Russia aims to be five biggest economies by 2021: Putin

GENEVA, (AFP): Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday set an “ambitious goal” for the country to become one of the five largest economies in the next decade.

“We have put forth an ambitious goal in the next decade to make Russia one of the five largest economies of the world,” he told the 100th conference of the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.

“As for GDP per capita, to increase the figure from $19,700 to more than $35,000 per person,” he said.

Putin acknowledged that the country would need to double its productivity, and create new jobs in the high-technology sector, in order to achieve this goal.

“The Russian economy should not have inefficient jobs, and should eliminate them instead,” he said.

The Russian PM noted that the consequences of the recent economic and financial crises were still being felt in Russia, but that he expected the country’s economy to “fully recover” to pre-crisis levels by the end of 2011. Russia’s GDP grew 4.1 percent during the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2010.