On the creation of a united aircraft manufacturing corporation
President Vladimir Putin: (Addressing Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko). Viktor Borisovich, what is the situation with work to create a unified aircraft manufacturing corporation?
Viktor Khristenko: The issue of the decree has brought a lot of clarity to the situation in the Russian aircraft manufacturing industry and has enabled us to activate all aspects of our work in this area.
We now have a coordinated general action plan for the corporation’s formation and development that has received your approval. This plan will take us through to the period 2006–2007 and sets out the different phases of the corporation’s development.
As the situation stands today, following the issue of the decree, all the ministers have approved a development strategy for the aircraft manufacturing industry through to 2015, and this strategy has been submitted to the government. In accordance with this revised strategy we have clarified the federal targeted programmes for the development of civil aviation and of the country’s national technological base. We have also prepared a package of normative documents at government level on the decree’s implementation as well as draft amendments to Russian Federation legislation concerning the aircraft manufacturing industry. Although the organisational changes to be made over the coming years are on a large scale indeed, special work and supervision timetables have been drawn up for all the priority projects, including the creation of the Russian regional plane and the fifth generation fighter plane. These projects are not just pegged clearly to the organisational work of all the participants involved but are supported by the state through a three-year financial plan that provides for the necessary investment.
Overall, under the plans for the aircraft manufacturing industry and the united corporation, investment from all sources in the corporation should be around $20 billion by 2015. We expect that over this ten-year period, the corporation will increase business in this sector from the $2 billion-$2.5 billion it brings in today to $7 billion-$8 billion in 2015. The goal is to enter international markets – to establish our place on the global market in new areas and in our traditional areas of work. We expect to see a 7-fold increase in the civil aviation aircraft manufacturing sector. We are aiming for a target of 15–20 percent of the market in our segments in the civil aviation and transport aircraft manufacturing sector. Overall, the package of documents that has been prepared give us reason to believe that the crisis period the aircraft manufacturing industry has gone through can be overcome. We know how to do this and we have the organisational and financial resources we need to be able to do this.
<…>
Vladimir Putin: Regarding the activities of certain segments of the future corporation, certain companies that remain independent today until the corporation’s establishment is completed, Sergei Borisovich [Defence Minister Ivanov] and I were discussing the day before yesterday how some of our colleagues are worried that companies could lose their licence to carry out foreign economic activity and could find themselves without the instruments they need for fulfilling their current obligations while the corporation is still in the process of formation? Is this the case?
Viktor Khristenko: We have addressed this aspect of the question. In this case, there is no risk at present until the ownership of the shares in these companies is transferred. But the risk exists at the time ownership of the shares is transferred. We have therefore acted in accordance with one of the provisions of the decree and have drafted an amendment to the law that will remove this risk completely.
Vladimir Putin: This is something that needs to be addressed in advance. This question was raised, and justifiably so, at the Security Council meeting yesterday. All these questions need to be settled in advance.
Sergei Ivanov: We have to ensure that the changes taking place do not put old licences and old contracts at risk of being reviewed with the danger that they might not be able to be fulfilled.
Vladimir Putin: The G8 energy ministers are due to hold a meeting in Moscow. When is this to take place?
Viktor Khristenko: This entire week will be devoted to energy matters. The international conference on global energy security begins work on Monday. It is being attended by representatives of many different countries and companies, around 400 participants in all, and will be the run-up event to the G8 energy ministers’ meeting that will begin on Wednesday evening and continue on Thursday. As well as the G8 energy ministers, the energy ministers of China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa will also take part in the meeting, as well the directors of the International Energy Agency, the International Energy Forum, the World Bank and the IAEA – in other words, all the key international organisations and key countries that to a great extent today define the outlook, risks and opportunities involved in developing solutions to global energy security issues.
Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref on preparations for the St Petersburg Economic Forum
Your instruction on the organisation of this year’s St Petersburg Economic Forum has been issued and we will, as usual, work together with the Federation Council to organise the forum. This year, however, given that the G8 summit is taking place in Russia, we have already prepared the agenda, trying to make it as interesting as possible for the participants and also anticipating the discussions that will take place within the G8, and this means that the Petersburg Economic Forum will be completely different in format this year.
We travelled to St Petersburg and inspected the new pavilion that has been built there. Three exhibitions are to be organised this year: an exhibition of high-technology goods produced by Russia and the other participant countries, an energy exhibition and our own Russian forum. We want to get a new tradition started this year and organise an exhibition of investment projects for direct investors. A major exhibition of this kind currently takes place in Cannes every March and we want to create something similar for the Russian Federation in June. We want this to become an annual tradition that will be part of the St Petersburg Economic Forum.
We are currently engaged in talks with the Mariinsky Theatre in order to combine the forum and the White Nights Festival. This would be the thing that sets our forum apart: just as Davos has skiing, Russia has culture, great culture, and this could be a big added draw for investors and forum participants to visit St Petersburg at this time and take part in the forum.