Governor Aman Tuleyev of the Kemerovo region in Siberia proposed an emulation of Dubai's initiative to pay residents in gold as a reward for weight loss.
The initiative Your Weight in Gold was developed by Dubai authorities because of concerns that a large number of Dubai residents are overweight, even obese. The program ran successfully and received popular public approval for two years, beginning 2013. The program saw 10,000 winners lose 54 tons of total weight. The government gave out a total of 56 kilos of gold bullion equaling $2.45 million (AED9 million) to these winners.
In Siberia, concern over the growing number of obesity cases has been increasing given that obesity is one of the leading causes of such illnesses as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and cancer. Based on the 2014 data by the World Health Organization, Siberia is a close second to Lithuania among ex-Soviet countries, in the number of cases of obesity and excess weight.
As the global top exporter of coal, Russia's main coal mining hub is the Kuzbass or the Kuznetsk Basin in the southern part of Siberia, which includes Kemerovo. For this reason, Governor Tulevev proposes the reward in the weight loss initiative to be given in coal.
"Let's not even give out grams, but tonnes, because it works out cheaper for the budget."
The originative Kemerovo governor said, "Everyone should understand, the government needs healthy people." Governor Tulevev's press secretary Anton Gorelkin revealed the governor's plan to create a reality show with one of the local channels out of this weight loss initiative.
"The participants will battle with excess weight and learn about healthy lifestyles and the winner will get the prize: several tonnes of high-calorific coal."
Preliminary work in the fight against obesity has already begun in Kemerovo with Governor Tuleyev donating 5,000 bicycles and 5,000 Nordic walking poles to Kemerovo children.
