Russia's dependence on imports to fall to 39% by 2020 from 51% - Manturov
MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Russia's dependence on imports will fall to 39% from 51% by 2020, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said at a Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE) meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
"We were given a task and we worked it out. Not too long ago we submitted a complex plan to the government for phasing out of imports in a wide range of industries," he said.
Manturov added that the ministry was giving itself the ambitious goal of lowering the share of imports to 39% by 2020 from today's 51%.
"There was a serious dilemma and discussions took place on which scenario to go by in this area - [possibly] put forth the initiative for an additional, rather hefty amount of budgetary allocations for various areas (experts, and we too, estimated this figure at 500 billion rubles or so until 2020). But as it turned out, in this period of time the effect is absolutely unobvious even if huge money is poured into the economy," he said.
In addition, the ministry came to the conclusion that import dependence would fall to 31% under this scenario. It was decided to stop at the fairly conservative variant calling for a decrease in import dependence to 39%, based on the fact that the main points included in the plan are regulatory in nature.
Manturov added that Russia will introduce subsidies for complex investment projects this year.
"We have analyzed 270 applications that we received at the ministry, and it's necessary to note that there was initially some worry as concerns the work of this mechanism. But we came to the conclusion with companies that this mechanism on the one hand actually guarantees responsibility on the part of the enterprise that takes on the commitment of having certain production volumes, and the government accordingly provides adequate aid or subsidies for R&D," he said.
The subsidies the government previously provided were narrowly focused and industry-based, Manturov said, adding that such subsidies would gradually be transformed into complex investment projects. The Industry and Trade Ministry proceeds from the idea that money coming from the government must be used assiduously and all results gained from intellectual activities must be commercialized.
"Unfortunately, in practice we sent money to R&D for many years, getting results from intellectual activities that ended up being simply unneeded," Manturov said.
