06 November 2003 08:38
LIGHT INDUSTRY ACCOUNTS FOR 70% OF ALL FAKE GOODS IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW. Nov 4 (Interfax) - Light industry and textiles account for 70% of all counterfeit goods produced in
Russia.
Vladimir Fridlyanov, a deputy industry and science minister, said in Ulyanovsk that Russian light industry exports
currently totaled $800 million annually and light industry imports $3.5 billion. Gray sales were three to five times
higher than official sales, he said.
Light industry in Russia was suffering because its goods are not
competitive and its factories are obsolete, Fridlyanov said. The
Fridlyanov, speaking at a joint session of the Russian Chamber of Commerce's Committee for Entrepreneurship, the
Textiles Industry and Light Industry and the Light Industry and Textiles Industry Committee of the Association for
Economic Interaction between Volga Region Republics and Regions (Bolshaya Volga), said locally-produced goods account
for just 25% of the Russian market, but the government would like to see that figure increase to 50%.
government has tried to help by lowering import duty on equipment that Russia does not produce to 5% and by reducing
import duty on leather.
Fridlyanov said the industry had about 16,000 enterprises, 2,800 of them large and medium, and a total of 870,000
employees.
Meeting delegates decided to lobby the government to pass a special resolution and take other measures to normalize
the situation in the industry, and regional governments to come up with measures to suppress the counterfeiting of goods
and to use set aside budgeted money to buy Russian-made light and textile industry goods.
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