Textile industry production expected to grow in 2003
According to 'The Forecast of Economic and Social Development of theRussian Federation in 2003 and Main Parameters throughout 2005' prepared bythe Economy Ministry for today's government meeting, the textile industryproduction will gain from 3 to 5 percent in 2003. According to preliminaryestimations, the growth in its production volume will be from 12 percent to19 percent in 2005 compared to 2001. At the same time the production ofcotton fabric will be 2.27m to 2.42m square meters (109 to 116 percentcompared to 2001), knitted goods 133m to 138m pieces (112 to 116 percent),footwear 35m to 35.5m pairs (109 to 110 percent).The growth in textile production depends on the level of cotton, flax, wooland rawstock supplies, the Ministry points out in its report. A furtherdecrease in wool import taxes and a growth in rawstock export taxes willpromote the solution of the problem of raw material supplies.The Ministry forecasts the growth in exports of main products of thetextile industry, including wool, cotton, flax, knitted goods and foot wearthroughout 2005. The main factors that hinder the development of thisindustry's production are technological underdevelopment of the majority ofenterprises, high level of illegal poor quality textile imports andunsettled problems concerning textile enterprises' debts to the state. .
