South Ossetian President met with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia.
Agricultural development in South Ossetia was discussed at a meeting of President Leonid Tibilov with the Russian Deputy Minister for Agriculture Ilya Shestakov. The meeting was also attended by Minister of Agriculture of the RSO Mairbek Guchmazov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic Guram Melkoev, Russian Ambassador to South Ossetia Elbrus Kargiev and Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Robert Zaseev.
The Head of State has welcomed the guests, noting that South Ossetia and Russia have been cooperating closely on issues of social development, and has expressed satisfaction that the cooperation will also be established in the agricultural sector.
"I would not say that this area has dropped out of sight, because during the meeting with Russian President were also discussed the agriculture issues ", - underlined Tibilov.
According to him, for the past 20 years, agriculture has fallen into decay in South Ossetia, which has resulted in the devastation of the villages.
"It affects our demographic situation, food security, since most of the products we have been importing from Russia. Our task is, in particular, to reduce these imports. We should get down to business, to develop, and we need the help of Russia. Therefore, we are now preparing proposals, plans and programs to support the village, to raise the agricultural sector ", - said the president.
He drew the attention of the participants to the problem of human resources and said that in the South Ossetian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission there were no representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, which, according to the head of state, was not correct.
The President also spoke about the concept and the program for the development of agriculture in South Ossetia, stressing that the leadership had been strictly monitoring the implementation of all the decisions.
"Everything must be executed in time, because we cannot waste time. Our work is more difficult, because we have not fully completed the rehabilitation process, including housing, damaged by the 2008 war, "- said Tibilov.
He expressed hope that the close cooperation between the Ministries of Agriculture of Russia and South Ossetia would bear fruit.
"We set great hopes on Russia, because, we will not be able to get out of this difficult situation," - stressed the president.
In turn, Ilya Shestakov thanked Leonid Tibilov for the warm welcome and the creation of conditions for the work in the Republic.
"We would like to discuss several approaches to the challenges facing the agricultural sector. And I agree with you that we certainly need to enter into intergovernmental commission for a quick addressing of the problems. This is an important element, without which it is impossible to advance development. We have missed a lot of things, so we could not help each other in this direction ", - said the deputy minister.
Shestakov said, that during a working visit to South Ossetia he had met with the farmers; the guests had also acquainted themselves with the program of agricultural development, the investment program.
"In our opinion, the rural economy should develop in the private direction. There should be farmers, and the government should encourage the development of agriculture in the form of grant support, creating the conditions for this "- said Shestakov.
During the meeting they discussed the problems to be solved for this.
