| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russian PM to Oversee Industry
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov has held a session on measures to boost industrial growth. A special governmental commission will be set up, with the prime minister at the helm. The government is to look for an alternative to the tight budget policy that Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin presses for to solve macroeconomic issues.
Yesterday’s session was planned as a preparation for the discussion of industrial policies at the government’s session and the council on competitive ability and entrepreneurship. The session is scheduled on September 6, under unofficial reports. Mikhail Fradkov said he was going to finally shape and implement the innovation industrial policy in the country.
He said the draft 2007 budget which was submitted to the State Duma last weekend “contains financial opportunities to focus on the development and modernization of Russian economy and industries.” To fulfill his plans the prime minister is going to set up and head a governmental commission that will focus on “the modernization of Russian industry, diversification of economy and making it innovative.”
A source of Kommersant at the government said it is the galloping growth in import that made the Cabinet take up the issue. There is an opinion in the government that macroeconomic tools will be unable to ensure the long-awaited economic growth, the source said. According to the Central Bank, import went up 34 percent in May and June, outpacing the rise in export and beating the growth of industrial production multifold (the annual 4 percent).
Three possible solutions were mentioned yesterday. The new body will consider opinions of the Russian business. Secondly, more tools will be used to bolster the industry (supporting export, amortization policy and purpose-oriented programs). Thirdly, anti-corruption steps will help lift curbs on industrial growth.
Last morning, Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin sent to the government a plan to shape the budget’s oil and gas balance. The blueprint urged the government to cut expenditures with the help of natural resources export and start cutting it.
John Litvak, chief economist at the Moscow office of the World Bank, says the government may be looking for an alternative for a strict budget policy and primarily for the viewpoint of Financial Minister Alexey Kudrin.
Alexey Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said too little time is given for shaping the new council. “The government often considers specific industrial strategies but no steps are taken to see them through,” he said.
Pavel Netreba and Maxim Shishkin
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 29, 2006
|
|
|
