OREANDA-NEWS. November 19, 2010. The Deputy Minister of Coal Industry Vladimir Fichov while briefing in Government House announced that the Government restores the operation of the coal industry and till the end of this year the problems in this area should not arise. "This year it is planned to put into operation 106 faces, 85 of which have already been put into operation, and 21 will be till the end of the year" - the official said.

Vladimir Fichov noted that at the beginning of the year the coal industry was in a deplorable condition. With the new government, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov charged to pay 100% arrears of wages and bring industry out of crisis period. The Deputy Minister spoke about the first steps that have been made to fulfil the orders of the Prime Minister of Ukraine - inventory, new 12 faces putting in operation, off-budget funds attracting.

The official stressed that the involvement of non-budget funds is one of the tasks for today. "According to estimates, in 2011 to stabilize and to increase the volumes we need 19 billion UAH. Of course, the state is not able to do that, that is why we are trying to attract private money" - Vladimir Fichov said.

The Deputy Minister also noted that during the visit of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych to China issues concerning the coal industry were discussed. "According to the preliminary information China is ready to invest in the coal industry 2.2 billion USD. This is a serious source of funding for our industry" - Vladimir Fichov said.

In addition, he said, now the question of privatization of state-owned mines is under consideration. "We divided them into three groups- mines that are most interesting for the privatization, mines which occupy second place and need some improvements, and then privatization of mine in need of reconstruction or preservation, so that to proceed to coal mining in the future" - Vladimir Fichov said. He said previously, it is planned to set 62 mines for privatization.