MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax-AVN) - It is impossible to enforce the national economic security without restoring the national machine tool industry, Vyacheslav Shport, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for Industry, Construction, and Knowledge Intensive Technologies, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
He said that the State Duma had conducted a meeting of the expert council on re-equipping industry branches in the interests of the national economic security.
"The meeting emphasized the necessity of developing the national machine tool industry as the basis of the national industry," Shport said.
According to him, at the present time most industrial enterprises have started operating and developing, but are not capable to meet international standards due to their obsolete equipment. For instance, the average wear and tear of production facilities in Russia amount to 42%, while at certain enterprises this index totals up to 70%.
Meanwhile in 2003 the output of the machine tool industry, which accounted for almost 20% of the overall industrial output, exceeded 1.4 trillion Russian rubles ($356.8 billion). At the same time almost a third of machine tools were manufactured by defense industry enterprises.
"Unfortunately, certain people propose that machine tools and equipment be procured from abroad. Following this piece of advice, we might as well import cars, aircraft, submarines, etc. However, it will result in undermining Russia's national security, and increasing the raw-materials exports trend in the national economy. We cannot let this happen," he said.
According to the expert council, the national machine tool industry is gradually securing its former positions. It now manufactures state-of-the-art machine tools, with some of them being exported.
According to Shport, the expert council suggested that the State Duma hold parliamentary hearings on major development trends of the national industry, and the necessity of an efficient governmental re-equipment policy.