OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2007. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) sent its proposals on the economic policy package, aimed at preventing further cement price increase, to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Viktor Zubkov, and the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. The package comprises ten major measures, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia:

1. Creating conditions for increasing cement output within the framework of the national project "Affordable and comfortable housing to the people of Russia".

2. Early abolition of import tariffs and introduction of export duties on cement.

3. Improving cement exchange trading.

4. State interventions on the cement market through commodities exchanges.

5. Resolving raw materials and infrastructure problems (imbalances between the interests of land-users and subsoil users, acute shortage of cement storage elevators, absence of the programme on prospecting new deposits of cement raw materials).

6. Resolving the problem of free movement of cement (suppressing of the actions of some regional authorities that hamper free movement of cement).

7. Resolving the problem of freight car shortage (hopper cars - bulk cement carriers) for cement transportation.

8. Attracting largest world cement manufacturers to Russia as institutional investors.

9. Implementing and developing the system of direct retail and small-scale wholesale selling of cement to the population.

10. Controlling investment programmes of the largest cement manufacturers.

On each of the above positions, FAS Russia undertakes certain measures within its terms of reference, or has developed a relevant strategy. In particular, in September 2007 FAS Russia proposed to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development to abolish the 5% duty on cement imports, in October it developed and presented 12-Clause requirements for cement exchange trading, while in November it inspected implementation of the investment programme of "EUROCEMENT Group" OJSC and verified compliance to the Regulations on cement exchange trading.

According to FAS Russia, adopting and implementing such a package will increase the output of construction materials and create conditions for objective and non-discriminatory pricing of construction materials.