New Shipping Register On the Way

The State Duma on Wednesday approved long-awaited amendments to a legislative package that could ease business for Russian shipowners and could potentially infuse billions of dollars into the domestic shipbuilding industry.

Over 400 deputies voted in the first reading for the amendments in federal legislation relating to the creation of the Russian International Shipping Register, the Transportation Ministry said in a statement. The second and third Duma readings are scheduled to take place by the end of this year.