Natalya Kostenko
United Russia to bring businessmen and government together
A United Russia presidium is setting up a lobbyist body - a commission on industry and enterprise
The decision to create the commission was adopted Wednesday. It will be composed of MPs, officials, managers and businessmen, including Alexander Abramov ("Evraz"), Andrei Borodin (the Bank of Moscow), Sergei Generalov ("Industrial Investors"), Anatoly Karachinsky (IBS) and David Yakobashvili ("Wimm-Bill-Dann"). (See the full list at www.vedomosti.ru) The commission will be headed by Alexander Shokhin, a member of the United Russia presidium and the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The commission's members are not obliged to join United Russia.
According to Alexander Chernov, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs spokesman, the commission's first meeting will be held in January.
The commission will convene at least once a quarter to discuss anti-recessionary measures, specifically taxation, natural monopoly tariffs and so on, Mr Shokhin said. In three months the commission will be overhauled, with inactive members excluded and representatives of small and medium-size businesses admitted. "We need a public lobby platform; the commission will help us integrate the lobby format in the government system," Mr Shokhin hopes. The commission's recommendations will have the status of the party's decisions; it will be possible to learn the opinions of ministries and departments.
The commission will outline party agendas, including agendas for congresses and General Council meetings, and discuss anti-recessionary initiatives, head of the Duma economic policy committee and commission member Yevgeny Fyodorov said.
A few commission members learnt about their membership from Vedomosti. For example, Mr Karachinsky assumed that he was included in the commission in absentia, and added that he participates in a number of other commissions, for example the commission on high technology. Mr Chernov said participation in the commission is still being discussed with businessmen.
Mr Generalov's representative says that the businessman participates in the United Russia commission as a member of Business Russia, an NGO helping party members develop their economic undertakings.
Mr Yakobashvili said that joining the commission was his personal choice: "If I can do something useful for this country, not to mention something pleasant, why not do it?" According to Yakobashvili, the commission's members have a lot of sound ideas which are mainly related to two problems: a fall in consumption and a loss of trust because of mass layoffs; these ideas need to be brought home to the government. The commission will submit its proposals to United Russia's political council and, if its members consider it necessary, to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Stanislav Naumov said that he agreed to participate in the commission because he hopes that business' cooperation with the party that has a constitutional majority in the Duma will help address specific problems when drafting bills.
Contributed: Anastasia Golitsyna, Anastasia Dagayeva, Sofia Korepanova, Yevgenia Pismennaya
