Kremlin efficiency call

Press, 25 February 1981, Page 8

Kremlin efficiency call

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Kremlin has called for] greater efficiency to revive; the Soviet economy and; promised it would do its' best to remove shortages of: meat and consumer goods. A report to the Communist Party Congress, read in the name of President Leonid Brezhnev, said meat out.-: put should rise to 18.2 mil-' lion tonnes in 1985 from 15.1 million last-year. He singled .out the devel--opment of natural gas ini West Siberia as an impo’t-l ant growth area for the: next] few years and _ a task of] “prime economic’ and political importance.” “The deposits of the West Siberian region are unique,” he- said. “The 'biggest- of them — at Urengoi — contains such gigantic resources that, it can for many years meet the coaiiTv's domestic] and export- need?, including] exports., to capitalist coun-1 tries:”. • I Mr • Brezhnev ' also proposed a revision of the

munist Party programme' wiiich 20 years ago prom-i ised the Soviet people the] highest standard of living in! the world by 1981. He made no direct refer-: ences to the pledges to leave! the West and particularly! the United States far behind: in industrial and argiculturali production within 20 years.! which was adopted at the; twenty-second Party Con-1 gress in 1961 when Nikita! Khrushchev was in power. But in a clear sign of dis-] approval of the document’s specific but unfulfilled forecasts, he said the new version should be drawn - up on the basis “that the programme establishes only basic principles, that it is impossible and inappropriate to foretell particulars, in it.” Some promises in the 1961 programme have become particularly embarrassing to; Soviet ideologists, particu-i larly the pledges of ani abundance of-meat and other! food, products by 1981. . . j ' The last four or five years! have seen growing shortages

of all types of agricultural produce with meat especially scarce and almost ’- unobtainable in many parts of the country outside the privateenterprise peasant markets. The report contained nothing new on ideological and cultural questions, but- there was a powerful plea for mo:e effective propaganda. ; especially in the press, to combat Western ideas. It warned writers and artists that the party would not tolerate works “Which discredit our Soviet reality.” and said trade unions should show more initiative in defending the rights of workers.

The report praised the K.G.B. security police, who are in charge of neutralisating all forms of political protest. It said the K.G.B. “resolutely cuts short the activities of those who engage in anti-Government hostile actions and encroach on the rjghts .of-Spyjet people iupon the interest of Soviet society."