Transcript of Sergey Ivanov's opening address:

Good afternoon,

At today's meeting of the Export Control Commission we will discuss four issues. First, we will assess the performance of the export control system in 2009. Actually, this is a recurring topic, one which we have discussed for several years now. And this recurring, annual discussion of our performance in this area allows us all to get on the same page and, with due account for the urgent problems facing the country, assess our progress and determine our priorities for further developing and improving export control in the mid- and long-term perspectives.

Modernising export control is a perennial issue, because life does not stand still and we must continuously adapt ourselves to the changing situation in the world, especially with regard to foreign trade.

Despite the global economic crisis, we have managed to keep up the export of dual-use products, which amounted to $6.36 billion in the past year. On the whole, this is not a bad figure, which we managed to achieve in no small part by exporting our products to more countries. In 2009 we exported such products to 86 countries as compared to only 62 in 2008. This is a substantial increase.

We have improved the legal foundation for export control as well as the level of interagency coordination and cooperation. Informational and analytical support for the export control system has been upgraded, thereby enhancing its capacity to respond promptly to national security challenges and threats due to foreign trade.

At the same time, the strategy for innovation-based development set forth by President Dmitry Medvedev in his address to the Federal Assembly requires us to strengthen commercial, scientific and technological cooperation with foreign states and consolidate our positions in international high-tech markets.

Foreign economic activity in science-intensive industries should become the foundation of our efforts to modernise the economy. It will help us ensure the flow of funds, increase knowledge and create the conditions for the expansion of the Russian presence in high-tech industries, primarily the nuclear power industry, civilian space exploration, nanotechnology and telecommunications.

These are perhaps the four main industries in which we have been the most successful, and we should throw our weight behind the increased importance of these high-tech products in world markets in 2010, continuously working to ensure that exports in these industries continued to grow steadily.

At the same time, we should continue our efforts to modernise the export control system. The system should be adapted as best as possible to the realities of the modern world and become less burdensome for our domestic producers.

I believe we must review the current mechanisms for regulating foreign trade of dual-use products in order to identify and eliminate excessive administrative procedures and barriers that make the process for obtaining permits for the export of industrial goods more difficult or lengthy.

Obviously, this should not be done at the expense of our national defence, security interests or non-proliferation and export control commitments.

Today, we will also discuss measures of providing export control services during the establishment of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The agreements reached among the members of this Union will provide for the free movement of goods and services, including dual-use products.

The forthcoming abolishment of customs control along the internal borders of the Union's member-countries will create the theoretical risk that sensitive products and technology will be leaked due to differences in the national export control systems. This could lead to serious charges from the international community of non-compliance with our non-proliferation commitments, which may adversely affect our economic relations.

Therefore, when removing the administrative barriers to trade within the Customs Union, we must create the conditions to guarantee that we continue to follow all of our international commitments and ensure our security. The deadline agreed to by the leaders of our countries for launching the common customs space is very close - June 1 of this year.

Therefore, the appropriate agencies should address any problems that arise very quickly, in conjunction with our Belarusian and Kazakh partners, of course. We will discuss specific details of this today.

In addition, we will consider the export of specific domestic high-tech products and a number of other current issues. And that takes care of my speech.

Thank you.