OREANDA-NEWS. "Principles of economic freedom and competition are leading factors in building efficient economy in Russia, and in the subjects of the Russian Federation, including Moscow",- said Moscow Major , Yury Luzhkov in his welcoming address to the participants and guests of the 6th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN). Therefore the themes of the Conference, added Mr Luzhkov, are very special for Russia, and Moscow, reported the press-centre of  FAS Russia.

"Today you are in the city which is perhaps more advanced in comparison with other Russian regions in terms of implementing market principles and we continue developing market economy" said the Major.

"Russian capital, together with the whole country, went through extremely hard times, when we stated transition from a monopolistic state system to market economy",- noted Yury Luzhkov.- "and only efforts towards supporting small and medium business and competition development stabilized the situation. Today we can say that small and medium business to a considerable extent is the backbone of our economic welfare.

According to Major Luzhkov, the Moscow Government will not stop at these achievements. In particular, special attention is being given to competition development in state procurement.

"Our city procurement schemes exceed 700 bln Rubles, which is more than the budget of, say, Ukraine", - explained Yury Luzhkov.- And 97% of them are tenders. We can already confirm that it resulted is considerable budget saving - around 9% of the overall Moscow budget".

Concluding his speech, Yury Luzhkov once again emphasized that competition protection and advancement is a priority objective for the Moscow authorities and promised to study thoroughly the Conference proceedings and decisions.