Moscow Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey

BOOK ON RUSSIAN POSITION ON GLOBAL ARMS MARKET PRESENTED TO PUBLIC
MOSCOW, April 17 (AVN)

- A presentation of the book "Russia on the Global Arms Market" issued by the Military Parade publishing house took place at the Interfax news agency headquarters on Tuesday.

Experts say the book is a sort of arms trade encyclopaedia.

However Boris Kuzyk, head of the group of the book's authors and director of the New Programmes and Concepts industrial and holding company, said at the presentation that the book was not devoted to arms. Its main theme is Russia's future and whether the country will become a hi-tech power or continue exporting its raw materials, Kuzyk said.

Books on military-technical co-operation are in abundance on the market, the director went on.

However there has been no book that provides a thorough and sensible analysis of global arms markets and Russia's role on those markets.

The volume is primarily of interest to specialists working in the sphere of arms exports, Kuzyk said.

The authors provided Russia's view on the state and development of the arms market in the book, which is a sort of precedent, he stressed. The book reasonably evidences that arms export in the only niche on the world market at the moment where Russia can equally compete with leading manufacturers of hi-tech products.

Currently the country has got to choose between reforming its defence industry in order to set up a hi-tech branch that is capable of giving a boost to the country's economic growth and gradually adopting the development system based on raw materials export.

According to Kuzyk, the domestic defence industry can be reformed by means of yearly domestic investments. USD10bn will be enough to carry out restructuring of Russia's hi-tech industry.

A part of profits from Russia's military-technical co-operation with foreign nations, orders of domestic fuel and energy enterprises and servicing of the defence order can function as investment resources. Russia can earn USD4.5bn a year from arms export if this export is organised property, Kuzyk said.

Up to USD3bn can be received from mastering production of equipment for the fuel and energy industry that is currently imported.

About USD2.2bn-2.5bn will be made up by federal budget expenses on the state defence order.

According to Kuzyk, Russia can indeed scale up its arms trade and earn USD4.2bn-4.5bn and later even USD5bn a year by means of increasing effectiveness of international military and technical co-operation in the next few years.