Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday criticized the slow progress in carrying out the massive development plan for the Far East region, suggesting that the government should have done better.

"The program has been adopted, confirmed, but it apparently has not been backed up financially," Putin told a meeting on the implementation of his orders.

The program is projected to need 3.8 trillion rubles (some 122 billion U.S. dollars) by 2015, but the Russian Financial Ministry has confirmed the allocation of only 296 billion rubles (about 9.5 billion dollars).

The government had adopted the program without clearly understanding how it could be implemented, said the president.

Also at the meeting, Putin lashed out at the government's failure to encourage economic growth, create a favorable business climate and stimulate industrial potential in the country.

He demanded that the socio-economic promises he made during his election campaign a year ago be implemented "at all cost."

Regardless of problems and difficulties, the tasks the government has outlined are absolutely feasible, he said.

"It is necessary to implement everything that has been planned," added the president.