GREF: GOVERNMENT UNDER PRESSURE FROM NATURAL MONOPOLIES .......................
MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA Novosti) - This year is a crucial year for realization of the mid-term program, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Tuesday.
"If we don't lay the foundation for reforms this year and don't adopt key draft laws, I'm afraid that we won't be able to implement the mid-term program," he said.
Speeches at the ministerial collegium by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin have demonstrated that the government has a "unanimous vision of strategic goals and tasks," Gref noted.
"The managerial elites have a high level of consensus," he said.
Gref, Kudrin and Fradkov drew attention to the need of maintaining the competitiveness of domestic producers on the internal and external markets, developing small- and medium-sized business and state investments in the promotion of the infrastructure. Among the key headaches they cited are the slowing of economic growth, the poor quality of the state administration, the non-uniform development of regions and Russia's insufficient integration into the world economy.
Gref believes that the cut-off price of oil should be based on the principles of preservation of macroeconomic stability, inflation parameters and internal financial stability. He also added that resources from the Stabilization Fund (currently exceeding $25.2 billion and forecasted to reach $35.9 billion) should partly be channeled into infrastructure projects.
Gref also noted that now the "supreme goal" is to keep 2005 inflation within 8.5 percent, although his ministry has altered the estimated inflation ceiling to 8.5-10 percent.
Commenting on Russian economic-growth forecasts for this year, Gref noted that the figures would be more modest than last year's. He believes that, above all, structural economic changes and the depletion of the scope potential in extractive industries, particularly the production of oil, are the prime cause.
Gref admitted that natural monopolies are pressuring on the government. Gref cited the "publishing in the press of clearly unacceptable and undiscussed initiatives" as an example.
Gref said that natural monopolies are growing in number, but essentially remaining the same and spreading their inefficiency to other economic sectors.
"Instead of increasing their internal efficiency, they are investing outside," Gref said. "Against this background, proposals to weaken the state regulation of prices in the monopoly sector are sounding.
"Natural monopolies are also opposed to the government in the political sphere," he said, emphasizing that the government should not modify its policy on the curtailment of non-market economic sectors. |
