MOSCOW, March 13 (AVN) - A round table discussion of corporate management and experience of Russia's leading hi-tech companies was held in Moscow on Tuesday under the auspices of the High Technologies of the Defence Industry forum.
The discussion was initiated by the Economic Strategies Institute. It involved representatives of the federal and Moscow city governments, heads of large industrial enterprises, financial bodies and consulting companies.
The Russian defence industry undergoes a new stage of restructuring, Boris Kuzyk, director general of the New Programmes and Concepts holding company, said in his remarks during the discussion. The industry's 1,600 design bureaux, R&D institutes and plants are in a very difficult situation. Depreciation of their basic production assets makes 80 percent and the production value has fallen eight to 10 times in the past few years.
Kuzyk said the first attempt at restructuring was not very successful and reform would not always go as planned. "However we have reached the level of true integration," he stressed.
The director briefed participants of the discussion on his company's experience. New Programmes and Concepts has been operating on the market for three years thanks to its team that "knows the market well and can organise the business."
He also spoke on the plans of the enterprises that form part of the holding company. For instance, the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg is successfully building nine bulk carriers. "The construction programme is implemented for Russian money, on Russian enterprises and under the Russian flag," Kuzyk stressed.
Progress of the restructuring will be tough without a true statesmanlike approach to the matter, the director said. Corporate management, as opposed to state management, is one of the most progressive forms of property control, he noted.
Alexander Rybas, aide to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, said the government was about to make decisions concerning the defence industry restructuring. He told the participants that the government would consider the draft programme of defence industry reform on April 5.
Nikolai Yevtikhiyev, first deputy chairman of the committee for Moscow-based defence industry enterprises reform, said many people considered establishment of integrated structures a simple unification. However ten poor people will not make a rich one if they unite. The country has had no theory or practice of defence industry reform and the process is mostly spontaneous.
It is necessary to work out a strict state policy in the sphere of defence industry restructuring, Yevtikhiyev stressed.