subscribe to news How the children’s industry affects the well-being of families

The Plenary Discussion of the Year of the Family: How the Children's Goods Industry Affects the Material Well-being and Quality of Life of Families with Children took place within the conference programme of Mir Detstva 2024 and CJF – Child and Junior Fashion 2024. Autumn. Different experts, Russian manufacturers of children's goods and representatives of the authorities gathered to discuss how the Russian children's industry could support families and contribute to improving their financial situation.

The discussion was organised by the Children's Goods Industry Association with the support of the Russian Federation Council, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, and EXPOCENTRE AO.

The session was moderated by Antonina Tsitsulina, President at the Children's Goods Industry Association. She noted that the production of products for children in Russia should be considered a strategic task within the implementation of national projects in the sphere of childhood.

“Our main document is being restructured now. It is the strategy for the development of the children's industry, which was adopted on 11 June 2013, the birthday of our industry. Some specific changes are being made to it. The most important thing that happened in the first nine months of this year is that the demographic policy and state policy in the sphere of childhood are being built up to a higher and higher level, which sets the tasks and needs for an economy working in the interests of childhood. The dialogue with agencies is ongoing and, encouragingly, always ends constructively,” she said.

Antonina Tsitsulina also noted the importance of the cluster principle of industry development and scaling through the regions. This, according to her, will help to enter a new economic cycle and solve the challenges facing the country in the context of economic sanctions.

“In order to achieve national goals in a short period of time, the Federation Council made proposals to include measures to develop the children's industry in the structure of national projects,” said Lilia Gumerova, Chair at the Russian Federation Council Committee for Science, Education and Culture.

“The production of domestic products for children is a strategic task. There are specific instructions from the President. Our Committee together with the relevant departments and the Children's Goods Industry Association is working systematically to develop the industry in the Russian regions. On the initiative of the Federation Council, the possibility of including in the structure of the formed national projects measures aimed at the effective development of the national industry of children's goods is being worked out,” she stressed. 

A new roadmap for the development of the industry for 2025-2030 with outlined measures of state support for domestic producers was discussed separately.

“The children's industry is one of the main and socially important industries. The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade supports domestic enterprises and manufacturers that sell goods for children at a high level, popularise Russian brands and strengthen the children's industry,” said Ivan Kulikov, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.

The speakers discussed the state policy in the sphere of family and childhood, which aims to improve the quality of life and material well-being of children.

“In February, we put on record the President's decrees on promoting domestic goods at the State Duma meeting. This is now a priority for us and a special role in this priority is everything that concerns the material well-being of families with children and their quality of life. We have taken responsibility for the fact that a document for the development of the children's industry will be adopted, and all questions from producers will be taken into consideration. In the Year of the Family, we would like to see victories for market participants. The plan for the development of the children's industry until 2030 should be filled with specific measures that will become an effective mechanism for entering a new technological mode, independent of imports,” said Sergey Morozov, First Deputy Chair at the Russian State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, the federal party project ‘Choose Your Own’.

Ksenia Mishonova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Moscow Region, noted that today the children's industry in Russia works for children and for the sake of children and is primarily focused on improving the quality and safety of children's goods.

She said that one should not skimp on quality in the sphere of children's goods. According to her, Federal Law No. 44-FZ on the contract system in the sphere of procurement of goods, works and services to ensure state and municipal needs does not ensure the protection of children.

“In the sphere of childhood there should not be auctions for price reduction. The quality of goods and services inevitably suffers from this. We have no right to save money on children. Therefore, we need to urgently revise this law and fundamentally change approaches to the conclusion of state contracts,” said Ksenia Mishonova.

The main goal of the discussion is to ensure the production of safe and high-quality domestic goods for children, capable of competing with foreign analogues, which will contribute to improving the quality of life of families and strengthening the Russian industry of children's goods.

At the end of the event, Antonina Tsitsulina and Ivan Kulikov appealed to those present to collect information about the problems faced by the industry in different regions of the country. All proposals collected by market participants will be submitted for discussion in the relevant departments.

Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO

Source: the Children's Goods Industry Association