Moscow, November 14, 2003. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Chairman of the Sistema JSFC Board of Directors, attending the 13th Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), was today elected for another term on the RUIE Board. The Congress that drew delegates from the 89 regions of the Russian Federation reviewed its performance record and set priorities for the Union’s future work. It also elected the RUIE President and Vice Presidents and approved its Board membership. As RUIE President Arkady Volsky said in his summary report, the Union had done enormous constructive work: “The national business community has formulated and made public its consolidated position on the key economic challenges facing this country, and this is one of the Union’s most significant achievements.” The delegates discussed approaches to developing industrial policy principles, including conceptions for an efficient reform of natural monopolies, taxation, administrative reform, constructive relationships between business and government, corporate management, and reform of land ownership relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the congress. “We must move forward together,” he said with reference to the shared goals of the government and the business community, “in order to be strong on the world market, be truly competitive. Our joint efforts should make people’s lives economically prosperous, their incomes substantial, and their working conditions stable and predictable.” These objectives, the President went on, are not for the government alone to work for; they should be addressed by the civil society as a whole, including the business community, in full realization of their social responsibility. The President emphasized that government and business are already working together to improve the country’s laws. Their joint efforts ought to translate into visible results benefiting the nation. These should include, first and foremost, higher economic growth rates, development of a really civilized market in Russia, and an efficient, cost-effective and socially oriented tax policy. Speaking of industrial policy, the President noted that systemic development of the nation’s economy “must be dealt with through discussions in the Government and the State Duma, with close involvement of the business community.” Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Chairman of the Sistema JSFC Board of Directors, who chairs the RUIE’s Industrial Policy Committee, addressed the Congress with an outline of the basic principles and goals of industrial policy based on a RUIE conception. “A strategic priority for industrial policy,” he said, “is improving the national economy’s competitiveness by implementing projects that raise its technological standards. As the record of developed countries shows, industrial policy is far more than disbursing money to ministries. It is about creating conditions that encourage intensive and highly productive work.” Achieving economic growth beyond simple reproduction rates is a vital target for Russia, Mr. Yevtushenkov went on. There are dozens of domestic projects at the cutting edge of technological progress that can propel Russia into leading positions. Such projects can generate national added-value chains to manufacture science-intensive products competitive in the world market. Integration into global chains is also an option. Not as suppliers of inputs, though, either physical or intellectual, but rather as manufacturers of high-tech products and providers of highly professional and well-paid intellectual services. According to Mr. Yevtushenkov, for these projects to be implemented, a system of priorities is to be developed on a national scale. Any incentive provided by the government in terms of taxes, loans or antimonopoly action encourages companies to build their own added value chains. The idea that “wealth is the knowledge you have, not the natural resources you possess” must gain national acceptance, Vladimir Yevtushenkov said in conclusion. The Russian Union and Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers) is a nationwide nongovernmental organization that speaks for the interests of the Russian business community and brings together more than 300,000 representatives of industrial, academic, financial, economic, commercial and entrepreneurial entities in all the constituent members of the Russian Federation that contribute around 80 per cent of Russia’s gross domestic product. Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Chairman of the Sistema JSFC Board of Directors, has been a member of the RUIE Board’s Bureau since 2000. In December 2001, he was made head of the RUIE’s Working Group for Industrial and Investment Policy, which was reorganized into an Industrial Policy Committee in February 2002. Following merger with the working groups for reform of natural monopolies in October 2003, the Committee now comprises Viktor Vekselberg, President of SUAL Holding Company; Boris Gidaspov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Interkhimprom Investment Company; Sberbank President Andrei Kazmin; Andrei Kostin, President and Board Chairman of Vneshtorgbank; Vladimir Lisin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Novolipetsk Integrated Steel Plant; Vladimir Litvinenko, Rector of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg; Tatiana Ryskina, President of the Russian Development Bank; Nikolai Tonkov, member of the RUIE Bureau and head of the Environment Working Group; David Yakobashvili, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wimm-Bill-Dann Company; and Yuri Tokayev, member of the RUIE Bureau.