18 Dec 2009 16:26

Russian shipbuilding industry growing despite crisis

ST. PETERSBURG. Dec 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Despite the ongoing crisis, the Russian shipbuilding industry is seeing in the new year with reasonable growth figures, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"Against the background of a crisis in many industries, the domestic shipbuilding industry is finishing the year with quite decent production growth. It amounted to 74% between January and September," Putin said at a conference in St. Petersburg on Friday.

Nevertheless, a number of enterprises "are experiencing serious difficulties," Putin said.

"Surely, there is a need to specifically focus on them," he said.