Leningrad Region Receives National Award for Fiscal Improvements in Economy

The award ceremony of the Golden Rouble competition was held today in the concert hall of the President Hotel in Moscow. Golden Rouble is a nationwide competition rewarding fiscal improvements in the Russian economy. According to Rosbalt's correspondent, 33 awards (bronze statues symbolizing the golden rouble) were handed out by Yevgeny Primakov, the president of the Russian Chamber of Trade and Industry.

Primakov drew participants' attention to the difficult economic conditions which remain in Russia and stressed that for this reason it was necessary to single out leaders who manage to organise fiscal development in their regions. According to Primakov, today 'serious advances in many different spheres are being made in a large number of regions.'

The competition was divided into the following categories: the best Russian region and best Russian town according to statistics for fiscal improvements in 2001, and the best fiscal improvement project by a company. Among the best regions the competition's organising committee highlighted the Leningrad, Perm, Moscow, and Khabarovsk regions. Receiving the prize, Leningrad Region Governor Valery Serdyukov remarked that the region had managed to move from the receiving category to the donor category 'even though it doesn't have a single oil well.' The best towns were Yekaterinburg, Samara, Yaroslavl, Kirishi (Leningrad Region), and Kondopoga) Republic of Karelia. The prize for best company project was not awarded.

The all-Russian fiscal improvement competition began in January 2002. it was founded by the non-profit National Economic Development Corporation partnership, the Russian Union of Manufacturers (RST), and the Regional Programmes international union of public associations. The competition's commission includes Nikolai Ryzhkov, the president of the RST, experts from the Russian government's National Economic Academy, and representatives of government ministries.