Rustam Minnikhanov takes part in a joint meeting of the Secretary of the Security Council of Russiaand Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District in Izhevsk

On March 12, during his working visit to Izhevsk, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in a joint meeting of the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District on additional measures to ensure road safety, as well as on diversifying the production of high-tech civilian products at defence enterprises located in the Volga Federal District.

Opening the meeting, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev reminded that Putin had set the task to boost production of high-tech civilian and dual-use goods at defence enterprises.

Patrushev noted that the Industrial Development Fund has allocated more than 6 billion roubles for civilian projects of defence industry companies located in the Volga region, which is 43 per cent of all funded similar projects in Russia. However, only 14 defence enterprises located in the Volga region have received a loan from the fund, Patrushev said. He added that there are 227 defence enterprises and organizations are in the region.

He reminded that in order to promote high-tech civilian and dual-use products on the Russian and foreign markets, by order of the Russian President the Rostec State Corporation together with Vnesheconombank set up a scientific and production association, and divisions of the Russian Export Centre were opened in the Volga Federal District. “However, the interaction between these organizations, regional executive bodies and defence enterprises of the district has been inadequate. Defence companies are poorly informed about domestic and foreign demand for civilian products,” Patrushev stated.

Moreover, there is a lack of cooperation between defence companies and branch ministries that “should be interested in civilian products used in medicine, fuel and energy complex, communications, microelectronics, machine building and tool industry, transport complex,” Patrushev stressed.