Nadezhda Ivanitskaya, Yevgenia Pismennaya, Anastasia Dagayeva
Who will be the first to receive government assistance?
The government plans to compile a list of strategic companies that will be the first to receive government assistance.
On Friday evening, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a conference to discuss assistance to the real sector of the economy in the face of the global crisis.
Twenty minutes after the conference began, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Sberbank president German Gref and Alexander Semenyaka, head of the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML), told journalists about the decision to support mortgages (see an article on p. B1).
This is all they agreed to say, although the conference discussed compiling a list of companies that will be the first to receive government assistance, according to a participant. The selection criteria have not been agreed upon, but the list will include 150-200 companies, the source said.
These companies account for over a half of Russia's GDP, a government official said, adding that the list was created "to prevent the growth of their accounts receivable and the reduction of their numbers."
The economics, industry and trade, and other ministries are working on the list, he said.
Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the prime minister, said the idea was discussed in the government and could possibly be addressed at the conference on Friday.
The list is an attempt to formulate a systems guideline, said an official from the Industry and Trade Ministry.
"We are considering above all not the companies, but the structure of demand, so as to be able to enter the competitive market ready for battle when the crisis ends several years from now," he said.
The Industry and Trade Ministry has drafted the criteria the applicants must satisfy to receive the status of a strategic enterprise (see the insert). The more criteria an enterprise satisfies the more chances it has to make the list.
The main applicants are defence enterprises, steelmakers, the largest regional taxpayers, the companies that are the city backbone, as well as the corporations that will produce import-replacing products as the crisis ends, the ministry official said.
The government has discussed these proposals with business leaders, Alexander Murychev, first executive vice-president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), said. We should provide target support to major socially important companies, which will receive assistance in the form of capital injections and state guarantees.
Kudrin previously said the Finance Ministry would allocate 300 billion roubles in state guaranteed loans to complement the companies' collateral.
Defence companies, automobile producers and airlines will be the priority recipients of guarantees at four state-run banks - Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank, Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
Approximately 20-30 banks, including private banks, may take part in this programme, the government official said after the conference, adding that allocations for government guarantees would total 500 billion to 1 trillion roubles.
The list may include all major companies, said Igor Nikolayev of the FBK audit and consulting firm. Defence, oil and gas, and metal companies have the best chances while construction, retail and telecommunications firms have less chance.
Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the National Reserve Corporation, welcomed the idea of the list but said 200 companies were too few. A list of 200 companies would include only commodities firms with major export programmes. The list should comprise at least 500 companies, Lebedev said.
We should help not strategic but effective companies, Sergei Galitsky, co-owner of the Magnit retailer, said, adding, "My firm doesn't need state support."
Natalya Orlova, an economist at Alfa-Bank, is worried that accepting social status as the main criterion would only help to maintain ineffective companies.
Assistance criteria
To be granted the status of a strategic enterprise, a company must satisfy at least some of the following criteria:
1. Be technologically competent
2. Have a large staff
3. Have export contracts for 2009
4. Have a major investment project under way
5. Have ties with companies in other sectors
