yet the output of many items is still lower than is required. The planned increase of the people’s cash incomes will push up the demand still more, and will pose the problem of quality still more sharply.

p Is our industry ready to rise to the new requirements set by the Party’s orientation on the further improvement of the living standard?

p It is unquestionably ready for this from the standpoint of its objective resources. The country’s industrial potential is large enough considerably to increase the production and to improve the quality of consumer goods. The increased economic possibilities enable us to allocate larger sums for investment in this area, and this is what we are doing.

p But as in any other undertaking, success depends not 381 only on the objective conditions, for the subjective factors, too, are enormously relevant. The Central Committee considers it important, therefore, to draw the attention of the planning and economic authorities, of Party, government and trade union organisations to the necessity of radically changing the approach to consumer goods production.

p We have many years of heroic history behind us, comrades, when millions of Communists and non-Party people consciously accepted privations and hardships, were content with the bare essentials and denied themselves the right to demand any special amenities. This could not but reflect on their attitude to the production of consumer goods, to their quality and range. But that which was explicable and natural in the past, when other tasks, other undertakings stood in the forefront, is unacceptable in the present conditions. And if some comrades tend to overlook this, the Party is entitled to regard their attitude as stemming either from a failure to understand the substance of its policy, oriented on a steady rise of the living standard, or as an attempt to vindicate their own inactivity. The Central Committee considers it necessary to raise this issue incisively and frankly. (Stormy applause.)

p We still have administrators, and this not only locally but in the centre as well, who manage to "coexist peacefully" with shortcomings, who have somehow reconciled themselves to the low quality of some consumer goods, and who are unfolding consumer production with unpardonable slowness. Some go so far as to cut back or even stop the production of needed items, or stop producing commodities that, though inexpensive, are essential for the population, on the pretext of replacing outdated goods with new ones. That is how shortages arise from time to time of goods usually known as “trifles”. But there is no such thing as trifles when it comes to items in daily demand. (Applause.)

p We are equipped to improve the supply of consumer goods considerably in the new five-year period. It is planned appreciably to increase the production of textiles, garments, shoes and knitted goods. In the case of such durables as TV sets, domestic refrigerators, radio receivers and washing machines there is a real possibility of almost fully satisfying the needs of the population. The sale of cars will increase greatly: their 1975 output will be nearly four times that of 1970.

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p We are now unquestionably grown to these tasks; we must only make the most of the available reserves and possibilities. They are available in each ministry, each republic and region, each city, each enterprise. (Applause.}

p In the new five-year plan 8.7 thousand million rubles, or nearly twice as much as in the preceding five-year period, is allocated for the development of the light industry, and almost 14 thousand million rubles for the development of the food, meat, dairy and fishing industries. These sums must be put to use correctly and on schedule, so that enterprises should be built or reconstructed rapidly and equipped with up-to-date plant. This sets highly responsible tasks for our engineering industry, our researchers and designers. Also essential here is constant control by Party and economic bodies.

p The big and complicated task of saturating the market with consumer goods must be carried out with state retail prices remaining stable, and, moreover, as the necessary economic preconditions are created, price reductions should follow for some consumer items. Cases where prices are inflated should be firmly combated, control over the fixing of retail prices and service charges should be tightened, and those heads of enterprises and economic organs that try to go round the procedure established by the state should be taken to task.

p Attaching great importance to satisfying consumer demand, the Central Committee considers it necessary to work out shortly a broad programme for increasing consumer goods production in all branches of industry. Fulfilment of that programme will contribute greatly to the improvement of the living standard of the Soviet people.

p TO DEVELOP TRADE AND IMPROVE COMMUNITY SERVICES

p The further rise of the standard of living sets higher demands on trade and the services. In recent years, much has been done to develop these branches.

p Tens of thousands of new shops, department stores and other trading establishments have been opened in the towns and rural areas. But we still have many flaws in the domain of trade and services, with which, regrettably, some of, the people concerned have reconciled themselves, have become 383 accustomed to regarding them as being practically normal. In many cases, trading establishments are inexpeditious and have not learned yet to properly study the market demand. As a result, goods reach the shops out of season or go anywhere but the places where they are needed. Also, it has often happened that some commodities are ordered in unjustifiably small quantities, with the result that their production is reduced, creating acute shortages. This was the case now with domestic sewing machines, now with pressing irons and other goods. In many cases, too, the service in the shops leaves much to be desired.

p The Soviet people, the Party respect the work of those engaged in trade. But in addressing them, and particularly managers of trade organisations, we should like to say that the present task is greatly to improve the standard of work, improve the organisation of trade, and to introduce modern trading methods. (Applause.)

p Much attention is being paid in our country to public catering. We are building and will continue to build many more eating places, cafes and restaurants, though there are still many shortcomings in this field, and especially in the organisation of catering in enterprises, offices, educational establishments, collective and state farms. All too often the capacity of the eating places does not meet the demand, and the fare is not tasty. That is not to be tolerated. We must deal more strictly with the ministries, the local authorities and the heads of enterprises for these deficiencies. An important role should also be played by the trade unions: they must control the catering in enterprises unrelentingly and constantly.

p Comrades, we must substantially improve the work of all the services—public catering, tailoring and dressmaking, the repair services, and the recreation and entertainment facilities. Those are not industries that must merely fulfil plans, but services that deal directly with people, with the diversity of their tastes, their feelings and moods. To reduce the work of the services merely to fulfilment of plan percentages and profits is obviously out of the question. (Applause.)

p The people’s need for services is increasing steadily. To satisfy it more fully it is envisaged in the new five-year period to at least double the volume of paid services afforded to the population.

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p Here, too, we should think of utilising the potentialities. Much depends on local initiative, including. that of the local Soviets. Among other things, we should also examine the question of creating conditions in which pensioners, housewives and invalids could do some work in the service industry without overtaxing themselves and with benefit for themselves and for society, either at home, under an individual arrangement, or by forming co-operatives. Accordingly, we shall of course have to improve the corresponding legal provisions regulating such activity, to give it the necessary backing. (Applause.)

Briefly, the service industries merit the closest attention both from the standpoint of allocations for their development and the standpoint of improving the body of their personnel, and of elevating the social standing of the people working in them.

p Those, comrades, are the main trends in our activity, aimed at raising the standard of living of the working people. In this context, the new Five-Year Plan should be a big step forward and, at the same time, it should lay the foundation for still more considerable achievements in future. (Applause.)

To cope successfully with these tasks, our cadres—- economic, government, trade union and Party, in the centre and locally—should be as exacting and discriminating in all matters relating to the living conditions of people as they would with regard to the most important government assignments. That is the attitude the Party expects of them. (Applause.)