The Nome Nugget

Khrushchev Says USSR No Longer Gives Priority to Heavy Industry

MOSCOW (AP) Premier Khrushchev said Saturday the Soviet Union will no longer give priority to heavy industry but will develop both heavy industry and consumer goods production at the same rate.

The Premier, wearing a dark suit and all his medals, had strolled across the garden of his residence next door to a government guest house where a party was being given for exhibitors at the British Fair which opened here Friday.

Khrushchev commented that some British businessmen had asked him about light industry in the Soviet Union and that he told them the Russians had had to develop heavy industry first in order to create a proper base for the country's economy.

"Now we have created that base," he said, "we consider our heavy industry as built. So we are not going to give it priority. Light industry and heavy industry will develop at the same pace."

When Khrushchev, on Nov. 14, 1958, outlined the seven-year plan for 1959-1965, he said:

"The chief task of the seven-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR in 1959-65 is a further mighty upsurge of all branches of the economy on the basis of the priority expansion of heavy industry."