Russia's transport policy

A session of the State Council chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place in the Kremlin Wednesday. Russia's transport policy's main trends will be discussed.

At the State Council presidium's session that took place the day before and touched upon the report of the working group "On the Main Trends of Russia's Transport Policy", Vladimir Putin determined the principal issues to be considered by the State Council.

"We'll have to speak on the optimum scale of state property on transport, on ways of interaction with private business, as well as on adequate legal regulation in the industry, including perfection of the anti-monopoly and licensing legislation," Putin noted.

Besides, in his words, "the most important issue we have to consider is elaboration of an optimum pattern to finance transport projects." "The capabilities of the state budget and private capital should be combined here and work in the conditions of an increasing role of private investments in the transport system," the head of state emphasized. He said there existed examples of efficient commercial investments in the transport sphere.

Putin suggested discussing a possibility of integration of all transports into a single mechanism.

"One must not forget about the imperfection of the existing transport technologies," the Russia President believes. "Efficient work in these fields will make it possible not only to accelerate the flow of goods, but also to significantly reduce transport expenditures."

The President also paid heed to the problem of transport security.

"We'll have to analyze the situation in the transport complex thoroughly, and, with due account taken of the present economic realities, to touch upon the priorities of the modern transport policy," Putin stated.

"The talk should be not only about the current departmental issues but also about the principal approaches to the formation of a full-fledged and efficient transport policy," Putin said.

The head of state paid attention to the fact that plans in that sphere "must be directly linked to the strategy of development of productive forces and be carried out with clear understanding of transport's system-forming role in the resolution of important social, defense-related and international tasks of the state."