Officials at the meeting discussed the current status of Russian coated-paper production, focusing on plans to build new high-capacity coated-paper and cardboard production facilities.

"There is significant demand for new production facilities of this kind," stated the first deputy prime minister. "The annual demand for coated paper products is expected to grow by 7% in the near future," he added.

The Council also discussed preparations for the high-risk summer forest fire season.

"In 2009, as many as 22,500 registered forest fires occurred over an area of more than 1.6 million hectares of Russian forests. This is too much," stated Mr Zubkov. "Today we will hear a report on the causes of forest fires and assess the effectiveness of fire-fighting measures. The mistakes of last year must not be repeated. This is why regional executive authorities, charged with extinguishing forest fires, must redouble their efforts in this area."

In conclusion, officials at the Council considered ways to improve the financial and economic management of forestry.

"An analysis of the current financial and economic situation in forest management reveals a number of problems that need to be dealt with. First of all, I would like to stress that we must effectively use every hectare of our forests. Forests must have an owner. This is our main objective. It is the only way to ensure a higher profitability of forestry, making it attractive for investors," emphasised Mr Zubkov.

"We must develop a plan to improve forest management at the regional level. We must improve forest infrastructure, forest seed farming and the government's inventory of forests. It is also necessary to streamline intergovernmental financing, attract loans to forestry in order to take better advantage of financial rent, insurance and other financial mechanisms in forest management," concluded the first deputy prime minister.