ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 17 (RIA Novosti, Sophya Brykanova) - Chechnya has the resources to rebuild its war-ravaged economy on its own, the president of the troubled North Caucasus region said in an interview Wednesday.
"At the moment, the region has created enough human, material and technical resources to deal with huge reconstruction work in the economic and social spheres," Alu Alkhanov told RIA Novosti.
But he said funds allocated by the Russian government under a program to rebuild the Chechen economy and social sphere were not enough, and added that transactions under the program had not always gone to schedule.
Alkhanov said local enterprises, including construction firms, had gained experience in the past three years during implementation of a federal target program that runs out in 2006. He added that a new program for 2007-2010 was being drafted based on the region's new resources, and that the region wanted to avoid bringing in numerous outside contractors when implementing the new program.
"We have asked [federal] authorities and the federal center to transfer building, ownership, and developer functions to the Chechen government," he said.
