The Murmansk Region is developing a regional program aimed at improving the quality of life in the region, Deputy Governor Olga Kuznetsova said at a plenary meeting at the Arctic: Today and the Future international forum.

The program provides for a wide range of measures to improve the availability of medical care, education, culture and sports, to develop the energy supply system, ensure transport accessibility, a comfortable urban environment, and support for entrepreneurship. According to Kuznetsova, this program is special because it was not written by experts alone, but the residents of the region helped draft it.

About 3,000 people leave the Murmansk Region annually — one of the main factors hindering the region's development. "Today, having a good job and a decent salary does not seem enough; people want to live in comfortable cities. This is still a problem in the Murmansk Region," Olga Kuznetsova explained adding that the implementation of the program would help reduce the outflow of working-age people and also attract new workers.