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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with Alexander Davydenko, the Head of Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport

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Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good Afternoon, Mr Davydenko. Tell me about the opening of the navigation season and also river ship building, please.

Alexander Davydenko: Mr Putin, here is my report. From March 27 through April 2 we opened the navigation season on the Lower Volga, the Don River and the Kuban River. From April 24 through April 29 we opened the navigation route at the Moscow Canal, the Volga Baltic Canal, the Northern Dvina River and the Kama River. The Eastern region openings include the Irtysh, the Ob and the Amur Rivers. Other waterways are expected to open by May 15: the Pechora River and the White Sea- Baltic Sea Canal in the North, and the Lena River, the Yenisey River and the Angara River, flowing from the Baikal, in the East.

I'd like to emphasize that we opened navigation season five to seven days earlier than scheduled at the request of the ship owners, who had completed their work earlier. According to available data, the number of the ships that passed through the main waterways exceeded the last year's figure by 15-17%.

Vladimir Putin: Good sign.

Alexander Davydenko: As for shipbuilding for inland routes or rivers, the situation leaves much to be desired. But having taken your instructions into account and having fulfilled your directives, and in accordance with the United Shipbuilding Corporation agreements, we submitted orders to the shipyards in StPetersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yaroslavl and the Far East (Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Bolshoi Kamen) worth more than 10 billion Roubles last year. We are also "building up" navigable hydro-technical facilities to meet these standards. This year we'll contract orders for river ships worth 12 billion Roubles. But we would like the available law on state support for shipbuilding and navigation to cover the inland ships as well.

Vladimir Putin: This is fair. And prepare the proposals.

Alexander Davydenko: All right. We will prepare these proposals.