24 July 2003 12:49
Siberia`s farming debts can be resolved in a year, says PM Kasyanov
Novosibirsk, 24 July: [Russian Prime Minister] Mikhail Kasyanov reckons the government "will manage to clear the
situation" connected with the debts of Siberian agricultural producers within the next year. At a meeting today
devoted to turning local agriculture around, the prime minister called upon the region's governors to make more
active use of the debt-restructuring schemes available to them. Kasyanov also made the local authorities responsible for
seeing through the financial recovery of Siberia's agro-industrial complex.
"If state farm managers do not make efforts to resolve debt problems and do not take advantage of the
preferential terms for debt restructuring, that means they do not want the work," said Kasyanov. "Such
managers must be removed."
In connection with this, the prime minister called upon local authorities to "consolidate the successes" of
agricultural enterprises in Siberia, citing as an example of intelligent management the work of the Irmen pedigree farm
(producing milk, meat and grain). Stating that about 30 per cent of Siberian enterprises were successful like this,
Kasyanov noted the progressive reduction in profitability of agricultural enterprises. He sees a specific cause of this
in the disproportionate rise in tariffs for the services of the natural monopolies.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
