MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will be able to break free from its dependence on oil exports if it switches to a new model of economic development in the 21st century and creates conditions conducive to business, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Thursday.
“Russia will, no doubt, break free from oil dependence by virtue of the growing role of new goods and sources of energy, and also by virtue of new opportunities it will use,” Kudrin said at the Russia 2013 investment forum, organized by the country’s largest lender Sberbank.
“And of course, this will become possible as a result of consistent steps to reform the political system, the system of institutions, the economy and the creation of new possibilities for business.”
Kudrin said the global economy would change the model of its development but said it was hard to say which technological base would bring about this change.
“I don’t know whether there will be a revolution similar to the old industrial revolution, which depended on several inventions. It seems to me that many inventions in their totality will give a new quality in development and in raising labor productivity.”
The main role of the state in the 21st century is to create conditions for business, he said.
“The most important thing for us is the qualitative legislation and law-enforcement practice. Russia’s main bottleneck is weak institutions and the political system because the institutions, including the judicial system, depend on political control,” Kudrin said.
Heavily reliant on raw material exports, primarily oil and gas, Russia has been attempting to achieve economic diversification away from raw materials for years, with little success.
Updated with modified headline.
