Material and Technical Supply, the form of commodity turnover within the state sector of the economy by which state production enterprises are supplied with the means of labour—equipment, tools, appliances, etc., and objects of labour (see Implements of Labour; Object of Labour). In a given form of commodity turnover certain enterprises (economic organisations) act as suppliers and others as consumers of the means of production. Under the developed social division of labour the same enterprise can be the consumer of what many enterprises supply, and at the same time the supplier of products used in several industries. Material and technical supply is a form of wholesale commerce, a form of the planned distribution of the means of production based on the organised links and contracts between suppliers and consumers either directly or indirectly (see Direct LongTerm Economic Ties). Material and technical supply is realised in accordance with proportions envisaged in the country’s economic plan and with approved planned rates of the expenditure of material resources per unit of production. The state (society) is the owner of the means of production when they are sold or bought. The plan of material and technical supply is a component of the single national economic plan of the country (republic), and the production plans of an industry or enterprise (association). The sphere of the material and technical supply expands with the expansion of production, the acceleration of the scientific and technical progress, the development of specialisation and cooperation, the widening range of production and technological products consumed by enterprises, the heightened industrialisation of construction, and the restructuring of agricultural production on the industrial base. The technological level of this important branch of the economy is rising—modern warehouses and depots are being built, loading and unloading means and transport developed, etc. Material and technical supply in the USSR is handled by the State Committee for Material and Technical Supply of the USSR, the State Committee of the USSR for Production and Technical Supply of Agriculture, relevant bodies of the constituent Union republics, ministries, departments, enterprises (associations) and institutions.