Russian PM, other officials slam industry ministry's rail equip program
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and other officials criticized at a government meeting Wednesday the Industry and Energy Ministry's program for the railway equipment industry's development for 2007-2015, Prime-Tass reports.
"(The program) is very superficial and does not answer the questions asked at the government meeting," Fradkov said, calling it "a very dangerous bureaucratic drawback."
Fradkov said that the government had instructed the Industry and Energy Ministry to revise the program.
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said that the program "is absolutely unfeasible, is not based on a market analysis and does not envisage structural reforms in the industry." He added that the program did not specify the exact amount of government subsidies and thus "disoriented" businessmen.
Vladimir Yakunin, president of state-owned railroad monopoly Russian Railways, spoke against the program's proposal to protect the railway equipment industry from foreign competitors. He said that Russian Railways needed foreign train cars and locomotives.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said that government subsidies worth "billions of (U.S.) dollars" and tax cuts envisaged in the program had not been approved by the Finance Ministry and had not been included in its draft budget for 2008-2010.
Presenting his ministry's report on the program, Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev said that the program envisaged government subsidies for the leasing of railway equipment, railway equipment exports and research and development in the railway equipment industry.
Dementyev also said that the Industry and Energy Ministry had proposed launching "industrial assembly" rules in the railway equipment industry. He added that this would attract foreign investments and technologies.