Prime Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov spoke at Russian Government circuit meeting on the realization of primary tasks in national space programme

Today Prime Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov spoke at Russian Government circuit meeting on the realization of primary tasks in national space programme.The meeting took place in Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk region) with the participation of Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

At the beginning of the meeting Vladimir Putin noted, that Russia has traditionally strong positions in space exploration. According to the Prime Minister, the most important thing today is the effective use of space technologies in behalf of our country to guarantee its security and turn Russian economy to the modern and innovative way, to get to the global markets of high technologies. “Space industry with its scientific and production reserves and human resources is one of our competitive advantages, which is important to maintain and develop”, said the Head of the Government.

Anatoly Perminov, The Head of the Federal Space Agency, Aleksandr Khloponin, Governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, Rustam Minnikhanov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Anatoly Artamonov, Governor of the Kaluga region also spoke at the meeting.

The Head of the Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov said that accelerated development of the federal task programme connected with the application of space technologies for the progress of the country and its regions is expected to be finished before long, so that the programme will be adopted by 2009.

The programme has been already approved by regions and a number of departments. At present it requires the endorsement from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.
Speaking at the meeting Prime Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov said that the republican programme “The application of space technologies in social and economic development of the Republic of Tatarstan for 2008/2009 period” had been already approved. The amount of its financing made up 590 billion rubles. The main goal of the programme is the integration of space technologies with the social and economic sphere of the republic.