Big changes in the economic situation of the country started in late 1990, and in the middle of 1991 the reforms took over. Russia lost quite a volume of quotes: in the Baltics, in the Azov and Black Sea pool. Russia has not prolonged many international agreements for 10 years, came out of global ocean zones. Our committee was reformed 9 times during 6 years, people were on the edge of being fired all the time, they mostly thought about how to survive than about production. Nine directors replaced each other during 6 years. As a result, people protected their own interests more than the interests of the State, and they should not be blamed for that. It is within the human nature, when a person is living in uncertainty, he is thinking about survival of his family more than about anything else. The President appointed me at this position two years ago, and we accepted the situation as it was. In 1990 Russia produced 11,5 million tons of fish, now producing 3 million tons. We had to work our way through on the external front, so that Russia could get back to many international treaties. The fleet in the global ocean put pressure on its economic waters, and we were squeezed out from almost everywhere in the global ocean. We had to restore many foreign representative offices and agreements, to build our relations with other countries on the basis of separating the product: how much fish is produced in the country, which provided its economic waters, and how much fish is produced in Russia. In our country privatization and the change of ownership occurred. The change of ownership in fishing sector was carried out in the wrong way: on-the-shore processing was privatized separately from the fishing fleet itself. Naturally, it led to the difference of interests. Fishing fleet was thinking how to fish and sell the catch abroad, and the processing industry - how to get cheap raw materials in order to provide reasonably priced product for our people.

The president set the task for us to improve the current situation. Yes, my relations with the former president were not really simple. We had different views on the borders, especially in the area of Hasana, Kuril Islands. I am a nationalist in the good meaning of the word. I stick to the priorities of Russia. I think we should not give in lands on the border with China, and we did not give in a single square meter. The discussion about the Kuril Islands is the betrayal of the country. We can build joint ventures with Korea or Japan, but on our land. Our people should work there, all the taxes should stay in the country. This is my understanding.

Nevertheless, I am the first person, who created a market enterprise in the USSR. In 1983 I created the first market enterprise, the US ambassador Jack Metlock visited it. I have always been market-oriented even when it was banned. That is why it is hard to call me a conservative person, but nevertheless I am for the priorities of the State, against the State being stolen from and robbed. I think the State chose the wrong system of economic relations inside the country, having left the economy develop by itself, hoping that some economic formula will regulate everything. Each state involves in economic development, and our State just escaped the economic sector exposing it to difficulties. The State should give direction to the economy, should define what are the priorities for economic development. For example, fishing industry, should it be the currency supplier to the budget or should it be food security warrant and has to be financed from the budget as in Japan, Korea and Norway, so that it could provide food to people. We should first determine what the tasks are. So far, the main task was to pump out as much as possible from the industry. When there are no processing plants, the only task is to catch fish and sell it abroad. And if there is a processing plant, then you are worried about how to deliver the fish to the shore and process it, this is where added costs appear, this is an absolutely different price of the matter.

Let us consider the chain of growth of the added value: if you caught fish and brought it to Japan, it will be one price, and imagine if the fish was caught, loaded into transport vehicles, delivered to a port, these are extra job places and taxes, then the fish is processed at a plant, this is a totally different product, more jobs and taxes. Then it is sold in a store: it is extra sales tax, and even more jobs. So, product implies more job places and more local taxes from individuals. It makes the country richer, it supplies end product instead of raw materials.

There is a big difference whether the country only supplies raw materials or it is dealing with all the processing, it shows the level of qualification of the nation, it also implies the presence of special institutions where experts in the field can be trained. This is an absolutely different level of the development of the country, absolutely different relations within the country. Naturally, I have my own views on the economy, and I am going to talk about my views. Yes, we had revolution in 1917. Did we need this revolution? I think, that February revolution was necessary while October revolution was not. October revolution was more like going to Russian extremes. But it happened and it is a historical fact. As a result a weak state appeared - Russia with terrifying civil war and destroyed economy. After the revolution the country was weak, best staff was eliminated, the culture of the spiritual nation was destroyed as well; cruelty, robbery, and banditism were frequent. The leaders of the state then had to put everything in order. At that time when experts were leaving the country, and there was no qualified personnel, then people entered the sea concessions, mining enterprises and these actions were justified.

