STEPAN ZEMTSOV: “THE INITIATIVE TO CREATE SECTORAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES FOR SME COULD PROVIDE AN IMPETUS FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT”

The “Support of Russia” association has sent an initiative to sectoral ministries and agencies to work out the domestic targeted programs for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). "In its proposal, the association highlighted that in practice agencies could make a sample from the general SME register for specific sectors to better understand their counterparties and obtain information for analytics. This is particularly relevant today, as it is a pressing issue to develop domestic production and market saturation due to the withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia and logistical constraints. Specific programs could be developed involving experts and representatives of relevant industries, but for this initiative to be implemented effectively, KPIs should be set and responsibility should be assigned to a concrete Deputy Head of the Federal authority.

"The distribution of responsibility for SME development across sectoral agencies is a sensible proposal, as each sector has its own specifics and the Ministry of economic development alone cannot effectively distribute funds for agriculture, construction and high technology," Stepan Zemtsov pointed out.

"It is very difficult to find specialists outside the sectoral departments who would be able to make truly balanced decisions on investing in one company or another: the Ministry of Agriculture understands much better than any other agency the projects in the agricultural sector that can rocket and those which will fail," said Stepan Zemtsov. Similarly, industry requires a specific approach: it needs help in engineering, design of buildings and facilities, and here it will not be possible to make do with a simple grant. That is why the idea of the “Support of Russia” is interesting, it could give an impetus to SME development," concluded the expert.