SPIEF: federal officials invited small businesses to the big game

Ekaterina Maksimova

Representatives of SMEs were asked to “turn around” and reorganize in such a way as to at least partially replace the dropped supplies to large businesses.

An emotional quote from Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov is quoted by Kommersant : “We must change the strategy of supporting small businesses from “ordered to survive” to “ordered to make money.” Create conditions for this.

First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Vasily Osmakov noted that European SMEs to help Russia will not come, they must be replaced the local players. President of Opora Rossii Alexander Kalinin proposed to concentrate assistance to entrepreneurship on sectoral support and introduce programs for the development of SMEs in all sectoral ministries. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Opora Rossii Sergey Borisov even voiced the idea of introducing KPIs for federal officials to build up small businesses in all sectors, this is reported on the official website of Opora Rossii.

Novye Izvestia asked the defenders of small and medium-sized businesses in the regions to evaluate the new rhetoric of the authorities.

Business Ombudsman of St. Petersburg Alexander Abrosimov noted that a list of industries is needed so that entrepreneurs see directions for their work

“The executive authorities should prepare lists of segments that are necessary first of all to ensure the life of the city and industry. And these areas should be known to business. It was at SPIEF that it was necessary to create sectoral public councils under the ministries so that businesses could clearly understand the tasks: what needs to be replaced with imports, what disappearing products should be replenished on the market , ”Abrosimov commented to Novye Izvestia.

At the same time, the Ombudsman notes that “this is far from a simple matter.” And if in the service sector entrepreneurs can quickly find their bearings and replace foreigners, then, for example, in the industrial sector, the share of SMEs is only 5%.

Elena Artyukh, Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights in the Sverdlovsk Region , noted that representatives of small and medium-sized businesses have been saying for several years that they are ready for both import substitution and cooperation with large companies. Another thing is that no one has the proper information.

“After February 24, one of my first requests was related to this topic: where can we get data on who may need our products, in which segments we can become these “deputies”. There is no intelligible, understandable, quantitative and qualitative information. Right today: how much and what is imported in Russia, what can be replaced right now, and what requires investment to replace in some understandable time period. This data is not available globally in the government, and business does not have this information , ”commented Elena Artyukh.

Ombudsman Elena Artyukh also stressed that in addition to an operational dialogue, SMEs still need resources and, most importantly, the ability to focus specifically on entrepreneurship, and not on the regulatory “husk”.

One of the leaders of the regional branch of "Opora Rossii" oil-and-gas bearing Yamal - Aleksey Pisarev , believes that it was difficult for many small companies in Russia to compete with foreign ones due to the higher cost of production.

“It was hard to push with elbows when big business had already arranged the supply of this or that product from abroad at lower prices. Now is the time for opportunities,” Pisarev believes. He suggested that in the Arctic region, "babies", including, can be useful to vertically integrated companies for the development of new logistics corridors, construction, transshipment of goods, delivery of related goods - all this used to be earned mainly by foreign companies in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

In most regions of the country, the curators of SMEs were not ready to comment on the theses voiced at SPIEF. And they answered approximately the same as Olga Lyutikova, the chairman of the Kurgan regional branch of Opora Rossii. She stressed that she “completely agrees” with the leader of her organization, Alexander Kalinin, but is not ready to clarify what this gives to the entrepreneurs of the Trans-Urals and in which segments the Kurgans could become “deputies”.

Representatives of the business community believe that the authorities and major market players should conduct an operational dialogue with them on specially created or reanimated Internet sites. Alexey Pisarev recalled that such a platform was created a long time ago, but it “needs to be pumped up and promoted.” The Ombudsman for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights in St. Petersburg noted that a special portal is being created in the Northern capital for these purposes, on which the Committee on Industrial Policy of St. Petersburg is currently working.