Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov: Development of small and medium-sized business is not possible without state support

Financial and administrative support from the state is a crucial condition for Russian small and medium businesses to develop. The Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov has today said it in a statement at the “Small Business. Financing and State Support” conference held in Kazan.

The organisers are Opora Rossii, Russian Bank for Development and the Tatarstan Small and Medium Business Development Committee. The agenda includes round table meetings, held to discuss various ways of financial and administrative support for small businesses that are available in Russia.

While making welcoming remarks, Rustam Minnikhanov thanked Opora Rossii for the holding of the conference. “We attach great hopes to this event, we realise that small and medium business cannot develop without serious state support, both administrative and financial,” Tatarstan President enhanced.

According to the Tatar chief executive, providing funding for small and medium high-technology businesses is very important. “We have in the recent years set up many venues for business development, but the venues will have no prospects without serious financial investments,” Rustam Minnikhanov noted. “Without partner relations and a serious state programme there are no prospects for the small business’s development.”

The share of small and medium business in the Tatarstan’s economy is 24 percent, R. Minnikhanov said, the task is to take it up to 30 percent. Small and medium businesses in industrialised states make 50-60 percent of the economy, the president enhanced.

“I would like to reaffirm the republican and municipal authorities’s great interest in small and medium businesses being set up and developing in Tatarstan,” he concluded.

The Opora Rossii president Sergei Borisov said it pleased him to come to Kazan that had hosted such conferences before. “I am very grateful to Tatarstan President for his personal interest in our events. You are fared here from the spirit of entrepreneurship, you have a good feel of business,” Sergei Borisov told Rustam Minnikhanov. “This is why Tatarstan is considered an innovative republic in our circles, one that intensively progresses and seeks new ways.”

The national business enterprise pattern is changing, Sergey Borisov said. “We are moving from primitive trading to other branches. Entrepreneurs in the fields of machine building, advanced product processing, agriculture, healthcare, information technologies begin to crop up,” he said. “We welcome the fact that the state has defined its development priorities and allocates funds for this purpose.”

The Russian Bank for Development board chairman Sergei Krukov said cooperation with the local administrations was very important for federal programmes of supporting small and medium businesses. “We see a very good collaboration in Tatarstan,” S. Krukov said.

Tatarstan has laid a solid foundation for carrying on with the low-cost loaning programme for small and medium businesses. Of the 78 Russian regions that are implementing the programme as few as 4, including Tatarstan, have fully disbursed the funds. A total of 1.42 billion roubles was earmarked for Tatarstan, but the applications have already exceeded the limit by 500 million roubles. In this connection, the Russian Bank for Development considers increasing the funding for Tatarstan by 40-50 percent.

The plenary meeting heard some Tatarstan businessmen, including those who started up their ventures within the Leasing Grant programme implemented in Tatarstan. To develop industrial parks and technoparks, Rustam Minnikhanov proposed setting up leasing firms that could provide equipment for small and medium businesses in the real economy sector.