Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated workers of the agricultural and processing industry on their professional holiday. (KREMLIN PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Russian government is planning to allocate more than 25 billion rubles (about 375 million U.S. dollars) on the development of Russia's rural areas in 2019, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

"Over five years, more than 170 billion rubles have been allocated for these purposes. We see a return on this money... This year alone, more than 25 billion rubles will be spent on rural development," Medvedev said at a meeting on the preparation of the state program for the integrated development of rural areas.

He said there is an instruction from Russian President Vladimir Putin to develop a new state program for the development of rural territories, which should take into account the measures envisaged by the national projects and preserve measures that have been proven effective.

In particular, two fundamental points need to be taken into consideration, namely, eliminating duplication of positions contained in other state program and clearly identifying the goals to be implemented in the first place, said Medvedev.