Small business will be brought to condition – Newspaper Kommersant No. 164 (7365) of 09/07/2022

The Ministry of Economy published on regulation.gov.ru draft documents describing the rules for the operation of state-owned companies’ programs to “grow” suppliers from small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to the draft scheme of the “incubator” programs themselves, the package also includes the draft rules for monitoring their work – it will be handled by the SME Corporation subordinate to the ministry. Thus, the program for adapting small businesses to the needs and requirements of state-owned companies that purchase goods and services from SMEs for 4 trillion rubles. per year, is close to launch – it is assumed that the package will enter into force on November 12.

The model program for “growing” SME suppliers by state-owned companies will have to describe “a set of measures to provide them with financial, legal, methodological, informational and other support” (this may be financing of modernization, purchase of equipment, staff training, etc.). The goal is to increase the number of qualified suppliers, increase the share of purchases from SMEs (including innovative and high-tech products) and create a system for introducing and transferring technologies integrated into the business strategies of state-owned companies, import substitution mechanisms and localization of production. The need for the program was previously explained by the fact that often the products of small companies that supply state JSCs do not meet the requirements (see Kommersant of January 19 and May 26).

It is assumed that the programs will be tied to specific goods, works and services required by state-owned companies. State JSCs will also be able to set their own requirements for the SMEs they are ready to work with, which will allow them to take into account industry specifics. Participants of the state-owned companies will be selected on the SME digital platform created by the Ministry of Economy by assessing the compliance of applications with the requirements of the programs by the customer. After selection, an “individual map” of their development will be approved with the program participants and an agreement on the provision of support measures will be signed, indicating their list, the procedure and terms for implementation, the amount of support responsible for the implementation of activities and the responsibility of the parties to the agreement for its implementation. One of the support measures could be access to a joint program of concessional lending by the Ministry of Economy, the Central Bank and the SME Corporation (see Kommersant of July 14).

The SME Corporation will maintain a register of “growing” programs and monitor their implementation, with an annual report (no later than April 30) and publication on the SME digital platform by May 31. A separate register will consolidate information about SMEs that have not fulfilled their obligations to the customer. Such data will be excluded from the register after two years or by a court decision.

By 2024, the volume of purchases of state-owned companies from SMEs should increase to 5 trillion rubles, in 2021 the volume of purchases amounted to 4.18 trillion rubles. Since 2022, the obligation to involve small businesses in deliveries has been expanded to all customers under Federal Law-223 – from 1.8 thousand to more than 20 thousand customers. It should be noted that earlier experts were concerned about the possibility of arbitrary selection by state-owned companies of “their” SMEs for support. By the second reading of the amendments to the law on SMEs, the Ministry of Economy introduced a ban on the affiliation of SMEs with state-owned companies (see Kommersant of May 26). However, due to the gradual closure of information on the procurement of state-owned companies and the weak fight against affiliation, the effectiveness of this measure is not obvious. Officials promised to improve protection against purchases from “their own” as part of the preparation of acts regulating the selection of participants, but no traces of this could be found: SMEs that were refused by a state-owned company to participate in its program have the right only to “appeal against the decision of the customer? in the manner established by the customer” .

Oleg Sapozhkov