Russia needs to become less oil-dependent in next 6 years – Putin
Newly sworn-in Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree which is set to make the Russian economy less dependent on oil exports in his next six-year term.
According to the decree, Russian non-oil revenues should rise to $250 billion a year, of which $50 billion should come from machinery exports, $45 billion from agriculture supplies, and $100 billion from the export of services. The manufacturing industry, agriculture, services should account for no less than 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the decree says.
To achieve this, Russia will upgrade its infrastructure, including building new roads and increasing the capacity of the seaports. The country is set to develop the Northern Sea Route and increase its cargo traffic to 80 million tons.
Russia also seeks to significantly upgrade its railroads. The Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian railways’ capacity needs to be increased by half, to 180 million tons per year, the decree said. Russia also needs to increase the capacity of railway approaches to the seaports of the Azov-Black Sea basin. There is also a goal to link more major Russian cities with high-speed railways.
Another target is to create more direct flights between Russian cities. Now, many flights have to be made through Moscow, while the goal is to make direct no less than half of the total flights, bypassing the Russian capital.
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