27.12.08

Russia's Economic Development Ministry on Monday will submit to the government a list of strategic enterprises to which state support will be provided, First Vice Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday. "The list will be submitted to the government on Monday," he noted. According to Shuvalov, "This is not the final list .875 It will be enlarged or reduced as we work on it."

The list of such enterprises will be considered, in particular, at a meeting of the United Economic and Social Commission under the chairmanship of Shuvalov (Putin announced the establishment of this commission a week ago).

"We have determined the criteria proposed by the Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry on which we will be working with specific enterprises," Shuvalov said at the meeting with the prime minister.

The first vice prime minister stressed that the government will first of all give attention to the system-forming enterprises employing a large number of workers and that often are town-forming enterprises. In his view, the list may also be supplemented with enterprises that are very important for the socio-economic life of certain regions.

The RF government's support may be provided to 400 federal enterprises, Putin said at a meeting of the presidium of the Council for the development of local self-government that was held in Lipetsk last week (somewhat earlier the government planned to give such support to 300-350 enterprises). With this end in view the state will allocate some 300 billion rubles that will be provided as state guarantees on loans of enterprises, by subsidizing the interest rates on loans, by securing the state order for enterprises and restructuring of their tax debts or providing tax loans.

Last Monday (Dec 15), Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that the Russian government would provide additional aid to industrial enterprises with sales exceeding 15-16 billion rubles a year or employing over 4,000 people. Kudrin said the government would approve a list of more than 300 enterprises entitled to financial aid due to the global financial crisis.

The minister said the commission for response to the global crisis and the protection of the social sphere, headed by Igor Shuvalov, would set up a working group. It will study industrial programs and the state of enterprises from this list and determine the amount of aid.

"The state will support enterprises which have more detailed production programs," he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of a working group to support large strategic industrial enterprises. "It is necessary to work out specific measures to support these enterprises and create an additional working group composed of officials from the Ministry of Economic Development, the Industry Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry and the Energy Ministry," he said.

Putin referred to several mechanisms of support to enterprises. "These measures will include loans to enterprises, including against governmental guarantees, participation in their capital, subsidizing of loan interest rates, governmental contracts, and rescheduling of tax debts or the granting of tax credits," he said.

In his opinion, this group should include officials from the Central Bank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, and Gazprombank. Putin cautioned that the latter measures should be used carefully. "I ask you to consider using this measure in order not to encourage dependency," he added.

According to the prime minister, such groups should be created in all regions and include officials from major banks. Regions should also be empowered to give guarantees to banks for unsecured loans to enterprises. "Selection criteria should be worked out thoroughly. Regions should take into account regional specifics when drawing up this list," Putin said. He believes that the new system "should embrace no less than 1,500 enterprises in Russia." "I would like the commission for enhancing the sustainability of the economy to approve these lists not later than Wednesday," he noted.

Putin said these several hundred major enterprises made over 85 percent of the gross domestic product. Their annual turnover is 15-16 billion rubles and they employ over 4,000 people. "These are big taxpayers and major employers that employ over 30 percent of people in their localities," Putin said.

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Source: Itar-Tass