Privatisation of land is on the agenda

Privatisation of land will increase the capitalisation of the Russian economy. This opinion was expressed on Tuesday by First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation Andrei Sharonov at the conference on the problems of land use in Russia.

"There must be a single property complex which will increase the capitalisation of Russia as a whole," said Sharonov. He underscored the necessity of the earliest privatisation of land under industrial enterprises.

"The land and other real estate are a strong economic resource which is used very inefficiently, and the economic potential of which is underestimated," underscored the First Deputy Minister. According to him, at the present time the state owns 92 percent of the lands which are not used efficiently.

The state also owns the lands under privatised enterprises. Therefore their property complex is underestimated, explained Andrei Sharonov. He underscored the necessity of making amendments, before the end of the year, to the Land Code and the Law on Privatisation in order to put off the date of the cessation of the right to permanently use the lands under privatised enterprises.

Under the existing legislation, the enterprises must either buy the land or to take it on a long-term lease beginning with January 1, 2004. In the opinion of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, this norm must be put off till January 1, 2006.