MOSCOW. June 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Cabinet has no intention of pushing aircraft building companies into merging into a national corporation, Science, Industry and Technologies Minister Ilya Klebanov said on Monday.
"There is a plan to form such a company through the merger of holdings, but a decision will not be made earlier than 2006," he said.
"This process cannot be accelerated physically," Klebanov said. The Cabinet adopted a program in 2001 for reforming the defense industry complex and to have the aircraft building industry reformed in 2003 to 2006, he said. Before 2004 seven aircraft building holdings are to be set up that will later form two large corporations, Klebanov said. One will include MIG, Tupolev and Kamov and the other, the Ilyushin, Sukhoi and Mil companies, he said.
Once the two corporations are set up a decision will be made on whether to set up a national company, Klebanov said.