01.06.09

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that it makes no sense to make achieving import substitution an end in itself for the Russian economy.

"If we talk about the economy in general, it makes no sense to opt for import substitution if you can buy cheap," Putin told the open meeting of the Trade and Industry Chamber on Wednesday (27 May).

If we try to catch up all the time, Russia will always be among those "lagging behind", he said.

"Ultimately, new centres of competence should be created, and we should move towards an altogether new way of tackling problems, increasing the competitiveness of the economy in general," Putin said, stressing that he did not regard the issue of achieving import substitution as an end in itself.

He recalled that innovation-based development had been chosen as the general line of the economic strategy, and suggested to businessmen that they should discuss ways to achieve this goal.

"I believe that our work here should be aggressive in the good sense of the word, and solidary: fewer lamentations, more specific suggestions," Putin said.

He noted that for decades a distinct structure of the economy had been developing in Russia. "We carried out innovations in 1936, in 1938 to 1940s, and a bit more somewhere in the 1950s. Large-scale projects in the country practically came to an end with industrialization, not counting the nuclear project," Putin said.

He noted that, in order to survive, the state used to concentrate all the resources for the work in the area of nuclear technology and space. "Today we have to do this in other conditions, and other tools should be used - we have to create them together with you," Putin said.

He noted that the state, for its part, was willing to concentrate resources on innovative technology, and allocate them for development in this area. At the same time, however, he suggested that the business community should also think about the distribution of these resources. "We are willing to concentrate resources and allocate them. Let us draw up a mechanism together - a transparent and clear one, free of corruption," Putin said.

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Source: Interfax