Delovaya Rossiya and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives will work with the government to prepare reforms.
Vladimir Putin gave the keynote economic speech at the anniversary forum of Delovaya Rossiya. He promised to carry out significant reforms in the area of taxation, to lower the fiscal burden on the non oil and gas sector and make Russia one of the world's 10 leading countries in terms of offering the most conducive environment for conducting business within the space of 10 years. The proposed measures are intended to herald a "new industrialisation" and make other sectors apart from oil and gas profitable for Russia.
Delovaya Rossiya and the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) will work together with the government to prepare the reforms. The agency and Boris Titov's organisation are currently starting joint work on developing their main projects – the establishment of 25 territorial industrial clusters and the creation of regional standards for improving the investment climate. This kind of partnership between a business organisation and the ASI is called a marriage of convenience by their members. The prime minister's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that "there will be common ground between Delovaya Rossiya and the ASI but the agency will retain its functions."
Izvestia's sources in the government explained that in essence Delovaya Rossiya would bolster the ASI and help a new structure to grow, because the agency's results so far have been very modest. Delovaya Rossiya will also help the ASI to work in the regions, since the agency does not have an extensive network of its own. Head of Delovaya Rossiya Boris Titov told Izvestia that members of his organisation harboured ambitions of leading the ASI regional offices. Competition for these posts is now beginning.
As well as their own projects, Putin ordered the ASI / DR tandem to join with the Ministry of Economic Development and Vnesheconombank to prepare new mechanisms for concluding long-term contracts in the real sector of the economy. They will also be involved in the selection and creation of new clusters, Titov explained.
Putin paid particular attention to taxation. He admitted that he was himself surprised to find out that there were significant differences between tax rates in different sectors. For example, in metallurgy the tax rate is 3.3% whereas in construction it is 11.3%. He asked the Finance Ministry to optimise this system and make it attractive for investors, not only for those in the oil and gas sector. The Finance Ministry was also given until 2014 to lower the share of budget revenues from the oil and gas sector.
"It's clear the country needs a decisive tax manoeuvre, a modern structured tax system," Putin said. "We have to think about how to optimise those taxes which play a key role in economic growth. The money goes where it's convenient, the ones with the highest profit margins. For now that means the oil and gas sector. We cannot make investors to direct money to the other sectors."
Vladimir Putin again returned to the topic of offshore companies, which he raised yesterday at a meeting on energy at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Power Plant. It was not only supply companies who would be subjected to intensive scrutiny: The prime minister ordered the regulatory authorities to examine the financial schemes in all strategic sectors.
"Work becomes impossible when everything is inter-connected, when doors are closed and kickbacks are demanded everywhere, and companies with nothing to offer but an influential patron win tenders," Putin declared.
In this connection the prime minister ordered the Ministry of Economic Development and the ASI to work out some transparent mechanisms for concluding long-term contracts. They can put forward their ideas at the beginning of 2012 at the first meeting of the agency's supervision council.
Anastasia Novikova
