Prime Minister: Russia must cut economy's power intensity by two times by 2020

The primary objective of the Russian government is to cut the economy's power intensity by two times by 2020, said Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov at a session of the Cabinet of Ministers on Thursday.

Kasyanov said that 'the existing prognoses have changed or become unrealistic with the active development of the fuel and energy complex over the past three years.' He said that the rate of growth in the fuel and energy sector of the economy has been greater than 10% in several years, and the volume of production of the fuel and energy complex has been greater than was planned in 1999.

Kasyanov said that Russia is not planning to refuse exports of fuel and energy resources, because consumers in other countries are counting on them. He said that in any economy precisely energy is the resource which provides for the production of trade goods and the possibility of developing processing sectors of industry. 'The accelerated development of the economy is connected with the development of processing sectors, primarily on the consumption of accessible energy resources,' he said. Precisely with these goals in mind the government began a series of reforms in the fuel and energy complex to modernize and create new power and also to change the role of the government as the primary investor to other, private investors. ' It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of government participation in this sphere where needed,' said Kasyanov.