Rosoboronexport to be Transformed into Investment Agency

Rosoboronexport to be Transformed into Investment Agency

The prime objective for the Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport is to turn from a trade mediator into an investment agency for the Russian defense industry and a shareholder in newly established military-industrial concerns, Rosoborobexport General Director Andrei Belyaninov said in an interview with the Monday edition of Vedomosti.

When Rosoboronexport was created, it inherited a $60-million debt to enterprises from its predecessor, Rosvooruzheniye, while at the moment this debt has shrunk to only $9 million, Belyaninov said.

At the second phase of the Rosoboronexport reform, it should seek to actively increase its stakes in Russian defense industry enterprises, Belyaninov said. ``A state mediator without its own production base is at risk of being exposed to various fluctuations. It might simply fail to survive,`` he said. Among enterprises Rosoboronexport is eyeing at the moment is the Sukhoi aircraft holding company, which controls about half of Russian weapons exports, and a number of other export-oriented enterprises.

At the present time, weapons exports have brought in about $3.6 billion in foreign currency earnings in 2001, while the 2001 target was $3.2 billion, Belyaninov said.

/Interfax/