German Gref was responding to a journalist's question about whether Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's proposal that the ministry be reorganized as two separate agencies is still on the agenda.
"I am against the division of any ministries. I believe that there should be only a few ministries, and that they should be robust, with their heads bearing full responsibility for the areas entrusted to them," Gref said.
He said that when the government structure was discussed, the prime minister spoke for preserving the Economic Development and Trade Ministry in its present form.
Gref said that when there were two separate ministries - of trade and economic relations - they were not viable.
"I remember those minuscule ministries. They were doing something, but not even other Cabinet members knew what they were doing," he said, adding that rumors of the ministry's reorganization were just that - rumors.
