Point of View

"Without a strong, cutting-edge machinery manufacturing industry Russian economy will never be full-fledged, competitive and based on innovations, will never overcome its excessive dependence on raw materials. That was why we made decisions to develop and upgrade the industry even before the crisis. We have established major integrated shipbuilding, aircraft-building and military industrial companies."

"The automotive industry ended up being one of the sectors hit the hardest by the economic crisis. Sales of new cars dropped significantly not only in Russia, but all over the world. Only now have markets in individual countries started to recover.<.....> The transition to modern standards must be gradual. Russian auto plants must have enough time to upgrade their manufacturing capabilities and technology. And of course consumers have to be ready for this."

"Regarding imports, as I've already said many times, we will strive to have all import vehicles fully meet Russian standards. The new set of technical regulations is based on these specific principles, and I hope that its coming into effect will allow, among other things, improved traffic safety on our roads."

"Despite certain economic difficulties, we have kept our space projects on the budget priority list. This year alone almost 82 billion roubles have been appropriated for these projects under three federal programmes. Let me specify that these allocations amount to 58.2 billion roubles under the Federal Space Programme, another 15.3 billion roubles under the federal targeted programme GLONASS Global Navigation System, and yet another 8.2 billion roubles under the federal targeted programme on developing Russia's defence and industrial complex in 2007-2010 and beyond. Thus, the total is 81.7 billion roubles."

"The Government has adopted a number of anti-crisis measures to stabilise the financial position of the industry's individual companies. I am referring to additional capitalisation, and the granting of state guarantees and subsidies. A total of eight billion roubles have been allotted to the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, and state guarantees worth three billion roubles have been granted to the Energomash Joint Stock Company. The Government has also made decisions on granting subsidies to a number of other organisations of this industry."

"Let me recall that our strategic goals in this respect are to make the domestic space industry more competitive, and to more effectively use its potential both for resolving domestic socio-economic tasks, and for entering high-tech international markets. Obviously, we should not forget the industry's role in our defence capability. Defence-related projects amount to 63% of what is being done in the missile and space industry."

"At the same time, apart from budgetary funds, we must create the conditions for attracting private investment into our water management complex. The expenditures required for implementing the strategy, which we are going to review today, will add up to about 662 billion roubles in the period up to 2020. About 500 billion roubles will come from the federal budget; the regions will not contribute much, while extra-budget funds will amount to a mere 66.9 billion roubles. In general, this sphere may be quite attractive for private investment as well."

"The recent tragic events at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant have made it perfectly obvious how much we still have to do to increase the reliability of technical structures in general, and hydro-technical facilities in particular. We must conduct a thorough inspection of all strategic and vital installations of the infrastructure and work out a procedure for their regular modernisation and monitoring over their technical condition. By and large, we must fundamentally improve technological discipline in industry and other branches of the economy."

"In recent years, we have made a number of achievements. Water losses during transportation have decreased by 6.3%, while sewage dumping has been reduced by 9%. The introduction of the closed cycle technology has increased the reuse of water by 6.5%. The quality of water, including that from drinking water sources, has improved. The water-holding capacity of our GDP has been reduced, although we are still behind many countries in this respect."

"We are witnessing the establishment of key elements of the national nanotech network, which includes publicly accessible research centres. Therefore, I think it expedient to extend the term of the federal targeted programme Infrastructure Development for the Nanotechnology Industry for another year, that is, through the end of 2011."

"At this stage, I think it is extremely important to create and stimulate domestic demand, an approach that involves, among other things, the Government procuring nanotechnology products for Government needs and for the needs of companies in which the Government holds stakes, such as healthcare, educational, research and housing and utilities companies. And if we are discussing the allocation of federal resources, investing in innovative technologies is certainly the best decision we could make."

"Judging by the available data, which is quite abundant, we have established a good foundation for the development of technologies connected with medicine, diagnostics equipment, environmental protection, saving energy and the production of innovative composite materials. Almost a thousand enterprises of the real sector of the economy are working in the area of nanotechnology industry."

"Let me repeat that we intend to invest in aircraft construction, and will do so, but we need real results. I would like to emphasize that the industry must function in market conditions. We realize full well that the situation is difficult, and that your rivals in the world markets are enjoying direct support from their governments. However, to start with, we should not repeat the stupid mistakes of others, and we should work effectively. And, second, we cannot resort to this practice all the time. We can work effectively in this country, and we should achieve this by all means."

"At the same time, the aviation industry is going through uneasy times, to put it mildly.<...> I mean inadequate quality of corporate management, high costs, and low economic efficiency of labour productivity. There are many examples.<...> It may seem strange, but a whole series of United Aircraft-Building Corporation (UABC) contracts for the delivery of aircraft both at home and abroad have brought only losses instead of profits.I would like to ask UABC and relevant departments to analyse this situation in detail, and to submit proposals that would prevent such setbacks in the future."

"Furthermore, aircraft construction has found itself in an extremely difficult financial predicament. Before coming here, we held two other meetings, trying to carefully analyse the financial situation. The total debt of UABC and its subsidiaries is more than 119-120 billion roubles. Moreover, there is a deficit of 64 billion, which is not guaranteed by their revenues or profits."

"At the same time, it goes without saying that in light of this force majeure, it is necessary to draft a programme for financial stabilisation, and help aircraft builders to get rid of the so-called "toxic" debts. This programme of financial recovery should be submitted to the Government during the next month, or, at most, in a month and a half."

"Now, before our meeting, record contracts were signed here at MAKS for the purchase of 48 SU-35Ss, 12 SU-27SMs, and four SU-30M2s, for the total sum of over 80 billion roubles. The aircraft will be delivered until 2015. Obviously, this will allow us to equip our Air Force with the latest technology, and to keep our aircraft companies busy, which is always important, especially during the crisis."

"I want to add that literally over the last few days, the Government has made a similar decision: 3.2 billion roubles from the state budget will be allocated for additional capitalization of the Sukhoi holding company. Today, we will also discuss the possibility - and I want to emphasize this - we will discuss the possibility of adding another 15 billion roubles to the capital of RSK Mig. We already gave 15 billion, and today we met with Mikhail Pogosyan and discussed this issue. He is in constant contact with Sberbank. We had already discussed this issue previously, when we gave 15 billion roubles, and we will discuss giving another 15 billion."

"Starting in 2004, state financing for aviation increased 20-fold, I want to emphasize this and draw your attention to this, ladies and gentlemen. Not by a percentage, but 20 times over! Just this year, taking into account anti-crisis measures, we allocated another 80 billion roubles for these purposes. The funds were spent on the purchase of Russian airplanes and subsidizing the expenses of technical upgrades for our companies. Around 35 billion roubles from the budget were allocated for increasing the authorized capital of key companies in the industry. These are the RSK Mig company, which received 15 billion roubles, the Chernyshev MMP company, which received 2.9 billion rubles, the Kazan Gorbunov Aircraft Production Association, which got 4.1 billion roubles; and Motopostroitel in Samara, which received 1.4 billion roubles. The annual allotment in authorized capital for UABC to build civilian aircraft is another 6 billion roubles."

“We have singled out development of aircraft engineering, along with the space industry, shipbuilding and nuclear energy, as key priorities in Russia’s industrial policy. Due to these specific industries, we expect a significant increase in the share of high-tech production in the Russian economy, thereby increasing the economy’s sustainability and diversifying its exports.”

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