Take All--Gorbachev Urals Visit

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

(Stroganov) By way of example I'll say that our quarry excavator is absolutely competitive with foreign machines of the same class. We supply this equipment to Soviet customers for R90,000: There hs never been an instance when we have sold each excavator abroad for less than 600,000. [passage omitted: G.N. Bashilov, director of the heavy machine-building scientific research institute, speaks on the new atmosphere, the current reliability of Uralmash output, the loss of designers and technologists to the cooperatives]

A.S. Osintsev, deputy general director of the Association for Economics, touched on the question of how one should assess the monopoly of "Uralmash," he said. We are a long way away from becoming a monopoly, for the level of our output depends not so much upon ourselves as it does in many cases upon a mass of component manufactures and actions by suppliers. That is the main reason why we are behind competitors on the world market. [sentence distinct]

The economist devoted a significant part of his speech to the problems of leasing relations at the enterprise. In part, he cited the example of people refusing to go over to leasing, believing that it would not be advantageous for them under existing circumstances.

M.S. Gorbachev asked the deputy director to answer the question: What, in his view, causes society's concern when the question arises of the radicalization of reforms and of us having to take consistent steps toward a market economy? What has frightened people and caused alarm?

It seems to me, the economist replied, that apprehensions arise as a result of the losses without which there can be no shift to a market economy.

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[Excerpts] It cannot avoid falls in the volumes of production. This is the first thing. And, second, we probably will not be able to avoid unemployment. I believe that these two factors are the chief ones. They, most of all, are making people worried.

(M.S. Gorbachev) But if it is a case of having to take this path, and I have understood from the speeches here and from numerous conversations during the visit to the enterprise, that everyone realizes that this is the path we have to take, then it is necessary for everything to be thought through and weighed up beforehand, for everything to be discussed. The essence of matters should be known not only at the center, it should be understood not only by economic personnel. Ordinary people and work collectives should understand precisely what it is all about.

We do not wish to rush headlong into the market, and such an approach is unacceptable to us. The transfer should be carried out on the basis of a considered policy. We must, particularly in the initial stage, have a grip on this process and regulate it by means of a price mechanism.

Social protection measures must also be provided for. Finally, it is necessary to think of the fact that a process of regrouping, and possibly a laying off, of the working force will take place in manufacturing. But our cooperatives are only just coming into being, the service sector is not developed, just as everything connected to trade is not developed. For example we have enormous loads on our retail trade capacity, whereas the world has already gone through all that. Nearly always they have a ratio where the number of people employed outside of manufacturing is greater than the number working in material manufacturing. In other words, everything here is stil the other way around.