MOSCOW, December 18 (Itar-Tass) —— In case some of enterprises of the Russian Technologies holdings are wound up or change the line of their businesses, their employees are to be offered new jobs to prevent possible protest, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at a meeting with Russian Technologies CEO Sergei Chemezov.
As many as 663 enterprises were handed over to the corporation, Chemezov noted. “Frankly speaking, we could hardly imagine the scale of adversity we were to face,” he said.
A thorough analysis exposed that about a hundred enterprises were close to bankruptcy, as many as 28 companies had gone bankrupt, and 23 had spotted whatever activities, Chemezov said. So, it was decided to distribute the enterprises by industries. “In all, as of now, seventeen holdings have been established. All enterprises have been distributed among these holdings and now are operating,” he stressed. Nonetheless, he admitted that there still were some problems but the corporation had managed to derive a profit of 45.5 billion roubles in 2011, whereas in 2008 its companies had had debts of 630 billion roubles.
“There are some enterprises we no longer need because we have optimized our structure,” Chemezov said. The optimization demonstrated that some companies were doing the same business, turning out identical products. So, it was decided either to change the line of business of such companies or to sell them.
The president noted that such measures were possible only when they were expedient. “But the main thing is that during such transformations it is necessary to think where and how people will work,” Putin stressed.
In this connection, Chemezov gave an example of Avtovaz, Russia’s biggest car maker. Its staff was halved when the crisis was at its height but in line with a special social program the redundant employees underwent re-training and were given jobs at other companies. “We coped with this social problem, and there were no protests,” Chemzov said.
“Protests should be avoided,” Putin said and called to take timely measures jointly with regional and municipal administrations.