National Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business –
National Idea?
Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary
session of the National Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small
Business – National Idea? The forum examined issues such
as support for small and medium-sized enterprises
and measures to encourage business activity.
January 20, 2016
14:40
Moscow
National Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business –
National Idea?
The forum, organised by the OPORA
Russia national public association of small and medium-sized
enterprises, is taking place in Moscow on January 19–20. It
brings together business people and officials from relevant ministries
and agencies to discuss issues such as reducing bureaucratic
pressure on private companies, improving tax legislation,
and encouraging people to get into business.
Speech at plenary session of National
Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business – National Idea?
President of Russia Vladimir Putin:
Good
afternoon, friends,
Let me begin by congratulating you all
on the recent New Year holiday and wishing you success
and all the very best. We all need you to succeed; you need
to succeed, and Russia wants you to succeed.
This forum’s very name holds great significance. We
often say that small and medium-sized enterprises are and should be
the real foundation for our country’s economic development.
The last two years were quite difficult
for the economy and nearly all economic sectors encountered
objective problems. Overall though, business has pulled through, including
small business. I was talking with some of your colleagues
on the way here just before, and they say that circumstances
such as the exchange rate difference and new openings
on various markets have even created some new opportunities.
Speech
at the national Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business – National
Idea?
The positive trend is clearest
in the services sector. The number of registered small
businesses increased by 2.9 percent in 2015, and the number
of self-employed entrepreneurs was up by 3.7 percent.
We have modest earnings growth. Production companies
in the small business sector saw their earnings rise by 8
percent, for example, in January-September 2015, compared
to the same period in 2014. The figure was up by 4.5
percent over the same period for the wholesale sector.
Of course, we do need to make every possible
effort to maintain stability in the small business sector
and ensure that temporary limitations, whether economic or budgetary,
do not prevent a growing number of educated people with a modern
outlook and sense of initiative from entering this sector.
We will certainly continue to put in place
the mechanisms that will let us move forward, in particular,
the Corporation for Development of Small and Medium
Business. It brings together under one roof all kinds of business support
instruments: financial support, legal assistance, information
and marketing support. It will become a kind of headquarters
for people engaged in small and medium business, providing them
with solutions to the issues and problems that arise.
The country’s regions also have new possibilities
for supporting business. Laws have been passed that allow the regions
to offer tax holidays to newly registered self-employed entrepreneurs.
The two-year zero tax rate is a big support for people opening
their own business in the services sector, production, social sector,
or science and research.
The regions can also now lower the tax rate
from 6 percent to 1 percent for businesses working under
the simplified taxation system. Thirty-nine regions have already made use
of this possibility, and 81 regions have already introduced tax
holidays.
Unfortunately however, we know that far from all
regions see small and medium business development as a priority.
Last week, at a meeting with business people organized
by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, we discussed
the idea of establishing project offices in the regions
to spread best practice in doing business. These examples
of best practice are decided based on the results
of the National rating of investment climate in Russia’s
regions.
Speech
at the national Entrepreneurs’ Forum Small Business – National
Idea?
I hope too that this kind of promising new
approach will at least enable us to organize better cooperation
between the authorities and business people. Implementation
of your proposals and ideas will be the first test
for evaluating these offices’ work.
OPORA Russia, as an association representing
business interests and with an extensive network of offices
throughout the country, should, of course, work most actively
in the regions and be more persistent and productive
in its efforts at the regional level. For our part, we will
do everything we can to support these efforts, because it is you,
the business people, who must become generators of ideas that answer
our current needs and help business to resolve the problems it
faces.
You need to work together with the regions
and the local teams to identify areas where business can make
the biggest contribution, establish specialized training programmes
and achieve concrete results. Only then can we achieve a quality
breakthrough in this area.
Your forum is already into its second day
of work. I am sure that you can put forward plenty of useful,
consolidated proposals. I promise you that I will do all I can
to ensure that the regional authorities and government bodies
react positively to your ideas and make use of your ideas,
really put them into practice. We need this to happen because we all need
your economic success. It is crucial for our country’s life in general,
for resolving our social and domestic political problems
and for our standing in the international arena.
I wish you success. Thank you very much.
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