Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref reported on the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that took place in Kazan.
At the President’s request German Gref also cited recent statistics on Russia’s economic development and investment indicators, and talked about the current situation on the financial and consumer markets.
Vladimir Putin drew the cabinet’s attention to the continued strengthening of the rouble — a potentially negative factor for the processing industries. Minister Gref talked about the preventative measures the Central Bank has put in place as part of an effort to mitigate this tendency.
The head of state suggested studying the possibility of investing funds received from sales of Russian energy in Russian blue chip stocks, in light of the stock market’s stagnation during the first quarter of 2007.
Agricultural Minister Aleksei Gordeev reported on how sowing is proceeding in various Russian regions. Minister Gordeev also discussed the situation with respect to deliveries of Polish meat onto the Russian market.
The President asked that this issue be depoliticised. Mr Putin called for the problems to be resolved by professionals and by taking into account the interests of both foreign and domestic agricultural producers.
Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin talked about the meeting between G8 finance ministers that took place last weekend in Potsdam.
At the President’s request, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitrii Medvedev informed the cabinet about the results of the competition between vocational training institutions and technical colleges.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov reported on launching the first unit of the Tyan Van nuclear power plant built according to a contract with Rosatom.
Vladimir Putin recalled the plans to develop nuclear energy within Russia and emphasised that these plans must be implemented.
In connection with the forthcoming itinerant session of the Military-Industrial Commission that will take place in the company Sukhoi, Mr Ivanov also talked about concluding contracts to produce a new passenger aircraft, the Sukhoi Superjet. Vladimir Putin called for additional international cooperation in building this aircraft.