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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues, let’s sum up now.

First, as is usual in our work, instructions will be issued following the meeting. They are already ready.

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What are the points I think it most important to make? Much has been said today about the relations between the chemicals industry (petrochemicals, gas-chemicals) and light industry, the textiles industry. This is indeed a very promising area for work, a very useful avenue to develop. We should take steps in this direction and this will definitely be reflected in the instructions. This is all the more important as we are talking about products with a high added value here, and it is precisely these kinds of products that can earn us money.

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As for a common comprehensive document, I also support the idea of drawing up an overall strategy, and I think it is time that we did this. It will be useful. If we are serious about reviving our textiles and light industry, we need to base our efforts on a general strategy, and not because this is a trendy term, but because we need to be able to see the general picture for the years ahead.

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Concerning measures to protect the domestic market, we need a comprehensive series of measures here. I will issue an instruction to the Government as a whole and specific instructions to the Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service, Justice Ministry and Customs Service to draw up the relevant proposals on protecting the domestic market. These proposals should concentrate on what specifically needs to be done to protect the market. We must be careful not to go too far, so as not to increase the burden on consumers. But we do need to resolve the problem of ‘grey’ imports and illegal production over the next few years. It will be very difficult to fully eradicate this problem, but it is within our possibilities to substantially reduce it. I address the representatives of the relevant ministries and agencies: we had a figure of 70% and now this is down to 50%, so we need to set realistic targets and bring the percentage of ‘grey’ and simply illegal imports down even further.

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I support the idea of state procurement orders and this will be reflected in the draft instruction.

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We should concentrate on what we do well, flax, for example. But we need to look at what we can do to support the southern regions in this respect. Wool production, for example, is a traditional business in the North Caucasus, and this is, of course, a source of raw materials for our textiles and light industry. This is something we need to work on.

What else do I want to say in conclusion? As in a number of other sectors, some people thought in the mid-1990s that Russia’s textiles and light industry was dead, that there was no point in working on this sector when all around us are others with world-famous brands (let the Chinese take care of the cheaper end and the Italians the premium end, but we won’t get involved). Practice has shown this to be a mistaken point of view. We are able to tackle as complex an issue as developing our textiles sector and light industry. We have the necessary instruments and financial possibilities at our disposal, and most important, we have a vision of what needs to be done.