To achieve this goal, he said, the government had to continue its balanced macroeconomic policy and curb inflation.

The government plans to bring inflation down to 5 percent over the next three years, which is a realistic goal, Zhukov said. High inflation impedes investment growth, which is necessary to diversify the economy and put an end to dependence on raw materials. “We must take advantage of the situation on the world markets in order to carry out a structural maneuver and diversify the economy,” Zhukov said.

Senior Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also pointed to Russia’s significant economic potential. He is convinced that Russia can claim global leadership in a number of industries.

Today, Russia cannot compete with China in the production of mass consumer goods, but Russia has its advantages, such as the natural creativity of its people and intellectual potential, which provides an opportunity to create a global intellectual center in Russia, Medvedev said.

Russia’s another strong point is vast natural reserves. The country had about 65 percent of global apatite reserves, 35 percent of gas reserves, 30 percent of iron, 14 percent of uranium and 12 percent of oil by 2000. Russia was not going to reduce supplies of natural reserves to the global market, Medvedev said, but it was going to introduce new technologies for advance processing of these natural resources, supplying products with value added to the world market.