Minister tells president about effect of global crisis on Russian industry
Interfax
Gorki [near Moscow], 1 December: Industrial growth in Russia remains positive but the crisis has affected most sectors of the economy, except the military-industrial complex, according to Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko.
"As for industry as a whole, judging by the October figures, industry had a positive growth compared with September," Khristenko said at a meeting with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev on Monday [1 December].
"But it is obvious that the crisis has affected most of the sectors of the economy," the minister added.
At the same time Khristenko stressed that the "military-industrial complex is different in the sense that, thanks to the state order which is the key there, it has proved possible to minimize the effect of the financial crisis".
"In this connection, a package of measures that are being implemented is directed at ensuring that enterprises go into 2009 calmly," the minister said.
Medvedev asked: "Are you talking about the signing of state contracts to ensure state funding for deliveries of products by the military-industrial complex?"
"Yes, this is precisely it and this is this what I am talking about," Khristenko replied.
"Also, it is worth pointing out that, within the military-industrial complex, it is not just supplies for the military but also supplies for civilians that are beginning to play a rather significant role," the minister added.
At the same time he stressed: "Projects of this type, as for instance the Superjet-100, need their risks to be minimized. It is important to ensure the possibility of implementing these projects."
Besides, according to the minister, it is important to use "the opportunities that are opened up as a result of the crisis, so that Russian industry can enter new and more interesting markets".
[According to another Interfax report, at the meeting Khristenko told Medvedev that "ferrous metallurgy and the automobile industry are the most vulnerable" and "not only in Russia".
He said the government was taking necessary measures to support ferrous metallurgy and the automobile industry. For Russia, as well as the whole world, the automobile industry is an "extremely important sector". According to the minister, about 1.5m people are involved in it. Besides, a few years ago the government adopted a strategy for the development of the automobile industry in accordance with which both Russian and foreign investors had invested about 6bn dollars. "And today it is important to minimize the risks for these investors," Khristenko stressed.
He said the "government is about to take some measures to support the automobile industry".
Ferrous metallurgy, the minister said, "is the most vulnerable sector, particularly for Russia" because exports have been falling sharply. "Next year it will be ferrous metallurgy that will be affected most by the global financial crisis," he said.
"One must do everything in order to minimize the effect on ferrous metallurgy, as well as on industry as a whole," Medvedev said, as reported by Interfax.]