CHAMBER PRESIDENT CRITICIZES NEW LAW ON BANKRUPTCIES

MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti correspondent Yelena Fyodorova) - More than 100 town-forming enterprises have gone bankrupt in the past two years, Chamber of Industry and Commerce President Yevgeny Primakov said on Tuesday. He was speaking at a conference called "The First Year of Operation of the New Law on Bankruptcies: Results and Prospects." "The new law on bankruptcies, adopted a year ago, has failed to solve a number of important problems. In particular, the bankruptcy procedure often involves liquidation. There is no procedure for converting town-forming enterprises. Over the past two years more than 100 such enterprises have gone bankrupt," Primakov said. According to him, an equally keen issue is the bankruptcy of defense industry enterprises.

The head of the chamber remarked that the new law has failed to deal with "fraudulent bankruptcies." In 2003, for example, 417 such cases were recorded, with 350 materials sent to the law enforcement bodies.

A serious problem, according to Primakov, is "hostile absorption." According to the chamber head, in Moscow alone more than 200 enterprises are objects of "hostile absorption" annually. The methods used in such actions are buying up shares and debt liabilities. "Involvement of judicial and law enforcement bodies in such processes is very dangerous," Primakov said.

He believes that it is necessary at today's conference to analyze the new law on bankruptcies and other legislative acts related to these themes with a view to formulating appropriate amendments.