The state corporation "Rostec", one of the leaders in the production of military equipment and weapons and civilian equipment in Russia, is facing the problem of low profitability of its military products with the system of interaction with the Ministry of Defense that has been in place for a long time. Many defense enterprises that are part of the state corporation are now experiencing difficulties. Therefore, "Rostec" has high hopes for the appointment of Andrei Belousov as Minister of Defense and new approaches to cooperation from his side.
Sergei Chemezov, General Director of the Rostec State Corporation, said this in an interview with RBC. According to him, President Vladimir Putin's initiative to appoint an economist to the defense department is "correct". Because the head of the Ministry of Defense "needs a person who would consider the defense industry not just as a source of weapons, but also as a fairly large area of the economy that provides opportunities for the development of civilian products."
Before the start of the special military operation, the share of civilian products in our revenue was almost 44.5%. Due to the fact that our state defense order has increased many times over, its share has decreased to 35%, but in absolute terms it has still grown and today amounts to almost a trillion rubles. A large figure. And, of course, the Minister of Defense should consider the defense industry from all sides: both from the point of view of providing the army, and from the point of view of producing modern high-tech civilian products.
The appointment of an economist to the post of Minister of Defense, Chemezov believes, will most likely help to deal with the major problem of the profitability of military products. Now the state corporation has only 2.28%. Given that it should be many times more: "at least 5%, and generally from 5 to 10%".
With the current profitability rate, it is difficult to develop. We create new modern equipment only if the Ministry of Defense allocates direct funding to us for R&D or research and development. Without this, many enterprises are in a state of "just to survive".
It is not possible for enterprises to save and set aside for development under the current procedure.
[...] Many directors of defense enterprises are simply not interested in increasing productivity. Because if he manages to reduce the cost of producing a particular product, from next year the Ministry of Defense will set him the price he has achieved. That is, if he does everything to save money, and directs the saved funds to some of his own needs, he will be told: "No, I'm taking it all away." Therefore, we want to meet with the new Minister [of Defense] and talk about not calculating the cost of contracts from the achieved cost, but to give the opportunity to save the funds that the enterprise has saved for a certain period. And these funds should be used to develop production, to create new modern equipment.
The state corporation has for many years held the position of a "pro-commercial state partner", but, according to Chemezov, these efforts are no longer enough for unprofitable work without profit without changes.
Of course, we will talk about this with the Ministry of Defense and the new Minister, because profitability needs to be increased. Otherwise, we won't last long. I think the Minister will hear us, he is an economist.
Currently, according to Chemezov, Rostec produces just over 50% in value terms. of the state defense order, in quantitative terms, the contribution is more significant. The state corporation covers 80% of the needs of the front with all its products.
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