Russia’s agricultural sector boosted by financial reforms
The federal commission established to implement the reform of Russia's ailing agricultural sector has unveiled new plans to restructure the debt of at least 10,000 of the country's insolvent farms.
"Our goal is that all these farms will start the restructuring next year," agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeyev said after the commission's first meeting on Wednesday, "But the whole process will take up to 10 years or even longer."
An estimated 45% of the country's farms are unprofitable, according to Agriculture Ministry statistics.
Gordeyev said that the commission had approved the general outlines of the restructuring plan, which makes provision for a five year debt vacation for eligible farms plus a four year programme to restructure the main debt.
Further good news for the Russian economy came as industrial production in January-October 2002 went up by 4.2%, compared with the same period in 2001. Russia's industrial production in October grew by 3.9%, compared to October 2001, and by 1.9% month-on-month.
