Government is Drafting Economic Diversification Programme

Vice-premier and finance minister of the Russian government Aleksei Kudrin reported to journalists that at the end of February the Russian government would consider the mid-term program of social and economic development of the country.

The vice-premier stated that "diversification of the economy", determination of ways of development of processing industries, hi-tech technologies and reduction of the dependence of the Russian economy on fuel and energy complex would become the major thesis of the programme.

According to Kudrin, at present it is extremely important to estimate possible return of the fuel and energy complex to be able to expediently reduce the tax burden in other sectors of the economy. He stated that today "other sectors should benefit from the performance of the raw material industries."