Viktor Zubkov's address:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends,

It is my honour to present you with state awards tonight. First of all, I'd like to congratulate you, and by extension, everyone working in agriculture and related industries on your professional holiday, Day of Agricultural and Processing Industry Workers, to be celebrated on Sunday. I'd like to wish you every success, good health and good luck. And I hope you will accomplish all your plans and undertakings.

Holding these awards ceremonies at the Government House has become a good tradition. I am happy to welcome farmers, all those employed at agricultural companies, and representatives of the academic community in agriculture.

The upcoming holiday is a special day for everyone present here today. What you all have in common is that you do your job very well. More importantly, you enjoy working in this industry for the good of rural Russia. Your professionalism and determination is a guarantee of our overall success and the sustained development of agriculture.

This ceremony is a good occasion to review the results of your work and speak about plans for the future. I am not going to read off statistics now. On the whole, this year has been difficult for agriculture, and you must have surely felt this. The unprecedented drought has affected many farms resulting in financial losses and lower performance levels this year. However, agriculture has withstood this trial, proving again that it is one of the foundations of the Russian economy. Moreover, several sectors have seen growth this year. For example, pork and poultry production have increased by 9% and 13%, respectively.

This was made possible through our combined efforts.

The government promptly took measures to support agricultural producers, but the main thing is that you worked hard and diligently every day. The government appreciates your efforts very much.

Thanks to your tireless efforts we have managed to make headway in agriculture in the past years. Agriculture has turned from one of the most problematic economic sectors into a dynamically developing, promising and profitable industry, which has become attractive for investment. In the past four years, over 2,500 cattle breeding facilities have been built and modernised. I repeat, although the drought has been a real trial for the industry, it cannot make us lose the momentum we have gained. The government will continue providing comprehensive support for agriculture.

We have recently adopted the general draft budget for the next three years. I'd like to highlight that annual allotments to the industry will be increased. Quite a large sum has been budgeted for 2011.

Clearly, we need to improve living conditions in rural areas, modernise infrastructure, notably public infrastructure, and create fair and equal conditions for marketing agricultural production. We will try our best to make loans more accessible, reducing interest rates. We have already instructed banks to develop proposals on this issue. Interest rates should not be as high as 16-18%, which was the case some time ago. They should stand at 9%, a maximum of 10%, or maybe a bit higher for long-term loans.

We will also attract young professionals to the industry, and your experience will be particularly helpful.

I'd like to congratulate you on your professional holiday again and move to the awards ceremony proper.

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I'd like to thank everyone again, especially for the warm reception and words of gratitude. It is always a pleasure to honour women. And I'd like to extend my special congratulations to them.

In closing, I'd like to congratulate you and everyone in the agricultural industry on the upcoming holiday and wish you good health and success.