Vice Premier Igor Sechin is in charge of the industry in the government of Vladimir Putin.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Carmakers Parked Close to Sechin
The government is staging a new campaign to bolster the national automobile industry and edge used cars out of the market. The mastermind is Vice Premier Igor Sechin, who had arranged the yesterday’s meeting of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with carmakers and backed up the respective proposals of the automobile community.
Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Tatarstan’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone yesterday. After inspecting the car assembling facilities, which are controlled by Severstal Auto and assemble Fiat and Isuzu models, Putin chaired a meeting dedicated to the automobile industry’s advance in Russia. The event was attended by Severstal Auto GD and principal owner Vadim Shvetsov, AvtoVAZ Group President Boris Aleshin, Gaz Group CEO Sergei Zanozin, KamAZ GD Sergei Kogogin, Vice Premier Igor Sechin, who is in charge of the industry in the new government.
It is necessary to help carmakers promote their product on domestic market and overseas, Putin announced by results of discussion.
Putin’s meeting with automobile makers had been arranged by Igor Sechin, said a few federal bureaucrats. Sechin first met with the chiefs of Russia’s car plants May 17 and heard their proposals for industry’s promotion. Without any delay, he committed Industry and Trade Ministry to elaborate the Actions for Development of Russia’s Automobile Industry in view of the market players’ proposals. On May 19, the document was forwarded to the Economic Development Ministry for agreement. It was long ago that the bureaucrats manifested the speed of that rate.
It wasn’t by chance that Putin met with car bosses in Alabuga, where the facilities of Severstal Auto are operating. The company is the most aggressive lobbyist of the amendments, a top-ranked bureaucrat said on condition of anonymity. “We were even a bit surprised by this initiative; so far we had thought AvtoVAZ [controlled by Rostekhnologii] the most active lobbyist,” he specified.
The essence of Severstal Auto proposals is the changes in customs and tax regulations. The company suggests creating conditions, when buying used cars won’t be profitable. In addition to hiking the duties on foreign cars of three to five years to the level of new cars (i.e. 25 percent but no less than ˆ1,000 depending on the engine), Severstal Auto advocates the increase in transport tax for used cars.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 28, 2008
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