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RF govt to cut unjustified presence of state in economy

The government will be reducing the unjustified presence of the state in the economy

MOSCOW, April 29 (Itar-Tass) - The government will be reducing the unjustified presence of the state in the economy, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the board of the Ministry of Economic Development.

Medvedev explained that if an enterprise manufactures products in the competitive sector of the economy, the presence of the state in its management is inexpedient and quite often harmful, as it is a check on the development of such industries. “Therefore, we must continue reducing the unjustified presence of the state in the economy and the excessive amount of state property, the more so as this coincides with our task to supplement the state budget with revenues from privatization. This must be done sensibly, depending on the market situation,” Medvedev said. He said endless refusals to privatize some or other facilities under the pretext of a bad situation won’t do.

“The situation is never good. It will always be said that there will be quite different conditions in a year or two and something can be sold, but then we cannot be able to privatize anything,” the premier noted. He called attention of the Ministry of Economic Development and of the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo) to the need to act taking into account the economic situation and all the factors, including the task of replenishing the treasury with revenues from privatization.

The premier said these are whole industries in Russia, such as metallurgy, in which the state does not own enterprisers or joint stock companies. Still, the state sector is quite large, Medvedev said.