President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday the government must fix the schedule of Russia's three-year privatization plan and withdraw state officials from company boards.
"To avoid excessive influence of state-run companies on investment climate, we have to do three things. First of all, we have to fix and finally announce the privatization schedule for large stakes for the next three years," Medvedev said at a modernization and technological development commission meeting.
The government has approved a privatization plan for 2011-2013, including 10 top companies, which could bring an extra 1 trillion rubles ($33 billion) to state coffers, although there are no firm dates for sales and sizes of stakes are often unclear.
Privatization was kicked off earlier this year with the sale of a 10% stake in the country's second largest bank VTB for about 96 billion rubles ($3.3 billion).
The list of selloff list includes oil major Rosneft, where 25 percent minus one share is to go under the hammer, RusHydro hydropower generator, in which about 8% will be sold, and about 28% of the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System.
The government also plans to sell 50% minus one share in the country's largest shipping company Sovcomflot, 7.58% in Russia's top bank Sberbank and a further 25.5% in the country's second largest lender VTB bank.
The state wants to privatize the whole of United Grain Company by 2012, half of Rosagroleasing agricultural leasing company from 2013, a quarter of Russian Railways monopoly from 2013 and Russian Agricultural Bank by 2015.
Medvedev said he was dissatisfied with how the government ran its property and ordered it to find independent replacements for state representatives on company boards by the middle of the year.
"Secondly, we have to eliminate the practice where government officials, I mean those responsible for regulating rules in individual sectors, are board members at companies which operate in a competition environment," Medvedev said.
He said that large state-controlled companies must publish information on planned purchases, including their price and information on closed contracts.
MAGNITOGORSK, Russia, March 30 (RIA Novosti)
