OREANDA-NEWS. December 20, 2013. Russian Railways has held an extended meeting of the Company's board at its corporate headquarters in Moscow.

The meeting was devoted to the holding company's 2013 results and was attended by representatives from Russia's executive authorities, State Duma, Federation Council and heads of subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as from railway administrations from the CIS, Baltic countries and countries from outside the Former Soviet Union and the Company's board members and business partners.

"This year saw the 10th anniversary of Russian Railways and more effective management, innovation, energy efficiency and the development of human capital. As a natural monopoly which is 100% owned by the state, the Company always maintains a balance between national and corporate interests in its work," said Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways.

At present, Russian Railways accounts for 43% of Russia's total freight turnover (including pipelines) and about 30% of the turnover on the country's passenger transport system, as well as about 1.6 % of Russia's GDP, 1.3% of all tax revenues and 3.4% of the country's investment in fixed assets. In the last 10 years, the Company has loaded more than 12.8 billion tons of freight and transported about 11.7 billion passengers.

According to Vladimir Yakunin, over the years, Russian Railways has invested 4.3 trillion roubles in renewing capital stock, upgrading the railway lines and implementing major infrastructure projects.

"Even with the current unstable market conditions and the economic crisis and its consequences, we consistently provide transportation and work constantly to increase its efficiency and quality. We have done a lot of work to reduce the proportion of railway tariffs in the price of the final products made by industrial enterprises. This was made possible by using our infrastructure and locomotives more intensively and by increasing our labour productivity in transport operations more than twofold," said Vladimir Yakunin.