Russian government drafting important measures to beef up seafood industry

Chairman of Russia's Government Vladimir Putin has held a meeting devoted to development of onshore infrastruсture for seafood handling, storage and processing, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to the Russian government.

The nation's PM has underlined that the Government is ready to consider temporary cancellation of import customs duties for coldstorage and other equipment needed for seafood storage and processing.

Besides, PM has also highlighted the need of easier access to borrowed money funds for investors engaged in building and modernization of fish processing facilities. According to Putin, the budget of the current year 2009 includes 250 million RUR to subsidize bank interest rates for the respective loans.

The participants of the meeting have also discussed the possibility of mortgage of capture quotas as security when applying for bank credit. If the credit is not duly paid, the bank would be able to sell the quotas at auction.