MOSCOW, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian first deputy prime minister said Friday that a situation in which 96% of Russian cargo is transported by foreign shipping is an outrage.
"Ninety-six percent of Russian cargo is transported by foreign ships, and 90% of new ships whose keels are laid in Russia's interests place orders abroad. That is just an outrage," Sergei Ivanov said at a conference on shipbuilding industry development.
Ivanov said the meeting agenda is focused on the implementation of President Vladimir Putin's instruction to develop shipbuilding - an important, science intensive, high-tech branch of the Russian industry. "In his state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly [Thursday], the president separately mentioned shipbuilding as an important topic forming the image of Russian industry and ensuring transport independence and even security in the field of civil transportation," Ivanov said.
Ivanov demanded that the Cabinet explain to him why the working out of documents launching the United Shipbuilding Corporation was taking so long. The United Shipbuilding Corporation is a government-sponsored project to combine all state financial assets in the shipbuilding sector. It will be 100% state-owned.
Ivanov said three federal targeted programs had been adopted in the space sector, three in the nuclear sector, and one in aircraft building. "Shipbuilding is just lagging behind here, and time is against us. I would like to hear why and which ministries and departments protract the development of government documents aimed at implementing the president's instruction in the sphere of shipbuilding," the first deputy prime minister said.
President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on the establishment of the United Shipbuilding Corporation and a shipbuilding and maintenance technology center in late March. According to the documents, the united corporation will be set up in four months' time and will have three subsidiaries - the Western Shipbuilding Center in St. Petersburg, the Northern Shipbuilding and Maintenance Center in Severodvinsk and the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Maintenance Center in Vladivostok.
Ivanov, who is in charge of the project and already heads the United Aircraft Building Corporation, said in March that Russian docks were overloaded with military orders, with the main problem being "insufficient equipment and capacity for civilian shipbuilding."
