Meeting participants continued to evaluate the main approaches to increasing localised production of farm equipment of global brands in Russia and broadening cooperation on these issues through Rosagroleasing and Rosselkhozbank.

"We regularly discuss these matters with our foreign colleagues – particularly during the recent St Petersburg Dialogue. The topic is always on the agenda of intergovernmental commissions that I co-chair and my meetings abroad," Mr Zubkov said in his opening remarks.

"The technical re-equipping of agriculture is among the Russian government's priorities, as this country has set ambitious goals – increasing food security and agricultural export potential.

"We can say assuredly now that the Russian agro-industrial complex has overcome the aftermath of the global financial and economic downturn of 2008-2009 and the droughts of 2009 and 2010.

"This year's cereal yield approached 93 million tonnes of processed grain, and there were bumper harvests with some other plants, so the growth of farm production for the year's first ten months was close to 20%.

"Russia has rejoined the world grain market leaders with an opportunity to export 24 million tonnes of grain, and it has resumed vegetable oil and sunflower exports, which are expected to hit the 500,000 tonne mark within the year. Russia has also began exporting sugar and will supply 200,000 tonnes of beet sugar before the year's end. These figures show that Russian foodstuffs are in global demand.

"To make Russian agriculture more competitive, farmers must increase labour efficiency – and for that, we should boost competition in the domestic farm machine market so that farmers could choose the best possible equipment.

"At the same time, we will continue sizeable government funding of the agrarian sector – particularly, to develop and promote the Russian farm machine industry, create new jobs, and expand the taxable base."

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As he was summarising the meeting, Mr Zubkov said:

"Today we have discussed the prospects for localising the manufacture of relevant machinery in Russia. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is drawing on government order methodology of assessing the extent of localisation to meet the targets of the recently endorsed national development strategy for agricultural machine building up to 2020.

"The average localisation of major world manufacturing companies in Russia does not yet exceed 20%, although some foreign manufacturers said today that they are willing to increase it to 45% within eight years – a good goal! It demands further elaboration by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and foreign manufacturers in light of Russia's accession to WTO and the targets set by the recently endorsed national development strategy of agricultural machine building until 2020. The subsidising of interest rates and the special Rosagroleasing and Rosselkhozbank programmes are oriented on purchasers of Russian-manufactured equipment with localisation level exceeding 50%.

"We also pointed out to our foreign partners the necessity of research, development and the promotion of the service infrastructure in Russia.

"We are interested in the development of full-scale manufacturing, rather than knockdown assembly, in Russia. Such manufacturing promises not only more jobs and tax revenues but also the availability of a wide range of top-notch machinery for farming, forestry, lumbering and other industries in the domestic market. To hit this target, we should do less talking and take more action. We have agreed to begin doing just this with our partners today. Our next meeting is due in April, So we will see then what progress has been made."