I am no fisherman by education, I grew up in a mining village. "Dalpolimetal" was within the concession there. This was English-American concession. But at night from December 31, 1930, to January 1st, 1931, the first Soviet director Latyshev took over. At that time the country became stronger and started to gain control over concessions. In Soviet Union this process was very strictly followed with all the acts, equipment integrity carefully observed. And now when higher education in our country is one of the best in the world, when we have professors and teachers in the institutes…. We made an incredible break-through in history, in the development of our nation. Strange as it might seem, one of the indicators of the development of the nation is sewage system. In Moscow it appeared 300 years after it appeared in Holland. It means that Holland was 300 years ahead of Russia. It is clear how far behind we were. I would not go into details now what price we paid for the creation of unique industry, unique education, and unique professorate. We cannot be compared with Africa or Latin America, we have our excellent personnel, who teach in our institutes. We have our excellent shipping industry. We have our wonderful students, experts at seas and everywhere.

I was leading a combine, and Metlock came there. He asked who was our foreign consultant. I told him that there are no foreign consultants, we created everything ourselves. I read Driser and "Capital". These are American books. This was 1983 when it was considered a terrible crime against the system to even think about private or collective property. Nevertheless, I thought that there should be collective property. It cannot all belong to the state. The state should own a part of it as a counter of the collective property like in France, or the United States, or Japan. The process of regulation of the relations between state and private property is very complicated. I stand out for absolute Russian property, but the capital can be mixed: Russian-Japanese, Russian-Korean. I admit, we can create joint ventures with joint capital in the Kuril Islands but on Russian land. We built a fish-breeding plant in the Kamchatka peninsula, and I asked Japanese embassy for a name of some great Japanese, we could name our plant with. They gave us a name of the great traveler, who suffered a hard life and perished in a storm. We named our plant with his name but on our land.

We have a goal to build as many processing plants as possible in order to reduce the amount of raw materials exported to other countries, to feed other countries less, and supply end product to the domestic market and abroad. We have to get as much fish as today in Iceland. Iceland places itself first in the supply of fish per capita: 80-90 kilos per capita. Norway and Japan - 50-60 kilos. Holland together with all the imported fish - 27 kilos, and Russia - 7-8 kilos. Our task is to get back to the level of these leading countries. All these tasks will lead to extra job places.

We are not sitting behind an iron curtain, we are following what is going on in the world. There are good processing plants. We used to build submarines and ships, now it is a different time, we have to have enough defense forces, but not at that scale. If we produce a couple of missile carriers less, we can build 40-50 fish-processing plants with good technology, Japanese or Korean one. This is the main goal for the sector these days. We protected the plan of development of the sector until 2005 in the government, and then we will see how the sector will grow. We know that we inherited burgled seas like the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. I like the aggression of our president, aggression in a good way. He is a healthy person in all respects, and his actions are state-loyal. I respect his decision to close the Sea of Okhotosk for both foreigners and big domestic ships, so that the sea could take a break for 7-10 years. He will leave a newly rich sea for all generations.

How do you see further relations of Russia and Japan and cooperation in fishing industry?

Our position is to cooperate with other countries in those spheres, where their development is far ahead. We are kindly looking at Japan, Korea, and any country. In 1990 Soviet Union supplied 11 million tons of fish, and China - 9 million. Now China supplies 44 million tons, and Russia - 3 million tons of fish. China has been working hard for all these 10 years, and incredible results were reached in fish breeding industry.

In any country the investment climate is very important for all the sectors of the economy. What measures are taken to attract investments into fishing industry in Russia?

During last year and a half we built 4 fish-breeding and 9 fish-processing plants. There are plants with clearly Russian capital. There are 4 plants built in the Far East with Japanese capital and 1 - with Korean capital. In Murmansk one plant was built with the participation of Norway. Many plants are applying foreign technologies. This is a convincing example. I like Japanese and Korean technologies very much, they make good progress in the development of nutrition technologies. But I do not welcome the presence of highly technological ships of other countries in our waters. Russian fishermen should work. I treat European Union as a platform, where we can sell our product. Poor-quality products will not go through on the territory of European Union. They need high-quality products from high-technology plants. We do not have such in Russia so far. In the Far East we bought Japanese and Korean technologies. These are investments.

What would be your final message to our readers, who are potential investors, and who are interested in investment opportunities in Russia?

We would like to ask everybody, who is going to work with our enterprises, to let our committee know about it, if not work through our committee. You may not work through Federal structures if you are afraid of officials, it is understandable. But we can at least give you some information who you should work with, and whom you should not work with. You can diminish your risks this way. We can provide you with the whole picture of activity of enterprises. I am offering you relative warranties of the State and the opinion of the State structure in this sector. It is very important for Asian mentality. I have lived in this mentality for all my 50 years.