Russian government intends to ease state's pressure on economy

In the next few years, the government of Russia intends to ease the state's pressure on the country's economy. As the new variant of the medium-term programme for the development of the country in 2003-2005, which can be found on the official site of the Russian government, says, "in the medium-term perspective it will be necessary to intensify the solution of the urgent problem of lowering down the state's pressure on the economy." "The state carries out a redundant regulation of the economy, it is a big owner, a share-holder of many commercial enterprises and the owner of state unitary enterprises, whose activity is directly connected with performing state functions," says the document.

The authors of the programme believe that these factors exert a strong pressure on the economy, undermine the principles of market competition and negatively affect the investment and entrepreneurial climate.

In connection with this the government intends to adopt a three-year programme for privatising state enterprises with the enumeration of the facilities to be privatised for the first year and with a forecast of privatisation for the next two years. It is also planned to transform state institutions "into other forms of non-commercial ones, and also to transform commercial organisations with the aim of optimising their activities." As the main trend the document names the cutting down of administrative interference into the activity of transactor units and the giving up of state support for non-competitive enterprises.

The government also plans to bring more actively state property into the economic turnover with the aim of raising incomes from its use.