OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2009. Russian Federation president Dmitriy Medvedev called for defining the directions of GLONASS growth and for maintaining the system's competitiveness, while making the opening speech at the meeting of Russian Economy Modernization and Technological Development Commission in Fryazino, Moscow Region.

"One of the core tasks in the field of space assets is to decide upon the directions of GLONASS development first and foremost in those service areas which are important for mass user - he said. "The Government has already provided for deploying the orbital constellation" - he reminded.

"However, the information services market should become the economic baseline for GLONASS in future" - the President remarked. "This relates to capabilities to monitor technologically complicated objects in order to eliminate or mitigate losses incurred by emergency situations, geospatial services, navigation issues, land cadastre and to sum it up to those issues which are handicapped by bureaucracy and thus mature very slowly" - he specified.