MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Defense Ministry is no longer the main client of the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), USC President Roman Trotsenko said at the 'Russian Maritime Industry - Development Prospects' meeting held on the sidelines of the second Mir international forum in Moscow on Wednesday.
"The position of the Defense Ministry is important to us, but this is not our sole client," he said.
"The trend of the Russian shipbuilding industry's diversification in favor of civilian products continues, and the share of defense products is on the decline," he said.
Exports are mounting in military-technical cooperation. "In fact, this is a favorable situation, because we have stopped being a one-client industry," Trotsenko said.
Back in the 1970s, the national shipbuilding industry was mostly working on defense orders, while civilian shipbuilding projects were an area of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, he said.
At present, 42% of the USC's high-tech products are exported. "Foreign clients line up for some of our products, and we could sell more if we could build more," Trotsenko said.