MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Disaccord between the federal center and regions creates the most serious problems in restructuring of Russian defense industry enterprises, a lawmaker said on Monday.
"Restructuring of defense industry enterprises should not affect the taxable income of enterprises or cause damage to local budgets," Vyacheslav Shport, deputy chairman of the industry, construction and knowledge-intensive technologies committee in the State Duma lower house of parliament, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
According to him, 31 defense industry enterprises are on the list of federal state-owned unitary enterprises to be transformed into open joint-stock companies this year. The list has been approved by a Russian government resolution.
Among the enterprises subject for restructuring are such industry giants as the Kupol electromechanical plant in the Udmurtian autonomous republic, Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO) in the Khabarovsk territory, Novosibirsk Aircraft Production Association (NAPO), Navigator plant in St. Petersburg, Soyuz design bureau in Kazan, Strela R&D Institute in Tula, Avtomatika plant in Omsk, Turbina special design bureau in Chelyabinsk and Tomsk radio-technical plant. The state will retain 100 percent of shares in those enterprises.
The goal of the transformation is to restructure the country's defense industry and establish large integrated industrial entities "operating a single cycle of development, tests and mass production of military-purpose products," Shport said.
The lawmaker noted that KnAAPO and NAPO would form part of the Sukhoi military aircraft consortium. "Restructuring should bring about as many benefits as possible both for the nation in general and for each of the defense industry enterprises undergoing it," he said.