Vladimir Putin Visits UdmurtiaOn March 21, 2011 during his working trip to the Udmurt Republic the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin visited the FGUP “Votkinsky Zavod” in the town of Votkinsk where he chaired a meeting titled “On the Preparedness of Industrial Organizations for the Fulfillment of Orders under the Government Arms Program for 2011–2000.”
Vladimir Putin visited a number of the Votrkinsky Zavod factory shops engaged in the production of Topol-M and Bulava ICBMs and Iskander missile airframes. Answering a factory workers’ question regarding their enterprise’s prospects, Vladimir Putin said: “"This is why we have come here today. Your plant is one of the leading enterprises in Russia's defense industry. Even during the crisis you didn't have a decrease in any of your performance figures. And today we will discuss the plant's development program. I believe that about 1.5 billion rubles will be invested in it in the next three years and between 7.9 and 8 billion will be set aside later on. Considering the whole of the business process, the total amount will be even greater. I'm now referring to cooperation [between various enterprises]. We also need this cooperation to ensure the plant's uninterrupted operation. Everyone knows – and especially you – that the Votkinsk plant is one of the key enterprises in Russia's defense industry. And it will receive a large order under the new state armaments programm." In his opening speech at the meeting titled “On the Preparedness of Industrial Organizations for the Fulfillment of Orders under the Government Arms Program for 2011–2000” Vladimir Putin said: “Good afternoon. Today we will review current trends in the defense industry and our plans for its modernization. We will also look at how well the Russian manufacturing industries and scientific centers are prepared for large-scale work through the state arms program. I’d like to remind you that we plan to allocate over 20 trillion rubles for this current program through 2020, which is three times more than we allocated towards the previous one. These are very substantial funds, and as you can understand, they will have to come at the expense of other areas. But I believe that we are justified in investing in the defense industry inasmuch as it is by nature a high-tech industry. Thus, I expect that this investment will pay off for civil industries as well. This is especially important given what is recently happening in the world. I just answered the question of a worker here in Votkinsk, and I had to admit that making decisions on the use of force has become too simple, which has been confirmed by recent developments in Libya. This is a timely indicator that our efforts to strengthen the defense industry are justified.
Our goal is to execute a comprehensive modernization of the armed forces. Rather than just equipping select group of individuals, we need to build a truly efficient and integrated military – in the army, in the navy, and in the air force. We will overhaul air defense. All units will receive new S-400 Triumf (SAM) systems and Pantsir-S1 complexes. The navy will be provided with the largest amount of funds in Russian history to modernize its fleet and set up production. We will discuss this issue today. The army will receive new strategic and tactical missile systems, including the Yars, Bulava, and Iskander-M. In 2013, missile production is expected to increase twofold. Naturally, our plans for strategic offensive arms and missile defense systems should be based on our current international agreements and contracts, including START, in which we see a guarantee of peace and stability in the world over the long term. I’d like to note that these agreements can in no way impede our plans for the modernization of offensive arms or make them less effective. There is a plan to increase the percentage of [active] modern equipment to 70% by 2020. To this end, we will purchase over 1,300 pieces of machinery and equipment through the state program, providing the army with not just modern but cutting-edge equipment. To produce 220 units of the machinery I just mentioned, we will need to either build new facilities or expand operations at the current ones and strengthen cooperation between defense manufacturers and civil industries. In order to overhaul the armed forces, we need to modernize the defense industry; introduce new technology; attract efficient managers, engineers, and workers; and create strong production facilities that can manufacture quality machinery and equipment on the contract schedule and at a fair and economically justified price. We believe that the profitability of such companies should be no lower than 15%. It is absolutely necessary that they keep to this target. The government agencies that place orders with these companies must also fulfill their obligations to the letter – conclude their contracts, transfer funds, and make down payments in a timely manner. Last year, we made a thorough review of the industry in order to assess the real capability of each sector and to see whether companies can manufacture advanced machinery and equipment and, most importantly, handle massive serial orders. Clearly, the defense industry needs more investment in order to develop, which is why, along with the state arms program, we drafted a federal targeted program for defense modernization, the program, which has will also run through 2020. In certain sectors, this program should even outpace the arms program in order to prepare the industry for the production of modern arms. The defense industry has great potential. In 2010, military production grew by 13%. Many enterprises are currently developing promising solutions and manufacturing equipment that is rightly in high demand on the global arms market. Such enterprises employ experienced, high-level specialists and are attracting increasingly more young people. We just met with many young workers here at the Votkinsk plant. The director said that the average age of employees is 40 years old. It’s great that more and more young people are choosing a career in this company. Every year, universities and colleges produce over 19,000 specialists in the industry, and in 2010, their wages rose by 16.3%. As I just mentioned, we visited the Votkinsk plant, Russia’s major manufacturer of missile complexes. This enterprise has gained vast experience in research and development. At the same time, we have to admit that a large percentage of its equipment has become obsolete. The government will provide a total of 1.7 billion rubles to the plant through state contracts up to 2013. These funds will be used to modernize its facilities. Workers have just raised this issue with me, and I reassured them that we will provide the aforementioned allocations over three years, as I here reiterate. Overall, this sector and related industries will receive 15 billion rubles over three years. After that, funding will gradually increase each year, as stipulated by the federal program for the defense industry through 2020. I can cite figures. A total of 77 billion rubles will be allocated for mass production of missile systems, of which the Votkinsk plant will receive 9.6 billion. So, in response to the workers’ questions, I can repeat that the plant will be busy with orders. We will modernize all primary sectors of the defense industry, focusing on the development and production of missiles, military aircraft, communications, control and reconnaissance systems, ammunition, and shipbuilding. It is critically important to begin funding construction projects, purchasing equipment, and developing engineering documentation. We discussed these issues at a recent government meeting, at which the following was suggested: in order to expedite the launch of modernization projects, we should start to fund them before the development program for the defense industry is adopted. I would like the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Federal Space Agency to tell us today how such a format would work, including for the missile industry. I've already mentioned the profitability of these enterprises. I said that, according to current opinion and my own convictions, not to mention the consolidated opinion of all federal bodies, we need to begin [operations] with a profitability of no less than 15%. But, of course, we are here referring to the production of goods without adjustments due to serial orders on said equipment. Let’s get down to work.”
After the meeting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin met with President of the Udmurt Republic Alexander Volkov. At the meeting, Mr Putin and Mr Volkov focused on the situation at IzhAvto auto plant, which, according to Volkov, plans to manufacture up to 300,000 cars by 2015. The officials also discussed the implementation of social programs, particularly the work of the local perinatal center. In the evening of March 21 Vladimir Putin returned to Moscow. |
Vladimir Putin was met at the Izhevsk airport by Alexander Volkov, President of the Udmurt Republic, Grigory Rapota, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District.
I’d like to emphasize that we will increase not only allocations for the defense industry but also strengthen the requirements on the quality, capability, and specifications of arms. We need truly advanced machinery and equipment. It would be silly to spend money on churning out obsolete equipment. This is why a significant share of the funds to be allocated through the state program will be used to develop genuinely promising solutions and to create a strong technological basis for our military potential.
Meeting participants: Alexander Volkov, President of the Udmurt Republic; Sergey Ivanov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation; Anatoly Serdyukov, Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation; Grigory Rapota, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District; Anatoly Perminov, Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency; Andrey Klepach, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; Alexander Novak, Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation; Alexey Aleshin, First Deputy Director General of the Russian Technologies State Corporation; Victor Tolmachev, Director General of the FGUP “Votkinsky Zavod”.