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p Examining the fundamental questions of the Soviet Union’s economic policy, the 24th CPSU Congress took into consideration the present stage of the country’s development, the gigantic scale of the socialist economy and the huge production potential created by the heroic efforts of the people. All this provides real possibilities for coping with the new tasks of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, among which the most important is to secure a considerable advance of the people’s material and cultural standards on the basis of high growth rates of socialist production, to raise production efficiency through scientific and technological progress, and to accelerate the growth of labour productivity.

p An advance of the people’s living standard has been one of the paramount economic and political tasks of every fiveyear plan. Much has already been accomplished in this respect, especially in the last five years. Nevertheless, the resources allotted for these purposes were limited over a comparatively long period because other pressing economic problems had priority. Specifically, in the pre-war and initial post-war years a considerable part of the increase in resources had to be used for building up the country’s industrial might—the foundation of its economic 87 independence, defence potential and the material basis for subsequent economic growth. Today, when the Soviet Union has a highly developed economy, the Party has set the task of tying development of the national economy more closely to improvement of the people’s well-being. This is not only a task for the next five years but also a guideline for the long-term economic development. A number of important measures for raising the living standard of the people are to be carried out in the Ninth Five-Year Plan in accordance with the Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU. The total sum allotted for these measures will amount to 22,000 million rubles in 1971-75 as compared with 10,000 million rubles spent in 1966-70.

For the accomplishment of this cardinal task the Congress Directives provide for high growth rates of social production.

Table 4 National income.............. Gross industrial output........... Group A (output of moans of production) . Group 13 (output of consumer goods) .... Gross output of agriculture......... Goods carriage by all types of transport . . . Capital investments in the national economy . Labour productivity: in industry............... in agriculture (in collective and stale farms) in construction.............. Retail trade................ 1971-75 growth (per cent) 137-140 142-146 141-145 144-148 120-122 132-135 136-140 136-140 137-140 136-140 140

p The development of material production in the Ninth Five-Year Plan is also characterised by the following major indicators (see tables 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).

p The new five-year period will be an important stage in the further advance of Soviet society to communism, the building of its material and technical basis and the consolidating of the country’s economic and defence potential.

p To accomplish these tasks it is necessary to attain high rates and proportional development of social production, 88 substantially enhance the efficiency of all sectors of the national economy, accelerate scientific and technological progress and improve the quality of goods.

p Important social measures to raise the living standard of the people are to be carried out in the next five years.

p Thorough examination of the different alternatives of the main five-year plan projections brought to light the necessary resources for carrying out a far-reaching programme of further improvement in the well-being of the Soviet people. A tremendous amount of work was done to provide an all-round economic and technical substantiation of the targets planned, to co-ordinate them by systematic computation of balances and by utilising the results of research in all spheres of science and technology.

p The national income is to rise by 40 per cent, real per capita incomes by about 30 per cent and the social consump-
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Table 5

Output Absolute increase of output Eighth Ninth 1970 1975 Five- Year Five- Year Plan Plan Output of engineering and metal-working industries, million rubles ...... 88,000 148,000 37,000 60,000 Motor vehicles, thou- sands 916 2,000-2,100 300 1,084-1,184 including motor cars, thousands 344 1,200-1,300 143 856-956 Instruments, means of automation and spare parts for them, million rubles . . . 3,102 6,155 1,684 3,053 Machinery and equip- ment for the light and food industries, million rubles . . . 771 1,564 263 793 Agricultural machinery, million rubles . 2,115 3,500 619 1,385 Tractors, thousands . 458.5 575 104 116.5 million hp ..... 29.4 53 8.4 23.6 Grain harvester com- bines, thousands . 99.2 138 13.4 38.8 89 Table 6 Output of Major Kinds of Itaw and Oilier Materials Output Absolute increase of output 1970 1975 Eighth Five-Year Plan Ninth Five-Yeai Plan Steel, million tons 116 21,100 1,672 623 5,110 4,185 95 142-150 36,200 3,457 1,050-1,100 8,490 5,560 122-127 25 9,300 869 216 1,875 954 23 26-34 15,100 1,785 427-477 3,380 1,375 27-32 Output of chemical and petrochemical industries, million rubles Plastics and synthetic rosins, thousand tons ....... Chemical fibres, thousand tons Cellulose, thousand tons . . . Paper, thousand tons .... Cement, million tons Table 7 Production of Fuel and Electric Power Production Absolute increase of production 1970 1S75 Eighth Five-Year Plan Ninth Five-Year Plan Electric power, million kwh Oil (without gas condensate), million tons 740,000 349 1,030,000- 1,070,000 480-500 233,000 107 2!’0, 000-330, OW 131-151 Natural gas, million cubic metres . . , 198,000 300,000- 320,000 70,000 102,000-122,000 Coal, million tons .... 024 085-695 46 61-71 90 Output of Consumer Goods Table fi Output Absolute increase of output 1970 1975 Eighth Five- Year 1’lan Ninth Five-Year Plan Output of light household good cles meeting requirements, rubles industry, s and articultural million 70,500 78,800 112,400 106,000 27,400 19,300 35,900 27,800 Output of food, meat- packing, dairy and fish industries, million rubles . . . Table 9 Development of Agriculture Average annual output 1971-75 Absolute average annual increase under the Ninth Five-Year Plan Gross output of agriculture, million rubles ... 96,000-98,000 15,700-17,700 Major products Grain, million tons .... Raw cotton, million tons Meat (slaughter weight), million tons ..... 195 6.75 14.3 27.5 0.65 2.7 Milk, million tons .... Eggs, millions 92.3 46 7 11.8 10.9 Wool, thousand tons . . . 464 67
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tion funds by 40 per cent. The average wage of factory and office workers is to go up by 20-22 per cent and the labour remuneration of collective-farm members by an average of 30-35 per cent. The policy of large-scale housing construction will be continued. In the five-year period houses with a total living floor space of 565-575 million sq.m. are to be built with financing from all sources (state, co-operative and individual). Education, public health services and culture 91 are to be further developed. Important measures will be taken to improve the organisation of labour and utilise the labour resources more efficiently. Provision is made for the comprehensive mechanisation of the main production processes in industry, construction, agriculture and transport.

