The government has updated the investment climate rating indicators in the regions

The White House has updated the list of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of governors as part of the National Rating of the Investment Climate in the Regions. Another 25 have been added to the existing 44 indicators. First of all, they must determine the degree of local support for small and medium-sized businesses. The updating of the rating is explained by the desire to improve the accuracy of its estimates. Eight years have passed since the list was formed, and since then the level of interaction between business and government has changed, new mechanisms and methods of statistical observation have appeared.

The government has updated the list of indicators by which the performance of governors should be assessed within the framework of the National Rating of the Investment Climate in the Regions. This rating is compiled by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and evaluates the efforts of regions to create favorable conditions for doing business in four areas: regulatory environment, institutions for business, infrastructure and resources, support for small and medium-sized businesses. Among the indicators are the gross regional product, the volume of tax benefits, the level of development of public-private partnerships, and the number of SMEs. The leaders of the rating in 2023 were Moscow, Tatarstan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Tyumen regions.

As follows from the published government order, another 25 are being added to the existing 44 indicators. They mainly concern small and medium-sized businesses (the number of self-employed people, the number of competitive procurement announced with advantages for SMEs, etc.). The effectiveness of state support will also be more carefully studied: the list has been supplemented with such indicators as the total volume of assistance to SMEs and the self-employed within the framework of the guarantee support system, the size of regional non-resource non-energy exports of SMEs, and the number of exporters in this sector. In general, for the regional economy, it is planned to pay attention to the volume of investments in fixed assets (investments of infrastructure monopolies and budget funds will not be considered), expenses of consolidated budgets and population in the region.

As the Ministry of Economy explained to Kommersant, in fact the order “legitimizes the developments that have been accumulated in recent years; expansion of indicators is necessary because the level of interaction between business and government has become larger, business demands have changed, new mechanisms and statistical observations have appeared.” The included metrics reflect the work of the regions to support SMEs – in particular, financial measures and ensuring sales of small and medium-sized businesses – and allow one to evaluate the effect of the measures taken, the department added.

President of Opora Russia Alexander Kalinin notes that recently the gap between regions in assessing work to support SMEs “has been tens and even single points,” since aggregated indicators can no longer accurately reflect the situation. In this regard, he said, “it’s time to evaluate more deeply.” Vice President of Business Russia Nonna Kagramanyan adds that eight years have passed since the last list was compiled. In her opinion, the updated list “will more clearly focus the efforts of regions and development institutions on achieving the goals of socio-economic development.” For example, explains Nonna Kagramanyan, the indicator of the volume of investment in fixed capital should become a marker that the priority is to encourage investment-active companies, and indicators, for example, on the number of SME exporters “set the focus on the transition from an increase in the number of SME companies to an increase their level of maturity.”

Director of the center “Russian Cluster Observatory” of the ISSEK National Research University Higher School of Economics Evgeniy Kutsenko notes that the new indicators are aimed at “a more complete assessment of the SME sector and how effectively the region is developing it.” The next logical step, he believes, should be a focus on high technology and the creative economy. To do this, it is worth including the number of operating small technology companies among the indicators.

Evgenia Kryuchkova