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The Far Eastern shipbuilding and repairing centre in Primorye Territory will be constructed in line with the presidential instruction issued following a meeting on developing civilian shipbuilding sector held on August 30, 2013.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues,

Slightly over a year ago, on August 30, 2013, we met here to discuss civilian shipbuilding in Russia. We considered specific projects designed to significantly strengthen this complex high-technology sector.

Today, I suggest going back to one such project, namely the construction of a Far Eastern shipbuilding and repairing centre in Primorye Territory.

I would like to reiterate that building modern competitive vessels is of special significance for our country. This not only demonstrates the technological, production and human resources potential of the shipbuilding industry, but also stimulates the growth of related industries and suppliers, such as machine-building, metallurgy and applied scientific research.

A shipbuilding cluster in the Far East must become a major production centre building and servicing vessels of various classes, primarily for the domestic market. There is a demand for such a facility on the part of domestic buyers; therefore, the shipbuilding capacity will be in demand.

Russia’s leading oil and gas companies are planning to continue the development of oil and gas fields in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf. The significance of the Northern Sea Route will be growing year by year, as we have been saying recently, and Russia’s civilian fleet needs an upgrade as well.

”A shipbuilding cluster in the Far East must become a major production centre building and servicing vessels of various classes, primarily for the domestic market. There is a demand for such a facility on the part of domestic buyers; therefore, the shipbuilding capacity will be in demand.“

All this means a great demand for reliable modern vessels and it is of principle importance to bring national shipyards to the fore in the contest for these jobs. Large-scale energy and transportation projects should use national capacities rather than foreign ones. This would mean growing competence, collection of taxes and new jobs.

Meanwhile, our shipbuilders have to offer high-quality products, which would be better than what their foreign competitors offer, better than similar foreign makes in terms of such characteristics as price, construction rates, speed and repair quality.

We need to rely on the experience acquired by Russian shipbuilders in the production of drilling platforms, geological survey vessels, supply ships and ice-class vessels. We need to turn this competitive edge into real, economically efficient projects.

I would like to remind you that the shipyard at Bolshoi Kamen we will be talking about today is being built from scratch, so to speak. Its first stage is to be completed by the end of 2016. I would like to note here that this was never a full-cycle shipbuilding facility; therefore, we need new production skills and personnel training here.

This is definitely an issue of major significance, typical not only of the Far Eastern shipbuilding centre, but of the entire sector. I am referring to the shortage of experts of all levels – workers, production engineers and engineers. Unfortunately, we lack modern corporate and project management systems.

This requires a systematic approach: from personnel training to setting up engineering centres and resolving numerous social issues. We should of course, use foreign experience where appropriate, and form technological alliances with leading world producers.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you that large-scale projects are being launched today in Russia’s fuel and energy sector and transport, and our plans to commission new shipbuilding capacities should be synchronised with the investment programmes implemented by major Russian customer companies.

This is why Rosneft and a number of other domestic companies are taking part in the development of the Far Eastern shipbuilding centre. They intend to use the shipyard for the construction of oil platforms and supply vessels.

I expect to hear the opinions of other major companies regarding their orders at Russian shipyards, including the one here in the Far East.

Let’s begin our work.

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