p The new five-year plan is the result of more than two years’ creative teamwork on a grand scale, in which the Union Republics, ministries and departments, big factories and research and designing organisations took an active part.

p All this work was accomplished under the direct guidance of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which from the very outset defined the cardinal task of the Ninth Five-Year Plan—tying the development of the national economy ever more closely to improvement of the Soviet people’s living standard.

p The new five-year plan provides for high growth rates and big shifts in the pattern of the Soviet economy. The change of proportions in social production, outlined for the next five years, is aimed, first, at increasing the resources allotted for the improvement of the living standard of the people, and, second, at accelerating the development and improvement of the material and technical basis of all sectors of the economy, without which it is impossible to carry out a long-term programme for expanding the output of consumer goods.

p The policy of the CPSU charted at its 23rd Congress, to achieve a substantial improvement in the well-being of the working people, is being consistently applied. The successes registered in fulfilling the Eighth Five-Year Plan make it possible in the next five years to go ahead ever more fully and purposefully on this course, which sets the general long-term orientation of the country’s economic development.

p The high level of Soviet industrial development has created prerequisites for establishing in industry new proportions between the output of means of production and consumer goods. Already under the Eighth Five-Year Plan the growth rates of industries in Group B were substantially raised to approximately the same level as in Group A. This tendency will be further developed in the new five-year period.

p Moreover, it should be noted that the rapid expansion of 92 output of consumer goods is to be achieved both by developing agriculture and the light and food industries and also by notably increasing the production of consumer goods in heavy industry. While the total rise in the output of consumer goods is 44-48 per cent, the increase in their production by heavy industry will.exceed 80 per cent.

p The planned increase in the production of consumer goods and services is of exceptional socio-economic and political importance. It will make for more effective stimulation of labour productivity, for fuller satisfaction of the growing effective demand and for saturation of the market with the goods that are needed. And, lastly, the general balance of the economy, the harmonious development of all its links and the stability of retail prices to a great extent depend on this.

The key to the simultaneous accomplishment of the major tasks confronting the country—raising the people’s wellbeing, developing and technically improving all branches of the economy, and strengthening the country’s defences— is substantial improvement in the effectiveness of social production. This entails a comprehensive approach to all factors of economic growth, and thrifty use of natural wealth, productive assets and labour resources. Much was accomplished in this respect over the past five years. National economic plans are oriented on the maximum use of sources for intensive development. They concentrate greater attention on labour productivity, the technological level of production and saving of material resources. The growth rates of labour productivity in all sectors of material production will be higher in the new five-year period than those attained in the last ten years.

Table 10 Growth of Labour Productivity by Five-Year Plan Periods (per cent) Sectors 1961-65 1966-70 1971-75 Industry .... 25 32 36-40 Agriculture 18 35 37-40 Construction .... 29 22 36-40 93

p The exacting productivity targets have made it necessary to plan measures designed to introduce the most rational structure of production, wide mechanisation and automation and scientific labour organisation.

p Utmost use of scientific and technological achievements is a major requisite for the solution of this problem. The effect of their application in the economy over the next five years will amount to 40,000-42,000 million rubles, of which more than half will come from reduction of the materialproduct ratio. To achieve this target provision is made for wide introduction of new technology, progressive consumption rates of materials and more efficient designs of machines, equipment, instruments and other goods.

p Vast opportunities for raising the efficiency of the economy are to be found in more rational use of productive assets. In the last five years we succeeded in eliminating, in the national economy as a whole, the adverse tendency towards a decrease in output per ruble of fixed assets which had emerged in the early 1960s, and in stabilising the yield of the fixed productive assets. This saved many thousands of millions of rubles in capital investment. In the Ninth Five-Year Plan we are faced with the task of utilising even more rationally the fixed assets in conditions of new big structural shifts in the economy and the technical reequipment of its sectors.

p Thus, the general conception of the Ninth Five-Year Plan is embodied in the solution of the problems of optimising the structure and proportions of the national economy, allround intensification and utilisation of material resources and the operating productive apparatus as the main trend in the technological and organisational improvement of all the sectors of the economy. This path will enable us to raise considerably the efficiency of social production and the people’s well-being.

In the mid-1970s, as regards scale and qualitative characteristics the Soviet economy will be a huge complex of highly developed sectors and lines of production based on the achievements of modern science, which is increasingly becoming a direct productive force. The Ninth Five-Year Plan will go down in the history of the Soviet economy as 94 a qualitatively new period, with all-round intensification of social production as the highroad for the development of the socialist economy.