Mishustin highlights importance of Russian aircraft industry's technological independence from imported parts

VORONEZH. Jan 20 (Interfax) - Russia must be genuinely independent from imported components as regards the civil aircraft industry, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said.

"It is important to ensure total technological independence from using imported products, starting from foreign materials, component parts, which have no domestic analogues as of yet," Mishustin said.

This will reduce potential risks for the development of the commercial aircraft industry, he said.

This will also exclude delays in the marketing of a new generation of airliners and prevent lapses in production because of unfair competition from some foreign companies in the future, "as was the case several years ago, when they introduced trade restrictions on deliveries of composite materials for the wing of the advanced medium-haul aircraft MC-21," the Russian premier said.

Mishustin asked meeting participants to pay special attention to import substitution.

"I know, this work is difficult and costly. We need combined efforts from industrial enterprises. State support is indispensable. And we certainly need to discuss what has to be done in order to reduce the cost of import substitution and to improve the reliability [of component parts]," Mishustin said.