Mr Zubkov said, in part, that 14 billion roubles would be allocated for the development of the country's fishing industry in 2009, 5 billion roubles more than in 2008.

"We should proceed from the assumption that the Government intends to implement its anti-crisis package, which was generally approved at its meeting the day before, in the crisis conditions," the First Deputy Prime Minister said.

In the words of Mr Zubkov, the package provides for carrying out the strategy of economic modernisation and structural renewal. He pointed out that the Government had taken certain anti-crisis measures regarding the fishing industry. In particular, it has approved "the allocation of about 1.1 billion roubles from the federal budget for subsidising interest rates on loans taken out for the building and modernisation of vessels, provision of equipment for them, and development of coastal processing facilities."

Decisions have already been made to use the mechanism of leasing for the development of coastal infrastructure, customs payments have been lifted from fishing vessels modernised abroad, and the mechanism of customs registration of vessels delivering the catch to Russia has been simplified. These measures "should be implemented as well as possible, and budgetary allocations must be used efficiently," Mr Zubkov said.

He said the priority objective of Russia's fishing industry was to reduce dependence on imports, which "is having a negative effect on retail prices."

The First Deputy Prime Minister said it was necessary to "ensure a balance, solve the problem of import replacement, and create conditions for saturating the domestic market with domestic products."

Mr Zubkov said during the meeting that the Fisheries Agency must create a hotline on the registration of fishing vessels at seaports in order to remove administrative obstacles.

"The system of state control must not be allowed to hamper business development," he said. "This is a priority goal for the Government, which will monitor its attainment."