Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has urged on Friday to develop Russia’s offshore shipbuilding industry on the Caspian Sea, Itar-Tass reports.
“The market of hydrocarbon resources on the Caspian Sea totals around 100 billion US dollars,” he told journalists during his working trip to the Astrakhan region.
“This is a big sum that requires the development of shipbuilding in Astrakhan. At present, we lack experience, capacities and human resources. Astrakhan should turn into the centre of the offshore shipbuilding industry,” he said.
The top-ranking official pointed out that the government plans to consider the issue of support for the county’s civil shipbuilding before November.
“Over the past two years we adopted different federal programs pertaining to the aircraft-building, space exploration and nuclear energy, but not ship-building. No later than this year’s November we plan to discuss support for the civil ship-building industry,” Ivanov said.