On November 21 2016 a meeting of the Presidium of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for strategic development and priority projects. One of the topics raised at this meeting was the question of development of small businesses and individual entrepreneurship.
Today there are about 5.5 million small companies and independent businessmen in Russia. Their contribution to GDP is about 20%, which is several times less than in countries with more developed economies. Also, the problems with access to financial resources and the procurement of large government customers. For example, in 2014, the share of loans to small and medium companies was 21.5% in the total portfolio of banks and it decreased to 17% in 2015.
An identification summary of a project “Small businesses and support of individual business initiative” was approved to improve the situation. It has been designed for the period from December 2016 to March 2019. A key goal of the project is to provide employment for 1.2 million people in the small businesses and provide support to 336’000 entrepreneurs.
To accomplish the task, the area of a SMEs Business Navigator was expanded. As a result, the information on and business development will be available in 171 city of the Russian Federation. Also, the centers for providing state and municipal services to SMEs will be created in 80 regions, aided by govermental banks. In addition, small businesses will get access to public procurement.
Due to this fact, in 2018, the volume of purchases of the largest public customers at individual entrepreneurs will amount to a minimum of 17.5% of their annual volume. Another measure will be the development of a system of training, retraining and advanced training of personnel for individual and small businesses.
