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
“We agreed with representatives of municipal governments and some regions to jointly implement this project [acquire new vehicles for the needs of all areas managed by the municipal government.]. Seventy percent of the funding will come from the federal budget and 30% from the local and regional budgets. In all, we must channel about 30 billion roubles into this programme.”
“Significant amounts of vehicles are bought for state purposes annually. I believe the Government should boost state acquisitions in 2009. I know that the auto pools of our social services are in bad need of renovation, along with those of the Interior, Defence and Emergencies Ministries. The federal ministries planned to allocate 15 billion roubles for this purpose next year. We'll channel an additional 12.5 billion roubles to the ministries, departments and other federal bodies for fleet purchases. The additional funds should be distributed in a way to both meet the agency's goals and to support domestic manufacturers. The purchases should be evenly distributed across the industry.”
“The Transport Ministry will be instructed to establish a special leasing company under the federal target programme to modernise the country's transport system. A total of 40 billion roubles will be transferred to that company from several different sources for acquisitions of Russian-made vehicles.”
“At a time when domestic producers are forced to slash production, I think it especially unacceptable to spend federal funds purchasing foreign cars and trucks. Let me emphasise that I am referring to so-called "direct imports" here.”
“As for the new assembly plants recently established in Russia by major foreign automakers, we also regard them as part of the domestic auto industry. In this sense, I am making no distinction between Volkswagen, Renault, Ford and Toyota plants, and Russian VAZ and GAZ. Foreign assembly plants operating in Russia are entitled to government support as much as local manufacturers - naturally, assuming they comply with the required domestic content agreement.”
“Many manufacturers chose to suspend vehicle assembly in December 2008-January 2009. The industry's problems stem from plummeting consumer and commercial demand. Therefore, government action in this case should try to mitigate this alarming trend. To begin with, I think the Government, natural monopolies and preferably the largest private companies should purchase predominantly domestic products.”
“The last Government meeting decided to offer an extra 300 billion roubles in guarantees to core enterprises. Just yesterday I chaired a meeting in Rostov-on-Don in support of agricultural equipment production. We made some important decisions including the expansion of leasing offers to essentially boost demand - this is the biggest problem for this sector. To solve the problem we have decided to allocate an additional 25 billion roubles for leasing programmes. We have decided to subsidize interest rates on loans to businesses and farms at two thirds of the bank rate. A package of tax amendments has been passed to support industry, agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises. We are shortly to consider an additional package of measures for agriculture. We will also take special measures to support the construction industry. Some are being developed and we are considering other options.”
“We need to get rid of monopolies on the market, which prevent airlines from buying jet fuel at market, not inflated prices. We will continue to address this problem persistently.”
“We have allocated an additional 10 billion roubles to cover the price gap in the fuel sector. If necessary - we have coordinated the issue with the Agriculture Minister, who maintains contacts with agricultural producers - we will analyse the result and possibly increase allocations in the first quarter of next year. We have also allocated additional funds for fertilisers.”
"To support the industry we allocated 175 billion roubles. These are long-term loans which must be directed to production or service-based businesses. At the same time, we will demand from the banks that they report to us on three sectors to which they are going to lend money. What are these sectors? These are farming, the defence industry and small and medium-sized businesses, as well as a long list of enterprises which we recommend."
“We will allow airlines, first, to buy such aircraft as our industry will not produce and, second, to lease the aircraft our industry plans to manufacture. We will lease foreign-made aircraft and will return them as soon as we start producing the aircraft of the same quality, noise and fuel standards.”
“The overall cost of the project discussed here, the YaMZ-530, is 13.4 billion roubles. In effect, this amounts to the construction of a new modern plant that will produce next-generation engines. The project's implementation will create 1,200 jobs in the Yaroslavl Region.”
“A package of measures has been drafted to support Saturn. First, its debts will be refinanced. Our Foreign Trade Bank will spend about 10 billion roubles to this end. Second, the Rosnanotekh Corporation (a state-run nanotechnology corporation) is prepared to implement together with Saturn a project to produce modern nanomaterials and products that incorporate them. The total investment will be one billion roubles, half of which will be contributed by Rosnanotekh. Finally, we should secure the sales of Saturn's produce to its key customers - the Defence Ministry, airline companies, the United Aircraft Building Corporation, the power industry, and Gazprom.”
"Obviously, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to resolve these problems without the state's participation. It is also important for public companies with experience in high-tech machine building to increase their contribution to Saturn's development. In this context, the owners have agreed to sell almost all shares of the enterprise to the Oboronprom State Corporation. Packages of shares of the private owners will be purchased on a commercial basis, and at market prices."
“In the past, oil revenues were a great help for our budget. Now the industry itself needs additional funds to develop advanced processing and other projects. We will give our fuel-and-industry sector the required support. Thus, export duties will be reduced and their calculation will become more flexible, which will make it possible to react to global price fluctuations in a timely manner. Starting January 1 of the next year, the rate of severance tax will be cut, and tax breaks introduced for the development of new deposits - on the Yamal peninsula, in the Nenets Autonomous Region, in the Caspian Sea, and in the Arctic shelf. Oil companies have been allowed a more liberal use of the mechanism of accelerated depreciation.”
“The world economic crisis should not interfere with the implementation of our defence programmes. We should not forget that defence industries have a long development cycle, and limited sources of funding. Therefore, I suggest increasing refinancing and investment into the capital for the defence industry. I also propose allocating funds in 2008-1009 to prevent defence plants from going bankrupt. The total sum of additional funds earmarked for these purposes is over 50 billion roubles.”
“Russian companies have the right to issue infrastructure bonds, but this right is practically unused. For this reason, we have decided to allow companies to issue infrastructure bonds under the guarantees of the Russian Federation or the VEB to fund the construction of important, major projects.”
