Profit Plan Used In Soviet Factory

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30841, 28 August 1965, Page 24

Profit Plan Used In Soviet Factory

(N Z. Press Association—Copyright) MOSCOW, August 25. The manager of a Russian textile factory told American businessmen yesterday that the factory was going over to a modified profit system “to meet consumer demand better.”

The Svernova textile factory in Moscow is one of the Soviet factories introduced in the reforms proposed by the economist, Yevsei Liberman. They give profit a new importance in Soviet attempts to increase efficiency and provide better goods for consumers. Vasily Nikitavitch, the Svernova manager, said: “Life brings new things. The Liberman theory has been tested and proven good. Our people are demanding higher quality. The new method will enable us to meet consumer demand better.” Liberman and his supporters in the Soviet Union deny that the new method represents a borrowing from capitalism. They claim that because ownership of- the means of production is

retained by the State profit in Russia can never be the same thing as profit in the Western countries. The businesmen who visited the Svernova factory are part of a group of 143 Americans now in Moscow under an exchange programme. Its organisers hope that the Soviet Union will send a corresponding group to the United States. The programme aims at bringing people in similar lines of work together to improve Soviet-American relations.