He said this on Wednesday at the round table Import-Replacing Policy and Increasing the Competitiveness of the Russian Economy.
"Every year the government is reducing the external debt by several billion dollars. Half of the sum could be given as state guarantees to private business to realise import-replacing projects", Danilov-Danilian said. The government could also provide organisational backing to such projects, he said.
He said that an economic working group for business-state interaction has been operational at the Kremlin staff for three years. On the basis of the customs and Goskomstat (State Statistical Committee) figures, the working group has prepared a list of 200 import goods to be replaced, he said. In his opinion, interaction between business associations and the Kremlin staff should be arranged to begin the manufacture of such goods in Russia. Danilov-Danilian invited businessmen to complement the list.
Taking the floor, Boris Titov, co-chairman of the public organisation Business Russia, noted that the Kremlin staff has proposed to business "a new scenario" for realising import-replacing projects. "We are proposed to submit projects to the presidential administration and receive government guarantees for 25 percent of their cost", Titov said.
He thinks it necessary to form, within the framework of Business Russia, a bank of import-replacing projects and prepare demands to the execution of the business plans of such projects.
