VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
"At present, nearly all the leading countries are trying to determine their place in the post-crisis world. Russia is also facing this task. I believe that Russia can not only strengthen its traditional competitive advantages, for example, in energy, metallurgy, chemicals, transport, and now also in agriculture, but also greatly enhance the role of its high-tech innovation sector."
"We can now shift our attention, moving from "manual control" to systemic solutions capable of ensuring the sustainable development of the Russian economy in the post-crisis period."
"We will consistently promote private enterprise, the country's integration into the global economy and will also do our best to create a favourable investment climate. As the situation becomes stable and the crisis trends are overcome, it is our intention to purposefully and consistently reduce state economic intervention, to use traditional market tools, including privatisation instruments."
"We believe that we still need to support those industries where a dramatic decrease in demand has created serious problems. As in many countries, these include the automotive industry, engineering as a whole, housing construction and other industries."
"Apart from removing administrative barriers, we have cut taxes significantly. As you must know, Russia has the lowest income tax rate today, 13%, and also the lowest corporate tax rate in both the G8 and BRIC - 20%."
"We are open to foreign investment. Last year we adopted a law regulating the procedure allowing foreign capital to gain control of companies in strategic sectors. Ladies and gentlemen, that law was adopted largely as a result of consultations with our foreign partners, who said openly that we must tell them clearly where they can work, under what conditions and where they could expect limitations. We have done so."
“Today, a year after the start of the crisis, we are seeing the first signs of economic recovery, and we justifiably expect that the Russian economy will start gradually improving in 2010. I hope that the GDP will grow, even if just a little. The Ministry of Economic Development predicts growth of 1.6%.”
"We will continue our efforts to diversify the economy, to encourage the development of high-tech and science-intensive industries. We are already doing this, while at the same time tackling a two-sided problem, as I have said above, which includes measures to prevent increases in spending. However, we have not cut state investment in high-tech projects that rely on government involvement in these industries - in aircraft manufacturing, in space exploration, or in shipbuilding."
"I would like to say that we will honour all of our social commitments this year, regardless of the crises. We have indexed social allowances, just as we planned to do before the crisis, within the framework of legislation we adopted during the good years. We will index pensions four times this year."
"One of our tasks this year is to restore macroeconomic indices, lower inflation, and prevent the strengthening of the national currency to the levels we saw in previous years.<...> First of all, we must pay attention to macroeconomic parameters. Using this as the groundwork, we will try to ensure that long-term loans are available in the economy and at the lending institutions, so that we will be able to use internal financial resources."
