Despite the high prices for oil and other primary commodities, Russia should work to overcome its dependence on oil revenues, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
"Whatever the situation on global markets, it is obvious that Russia should move away from its dependence on raw materials," he told a regional conference of the ruling United Russia party that he heads.
"The favorable market situation for our raw materials, hydrocarbons, metals, and chemical products must not serve as cause for complacency or an excuse for not taking any action on pressing problems."
The prime minister urged his party members to search for new growth points, incentives for industrial development, and ways of enhancing "national competitiveness."
He praised United Russia's role in recent history as a key to political and economic stability but said that was no longer enough.
"It is duty bound to find and propose to society optimal solutions to the current problems in the foreseeable future as well as in the long term," he said.
BRYANSK, March 4 (RIA Novosti)
