MinFin, Econ Ministry merger would deprive govt of alternative point of view - Medvedev
MANILA. Nov 19 (Interfax) - The availability of two finance and economic ministries - a Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry - gives two different points of view, and to merge them would deprive the government of that, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told reporters.
"As I recall, when I held various posts, this issue, to merge the Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry, was proposed to the highest Russian officials on more than one occasion. This idea was not backed once. One day, in a speech to the Economic Development Ministry's Collegium, I said don't worry, we aren't proposing any such decisions for the simple reason that the state should have two economic eyes - one the Finance Ministry and the second the Economic Development Ministry. That approach alone gives us stereo vision, otherwise we have just the one point of view," he said.
Medvedev said that the Finance Ministry often does not agree with the Economic Development Ministry and vice versa. "I think that this isn't a bad thing, this is a discussion and an opportunity to find the correct position, to find a balance of positions, to find a more suitable approach," he said.
Speaking about the probability of merging the two ministries, the prime minister said that "such projects exist, at present they are being discussed, there are no decisions yet."
"In the last few years, similar decisions on the government's recommendation have been made by the Russian president. We merged some agencies for operative purposes, we divided others. Now the topic is being discussed quite actively, it is connected with the control agencies there is a presidential order on this issue. We really have many control structures, it is necessary to do this in a sensible manner regarding control agencies, not to simply merge them, because sometimes, when you merge, it becomes only worse," he said.