Russia is eager to become one of European leaders by volume of GDP

In the course of the forum “Russia is calling”, arranged by VTB Capital, the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin stated that Russia comes to grips to become the first economy in Europe and the fifth in the world by the volume of GDP.

According to OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), in 2012 volume of GDP in Russia at parity of purchasing power amounted to 3,373 trillion dollars, whereas GDP in Germany amounted to 3,378 trillion dollars. Russia’s GDP per capita and size of consumption are comparable with the results of euro-zone countries, but in the eyes of the head of the State, there is other good news. Economy of the State is more than two times inferior to western European countries in labor efficiency. The President considers such disjuncture between consumption level and economic efficiency unsafe.

According to Vladimir Putin, present pace of economic growth doesn’t reduce underrun from leaders, but indicates temporary shutdown in economy, its one-sided structure and resource-based nature. And in order to improve efficiency, it is necessary to have the growth twice as much than present – at the level of 5-6%. It is possible only on condition of economy commitment to create qualitative jobs.

The President also noticed that one of the economic growth factors is liberalization of infrastructure. Today, in his opinion, expenses of infrastructure are insufficiently controlled. This happens not only owing to value detraction, but also as a result of bad primary calculation. The President recalled that the state is going to invest in infrastructure projects on a repayable and remuneration bases.

The most important key to growth of economic efficiency is improvement of business climate, continued Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, not all the departments hold it as a priority. However, all the measures are to be implemented during two years. The country’s leader set a task to increase the total volume of investments in economy of the country till 25% of GDP in the near future, and by 2018 - till 27%. Moreover, he urged to develop non-primary export and assured that independently from external conditions and objective difficulties all the contemplated reforms would be implemented and prescribed vector to create strong economy would be saved.