Preparations must begin for land privatization - Medvedev
GORKI. July 24 (Interfax) - Preparations must be made to privatize land, as a large part of the country's land is not being used, said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"I think we must prepare ourselves for privatization, including the privatization of land plots," he told the heads of the business initiative working groups.
"We have been saying for many years that land is our greatest asset, that we cannot sell it off and that it is the wealth of the future generations. Well, what benefits this has brought us?" he said.
"We just see our lands degrading from disuse, and real opportunities to build housing and infrastructure, and to solve pressing problems facing citizens, fading away," the prime minister said.
Implementing construction projects is a hard undertaking in Russia now, even though a huge amount of land, fit for construction, is not being used, including land owned by ministries and departments, he said.
"I toured the Moscow region yesterday. Even in the Moscow region, which is actively involved in commercial turnover and where land is the most highly valued in the national land stock, there is significant unused land owned by our public organizations, including the Defense Ministry and other structures," Medvedev said.
Experts are insisting on massive land privatization, while individual government agencies argue that privatization is only possible following a cadastre re-evaluation of the cost of land plots and after territorial planning documents have been confirmed.
"Both positions make sense," Medvedev said, adding that preparations must begin for privatization after all.
"We will have to decide finally," he said.