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Taking part in the meeting were Acting Governor of Sakhalin Region and head of the working group Oleg Kozhemyako, who presented the main report, Deputy Director of the Federal Fisheries Agency Vasily Sokolov, Head and Prime Minister of the Republic of Tyva Sholban Kara-ool, Governor of Murmansk Region Marina Kovtun, Governor of Nenets Autonomous District Igor Koshin, heads and representatives of federal executive agencies, and members of the academic and expert communities.

Head of the working group Oleg Kozhemyako briefed the meeting on the report’s drafting. As part of this work, the working group has analysed more than 300 proposals from federal ministries and agencies, public organisations and trade unions, banks, retail chains, the Russian regions, and economic actors.

The draft report gives an overview of the current state of the fisheries sector and its management system. Analysis of the proposals sent to the working group made it possible to identify bottlenecks in the sector’s development. The report assesses the sector’s current state and identifies the issues to address with basic regulatory principles introduced in 2007–2008, the fishing fleet’s state, problems with coastal fish-processing facilities, developing port infrastructure, and ensuring that people have access to affordable fish products.

The report notes that the sector has emerged from a protracted crisis and new development has begun. The state authorities have introduced transparent and long-term new rules of the game that are bringing new capital and players into the sector. At the same time though, a considerable number of businesses are making ineffective use of national fisheries resources.

The working group’s members, in their remarks, raised a number of issues regarding allocation of quotas for various marine resources, modernising the fishing fleet, reviving Russia’s shipbuilding industry, and improving legislation on aquaculture. They discussed administrative barriers in the sector and raised the matter of delimiting powers between the federal and regional authorities regarding management of the coastal fisheries sector.

The comments and suggestions made at the meeting will be taken into account in the report’s final draft, which will be presented to the President at the upcoming State Council Presidium meeting.