RBC: The Ministry of Industry and Trade is preparing a “quasi-planned” model of import substitution in a number of industries

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will prepare a new model of import substitution, which will transfer a number of industries to a “quasi-planned” regime while maintaining guarantees of demand, writes RBC with reference to a federal official.

We are talking, in particular, about ship and aircraft building, the production of equipment and elements of the pharmaceutical industry. According to the source, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared “product lines in which long-term contracts can be concluded and where the state can create a” long arm “on demand.”

The new model could be launched in autumn, and the new generation of import substitution will be based on large lighthouse projects, a modified mechanism of special investment contracts (SPIC) and inter-regional offset contracts with counter investment obligations.

According to sources RBC, the state can hold consultations with consumers of more than 2,000 products to find out if they are ready to buy it and in what volume. After that, sites for the production of these products, as well as privileges and benefits for them, will be determined.

As one of the interlocutors of the publication noted, the model will not become a replacement for the state plan, which is now “no one needs” and is generally impossible.

“From a financial point of view, the model will work on the principles of clusters. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance have collected a set of preferences, such as state guarantees, subsidizing interest rates, SPIC,” one of the sources added.

Earlier in July, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov declaredthat the government considers it necessary to move from a market-based industrial policy to a policy of ensuring Russia’s technological sovereignty.

Then he said that in order to ensure the current supply of critical components, it is necessary to create new cooperative ties. Now the government is intensively doing this manually, together with companies and trade missions. Also, enterprises will master the production of their own analogues of imported components. Manturov added that the government supported the allocation of additional funds for the development of backbone industries to carry out such tasks. The authorities will pay close attention to electronics, machine tool building, small- and medium-tonnage chemistry.

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