MOSCOW: The Russian government supported the plan of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to aid branches of industry in 2016, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the 2016 budget meeting.
TASS reported earlier anti-crisis measures supporting car demand would remain in scope planned at the turn of the last year. Twenty billion rubles ($254.2 mln) will be allocated to this end for the first six months of 2016, Russia’s Minister of Industry Denis Manturov said earlier.
The ministry has undertaken a range of measures aimed to support car sales in conditions of recession and worsened automobile market situation. The ministry is partly compensating costs of production upgrade, support of jobs, etc., to automakers. At the same time, sales are supported through preferential leasing, car loan benefits, scrap and trade-in programs.
The government was also reported to allocate 600 mln rubles ($7.6 mln) to light industry companies producing school uniform. Support of transport machine-building and subsidies for sectors were also discussed.
According to Medvedev, cutting budget spending is necessary but it does not imply proportional reduction of all budget items.
“I should in particular stress that cutting spending is necessary. Unfortunately, there are no perfect solutions that would suit everyone. But in any case it does not imply proportional reduction of all budget items,” Medvedev said.
He added that it is necessary to optimize costs so it would not damage those positive trends that have taken shape in the Russia economy.
According to Medvedev, it concerns first of all such branches of the economy as agriculture, metallurgy, certain segments of the chemical industry, machine-building, railway machinery.
“A certain impetus has been given to all these branches and we should not lose it. It is necessary to take the most active steps in budget planning and other fields in order to maintain these positive shifts and to strengthen them if possible,” – the prime minister said.
Medvedev expressed confidence that even in the current difficult economic conditions, “one can and should finds an adequate set of measures for every industry, measures that will support these growth points and gradually reach the sustainable development of the whole economy.
” This should be done with any dynamics of commodity prices, the head of the government said, “otherwise we will come back to budget cuts constantly,” Medvedev said.
The official said that Russia must not abandon plans to create a more modern structure of its economy and the current complex conditions should contribute to this.
“We should not abandon the goal of a more modern structure of the economy even in these difficult conditions. On the contrary, it is perhaps only now that we have received an opportunity to do it most intensively,” – he said.
