OREANDA-NEWS. Opening remarks by Dmitry Medvedev:

I decided to meet with Government Marine Board members today to discuss our interests as a major maritime power, to promote these interests domestically and internationally, and also to give more weight to the Marine Board’s work and speed it up, if needed.

Everyone, including the executive and legislative branches, as well as the industry, the scientific community and businesses should be involved in this work. It is imperative for us to upgrade the manufacturing assets and keep the Navy and the civil fleet up to modern standards.

It’s not as if we haven’t done anything in this area. In recent years, the Government has created an innovative legal framework which facilitates the development of shipbuilding using modern economic mechanisms. We have also adopted several strategic documents, such as the Maritime Doctrine, the Strategy for Developing Maritime Activities to 2030, and the state programme Development of Shipbuilding, which we recently discussed at a Government meeting.

We are investing fairly heavily in building up our research and technological capacity, upgrading shipyards and building new ships.