"At present, economic and social policies are not solely internal affairs of any country that aspires for a prominent place on the global market," Mr. Gref said.
He said that the demands of the current process of globalization are so high that "if we do not address this issue immediately, we will lose the ability to compete successfully, we will lose our niche on the global market and the growth rate. It will mean that Russia will ultimately lose its geostrategic and geopolitical positions in the world and will cease to exist as a unified state."
According to Mr. Gref, the mid-term program for Russia's development presented on Wednesday emphasizes the increase of Russia's competitiveness.
Mr. Gref believes that "Russia must accomplish its ambitious tasks in the next four years." "Otherwise, we are going to be late to penetrate global markets where it has serious competitors among developing countries, such as China, Brazil, India and all of South East Asia."
Speaking about the Cabinet's decision to do some additional work on the program, German Gref informed journalists that the government would announce the time frame for the revision in January.
In his opinion, the program is "sufficiently balanced," corresponds to the realities of the modern world and the goals set to increase Russia's competitiveness.
