Russia: Prime Minister asks Government to review the Competitiveness Programme

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to renew the country’s current competition development program to the year 2015. “The Government has to elaborate and present the programme review proposals and the law on natural monopoly has to be updated if it is a hindrance to Russia’s development”, Medvedev declared.
Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) head Igor Artemyev said that there was interference between the “Competition Protection” law approved in 2006 and the more specific “Natural Monopoly” law, approved in 1995, which leads to non-competitive solutions in many cases. Medvedev said that this law should not be eliminated, but reviewed and “if the law contradicts with the fundamental rules of the competition law, these contradictions need to be somehow eliminated”.
“The four-year program, approved in 2009, stipulated easier ways for businessmen to enter any market, including lowering costs and improving access to infrastructure”, the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service has said.
“The report is a policy document that includes all competition-related issues and the affordability of goods and services for everybody in Russia, including economic agents and retail consumers. Since this issue was to be considered by the government, we asked experts to review the report and conduct a survey covering eight major issues outlined in this report”, declared Mikhail Abyzov, Minister for Relations with the Government.
Source: www.rzd-partner.com http://government.ru
Photo: http://government.ru