Mikhail Pogosyan said new contracts, coupled with support from the state, would help the company significantly reduce its current 44 billion-ruble ($1.25 billion) debt.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the MiG corporation will receive 11 billion rubles ($308 million) in the first quarter of the year as part of a 17.3 billion-ruble ($485 million) state defense contract.
He also said the company had losses of some 11 billion rubles in 2008, and announced that he had signed a resolution allocating a further 15 billion rubles ($417 million) in federal budget funds to the corporation.
Apart from the ongoing financial crisis, the MiG corporation has been hit by Algeria's decision to tear up a $1.28 billion contract to buy 34 MiG-29s, signed in 2006, over the airplanes' "inferior quality." The 15 planes delivered were sent back to Russia.
The corporation also has a substantial debt to suppliers, in particular engine makers and missile manufacturers - reportedly more than $80 million.
Last year, MiG, along with other "strategic" companies, was promised funding through the government's anti-crisis package, specifically firm production orders from the Russian Air Force.
