Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, chief of the presidential staff Sergei Sobyanin, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko, Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev and Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin.

Opening the meeting the president said, “The development of the infrastructure is listed among the most important tasks in the real economy for the near future and for resolving the economic diversification goals.” The president meant the construction of highways, the development of ports and airports, making the rivers deeper so that the navigation is unfortunately halted at some places of these rivers.

“This brings about an anecdotic situation, when passengers disembark from the motor ships at some places, get on buses, and then they get aboard the ships again. The underdeveloped infrastructure is a real obstacle for the economic development,” Putin said.

“We speak about the ‘Polar Urals’ project. This is clear for everybody that if not for a lack of a railway, we could implement multibillion projects there right now,” Putin said.

Putin emphasized that the meeting participants should also discuss this problem, but he intends to elaborate on the problem of the development of seaports. “In this issue quite much has been done, but even more should be done,” the president believes.

“The economic potential, the mood of our producers and the imports depends on this. This concerns all types of freight and container shipments of oil products and crude,” Putin said. He emphasized that this particularly concerns broader ties between the Kaliningrad region and the remaining territory of the country.

MOSCOW, April 30 (Itar-Tass)