According to him, the draft law drawn up by the Cabinet provides conditions preventing monopolists from pushing small and medium-sized businesses off the market, a practice currently witnessed across the board.
Zhukov explained that the infrastructure must remain in the state's hands as this ensures equal access for all manufacturers. At the same time, the Deputy Prime Minister believes, power plants, for example, should be in private ownership as their operation requires vast investment.
Alexander Zhukov referred to the authorization granted by the Government to private companies to carry out rail cargo operations as a positive example of such an approach. "These companies promptly started making investments in the machine-building sector, which caused its rapid progress," the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out.
According to him, the growth rate in the railcar building industry has been the highest in the country's entire production sector last year and in the first months of 2005. "To date, we have more railcars on the run than in the Soviet era," Zhukov pointed out.
