Russia will provide credits to India and China for purchasing its machinery and equipment as part of a stimulus package to back the domestic industry
MOSCOW: Russia will provide credits to India and China for purchasing its machinery and equipment as part of a stimulus package to back the domestic industry amid the global financial crisis, Premier Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
"We are ... allocating credits to China and India for purchasing the Russian equipment. By doing this (we are) ensuring jobs and income for our enterprises and domestic manufacturers," Putin said, addressing the 10th Congress of the ruling United Russia party.
He, however, did not elaborate the amount and the projects for which the credits will be offered to India.
It may be possible that Moscow could provide credit for the construction of four more nuclear reactors, including two new third generation units of 1200 MWTe at Kudankulam nuclear power plant. An agreement to this effect is to be signed next month during President Dmitry Medvedev's New Delhi visit.
"We are behaving with responsibility with our partners, taking direct part in the international anti-crisis efforts as well as supporting our allies on the bilateral basis," Putin said, also announcing transfer of up to USD 1 billion to IMF.
The Russian Prime Minister described the situation as serious, saying that "what started as financial crisis has now transformed into global economic crisis."
He proposed a set of measures, including tax cuts and other incentives, to focus on the development of "real sector of economy."
"We will do everything that depends on us so that the problems of past years, the collapses of past years, will not be repeated in our country," Putin said, referring to the financial collapse in Russia in 1991 after disintegration of Soviet Union and that of 1998 when Moscow defaulted on debt.
He said that Russian assistance not only contributes to efforts in coping with the global crisis and development of integration process in the world, but it also provides the ex- Communist nation an opportunity to diversify its investments and preserve reserves, because the credits will be returned within a specific time-frame according to agreed procedures.
Putin also pledged to use "all means" to avoid drastic changes in the external value of the Russian currency, rouble.
Noting that Russia has built up "significant financial reserves", he said in his address broadcast live on state television that "they give us a wide margin of manoeuvre, allowing us to preserve macroeconomic stability and not to allow a spike in inflation or a sharp change in the rouble exchange rate."
"Cheap money doping and mortgage troubles in the United States have caused a real chain reaction, paralysed the global financial system and brought global distrust to the market," Putin said.
However, he admitted that "low diversification of the national economy and its low efficiency" has made Russia vulnerable.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}