President Vladimir Putin said in his recent state of the nation address that corruption remained a major bar in the way of Russia's economic prosperity, and that the government must fight all attempts by state bodies and business to profit personally at the expense of the common good.
Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said that the government would continue a policy aimed at reducing the number of the state's regulatory functions.
"Our goal is to create formalized procedures for bureaucrats that would not allow them to make arbitrary decisions," he told a government session.
He said a number of draft laws on taxes would soon be adopted that would stimulate investment in manufacturing sectors, scientific research, and the development of new raw-materials deposits.
"Our task is to make legislation more transparent, with laws that are directly effective and do not need explanation on the part of the tax authorities," he said.
Zhukov also said a new law on competition would give the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service more authority and would introduce heavier fines for violations of anti-monopoly legislation.
Zhukov said economic development was directly related to investment growth and the improvement of investment climate in the country, but that the current volume of foreign investment in the Russian economy was "extremely low."
"We will continue our course to make the Russian economy more transparent and more liberal, in order to attract maximum foreign investment, primarily in sectors with high concentration of manufacturing," he said. "A foreign investor could make profits two or three times higher [in Russia] than those from similar investments in Europe."
