The government wants to move to ensure the qualitative improvement of SMEs

Having solved the problem of quantitative growth of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), the government intends to move on to ensure its qualitative improvement, follows from the results of the strategic session on the development of the sector held by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The authorities intend to concentrate further targeted support for SMEs in priority sectors. For companies operating in them, which have outgrown the scope of small and medium-sized businesses, it is proposed to leave state support measures for SMEs. In this way, the authorities expect not only to rid the business of “growth shocks”, but also to expand the category of enterprises focused on replacing foreign suppliers who left the Russian Federation.

At a strategic session on the development of small and medium-sized businesses on Tuesday, government representatives said that the goals announced in 2019 when launching a national project to support this sector have been achieved. First of all, the quantitative growth of SMEs has been ensured. The number of small and medium enterprises remains stable – about 6 million, the number of employees is approaching 30 million people. The indicators were achieved through a range of measures, from reducing the number of inspections and launching new tax solutions to increasing the availability of credit and creating sustainable demand for SME products.

According to the head of the Ministry of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov (Kommersant has a presentation he presented at the closed part of the session), Russia is ahead of many countries in terms of the number of SMEs, but it lags behind in terms of the sector’s contribution to the economy. In this regard, it is proposed to focus the new SME strategy on qualitative growth. Among the goals by 2030 (they are planned to be set in the new version of the national project) are to double the share of medium-sized enterprises, increase the contribution of SMEs to GDP by 3 percentage points, up to 28%, and increase income per employee in the sector by almost a quarter. The new plan was developed by the Ministry of Economy together with the SME Corporation and business associations.

Taking into account the withdrawal of international suppliers from the Russian market and the limited possibilities of the budget, the authorities are counting on focusing targeted support for the sector (soft lending programs, equipment leasing, umbrella guarantees, and so on) in priority sectors. These are the manufacturing industry, IT, engineering centers, technology companies, and tourism. By 2030, they are expected to employ a quarter of all SMEs.

One of the main goals of the new SME development strategy proposed yesterday is to smooth the transition for growing companies from one category to another. Let us explain that problems in the transition from micro to small and then to medium-sized enterprises arise due to the tightening of control, an increase in the administrative burden and an increase in taxes. In this regard, it is planned to pay special attention to the so-called SME+ category – companies that have gone beyond small and medium-sized businesses that operate in priority industries, are not affiliated with the state and whose annual income does not exceed 10 billion rubles. