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Putin, Cabinet of Ministers to discuss measures to prop up certain economic sectors

According to the press service, the meeting will focus on support for "certain economic sectors, such as transport engineering, housing construction, as well as the car and light industries"

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets on Wednesday with the government ministers to look into support for certain sectors of the Russian industry during the crisis, the Kremlin press service reports.

According to the press service, the meeting will focus on support for "certain economic sectors, such as transport engineering, housing construction, as well as the car and light industries". In his state of the nation address in December 2015, President Vladimir Putin said several economic sectors - construction, car manufacturing, light industry and railway machinery had found themselves in the zone of risk.

At the present moment, the government is finalizing an updated anti-crisis plan that takes into consideration the declining oil prices. On Monday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the document must be ready before February 1.

He said the document should "fix the positive changes achieved in the economy last year, continue the financing of priority sectors that in the future will become the basis for an economic growth, concentrate state resources in those sectors that have high potentials both from the perspective of influence on the economy on the whole, and import substitution". The prime minister mentioned car manufacturing and agricultural engineering among such sectors.

The preliminary amount to support Russia’s priority economic sectors is estimated at 100 bln rubles ($1.3 bln) in 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Tuesday.

"We already spoke about industries to be in focus of the government support this year in addition to what we have already done. These are automobile industry, transport machine-building, light industry and construction. The government estimates the total amount as 100 bln rubles ($1.3 bln) so far," Dvorkovich said.

Identified branches are not the final list of the government support program, the official said. In particular, the agribusiness traditionally enjoys the government support, he added.

"The focus on four sectors I mentioned does not mean we give up support of agriculture; we will maintain it in full required scope. If funds are needed, additional resources may be allocated from the anti-crisis fund as decided by the government," the Deputy Prime Minister said.