"The main goal of the administrative reform should be the formation of a clear and functionally transparent system of management, as well as the elimination of the excessive functions of the state", her stressed.
In this connection, he thinks necessary optimisation of the state property, dovetailing it with the state functions.
The efficiency of use of the state property should be improved, clear-cut criteria of approach to it elaborated and a decision taken in what areas it is to be preserved, Fradkov added.
Thus, the state is to preserve control of oil and gas trunk pipelines, the premier said.
It is also necessary to ensure the growth of export of hydrocarbons to Europe with the use of the Baltic pipeline system.
Fradkov noted that it is necessary before the year end to take a decision concerning the construction of eastward oil pipelines - to the Far East, in the West Siberian and Barents sea region.
By 2010 the throughput capacity of Russian ports is to grow two times, the prime minister said. Special attention should be given also to the development of highways.
Fradkov singled out the ports of Ust-Luga (the Leningrad region), St.Petersburg and the Russian Far East.
As regards highways, their modernisation is possible, according to the premier, on the basis of share involvement of the state and private capital.
He thinks expedient the creation of toll motorways, provided there is the possibility of free passage along an alternative route. Fradkov noted that the lost profit from the underdevelopment and underuse of Russian highways is between 450 and 500 billion roubles annually (1 dollar equals approximately 29 roubles).
The prime minister also demanded the earliest finalisation of the national budget system.
Every ministry and department, every government-financed company and area should fix their goals, mechanisms for attaining them, Fradkov said.
"The system of classification and accounting should be revised, a system of average-term planning formed, the network of governmental and municipal institutions reformed. It is complex and minute work, which has to be completed very soon", the premier specified.
The easing the tax burden is an important means for increasing the competitiveness of companies and diversification of the economy, he said.
To him, the imbalance between taxation for different economic sectors is to be eliminated and a single reduced valued-added tax rate introduced within the framework of lowering the tax burden.
He believes that the taxation of the oil sector must be additionally reinvigorated in view of the high prices of oil in order to ease the tax burden in the manufacturing sector.
"In a switchover to land-rent taxation, it is necessary to preserve the sector's competitiveness in case the world oil prices fall", Fradkov said.
The premier also noted the need of improving tax management, unifying
tax instruments in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Particularly, work to unify the tax system with Belarus within the framework of the Russia-Belarus Union is to be stepped up.
Fradkov recalled that the collection of value-added taxes from oil and gas imports to countries of the CIS is planned to be done on the country-of-destination principle.
