UPDATE: Russia to spend 3 bln rbl on machine-tool building in 2016

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KOLOMNA, Moscow Region, Mar 15 (PRIME) -- The Russian government plans to spend up to 2.7 billion rubles to support the machine-tool building industry in 2016, and additional state support is envisaged in the framework of the economic plan, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday at a meeting of the country’s council for economic modernization.

“Last year, budget support for the sector amounted to about 1.5 billion rubles. A significant part of the sum was provided through the industry development fund. This year, 2.7 billion rubles were envisaged for support of the machine-tool building industry,” he said.

He also signed a government ruling to allocate 1.2 billion rubles to the technology development fund for organization of mass production of machine-tools, and a ruling to adjust regulations for provision of subsidies through state industrial corporation Rostec. “The share of co-financing from companies was cut to one-third from two-thirds. I hope this will expand the amount of companies that may receive support in current conditions,” Medvedev said.

According to the ruling, the government will allocate 1.267 billion rubles to the fund, which will help it set seven or nine productions of machine-tool building products in 2016 with a combined amount of investments standing at about 4.5 billion rubles.

Medvedev said that Russia’s machine-tool building market amounted to about 100 billion rubles in 2015, and imports accounted for almost 80% of it, he said. Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that the main growth dynamics in the sector were registered in sales of numerically controlled machine-tools, which increased by 60%.

Medvedev also said that possible demand for domestically produced machine-tools stands at hundreds of billions of rubles.

“The projected demand for production of the machine-tool building is actually estimated at hundreds of billions of rubles. It may be and should be converted into an investment resource for development of the sector. But relations between the customer and the consumer should be built on a long-term basis,” he said.

He added that Russian machine-tools should be also competitive abroad.

The government will not interfere in existing economic relations at the market, but may define requirements for participants of investments projects that receive support from development institutions, Medvedev said.

Some processes in the sector leave room for optimism. “The sector has gone through hard times. These times have not yet passed, but anyway there are ongoing processes that allow us a moderately optimistic mood,” he said.

The machine-tool building is the basis for industry, and competitiveness of Russia’s production capacities is based on it, he added.

(70.1542 rubles – U.S. $1)

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