Rossiiskaya Gazeta: “Putin outlines high-priority economic tasks“
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is convinced that defence-industry enterprises must receive state contracts from ministries as soon as possible. "It is already mid-February, and time is ripe for signing contracts," Mr Putin said, while opening the February 10 Government meeting.
The global financial and economic crisis has affected all economic sectors, primarily export-oriented sectors, including the defence industry, which has suffered greatly due to plunging global market demand. Consequently, state defence contracts are becoming virtually the only source of funding for defence companies.
Prime Minister Putin said defence industry enterprises must streamline their performance. Most importantly, they "must unfailingly implement previously approved plans of the Armed Forces' development," Mr Putin said.
Apart from chairing an anti-crisis meeting on defence industry issues, the Prime Minister focused on some other spheres also requiring state support. The defence industry has many secrets and therefore cannot be discussed openly. However, the Government openly discussed economic stimulus packages for Russian regions and the automotive industry.
On February 10, Mr Putin agreed to allocate 310 million rouble subsidies and a similar loan to the Samara Region. Moscow will loan the same amount to the region in the next two years. The allocations will be used to transfer social facilities of Russia's largest automaker AvtoVAZ to the Samara Region Administration.
AvtoVAZ is experiencing major problems. Its assembly line, which was restarted on February 9, may have to stop again soon because the company may run out of components in late February and because it has failed to repay its debts to the European Bearing Corporation (EPK) over the last three months.
The company used to annually spend 1.7 billion roubles on the upkeep of 47 children's daycare centres, a sports palace, outpatient clinics and other facilities. The complete transfer of non-core assets to the Samara Region after late June 2009 will obviously benefit the automotive giant.
"In January-June 2009, AvtoVAZ will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, and its investment climate will improve," said Samara Governor Vladimir Artyakov. He said the 1.7 billion-rouble injection could be invested in the plant and wages. AvtoVAZ workers and city residents must realise that all social benefits will be retained, that daycare centres and clinics will continue to operate as before, and that the procedure for running them will remain the same.
In exchange for the transfer of non-core assets to the regional balance account, Mr Putin urged top AvtoVAZ managers to "control the social situation" and to prevent layoffs.
There may be no layoffs because the Government is doing its best to establish a good rapport between officials and workers. It appears that the former will have to drive in Russian-made cars. On February 10, Mr Putin instructed the Government to allocate an additional 12.5 billion roubles from the federal budget for buying Russian-made cars for the country's officials. The Economic Development Ministry estimates that this sum will be enough to buy 150,000 vehicles or 25% of the annual AvtoVAZ output.
Pyotr Skobelev
