Moscow, 18 August: State enterprises which won't become part of holding companies in key industries and are inefficiently coping with their functions must be privatised, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Russian government's presidium on Monday [18 August]. "The enterprises that have not become part of integrated structures and that are not needed for performing state functions should be included in the privatization programme," Putin said/

The prime minister stressed that, at present, "we are facing the task of completing the formation of competitive integrated structures in key industries". He explained that he has in mind such state holding companies as the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the United Aircraft Construction Corporation and other. Putin said that the charter capital of these structures should receive the shares of related enterprises which have good development prospects for becoming modern production entities.

The head of government stressed that at present 5,709 unitary enterprises and 3,674 blocks of shares of joint-stock companies are federal property. "Frankly speaking, it's far from always that our work is efficient, to put it mildly," Putin said. "We have said more than once that each level of authority should have only the property it needs for carrying out the functions and public powers attached to it, no more than that," the prime minister said.

Putin criticised the progress and consistency of the implementation of the privatization programme the government adopts every year. "The government passes a privatization programme every year and each time only half of it becomes implemented," the prime minister said. He added that it takes years sometimes to sell off some enterprises . "This is the result of shortcomings in managerial procedures and the unjustified restrictions that still exist. From the point of view of combating corruption not everything is fine either," Putin said.