The Russian president's chief economic advisor said on Tuesday that a lack of specialized engineers is delaying the modernization of Russia's ageing industries.
Arkady Dvorkovich was speaking ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's trip to the Urals city of Magnitogorsk on Wednesday, where he will preside over a meeting of a state modernization commission.
"We have consistently been faced with a clear lack of qualified engineers in the Russian economy, and primarily in the priority spheres which the commission works in," Dvorkovich told a RIA Novosti news conference.
He said it was necessary to increase the pay of engineers, including those working outside of Moscow, to a minimum of 60,000 rubles ($2,100) a month in order to attract people to the profession.
Medvedev is leading a drive to stem Russia's unhealthy dependence on oil and gas revenues and diversify the economy, but with crumbling industries and cumbersome bureaucratic procedures still in place, the effects have been limited.
MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA Novosti)
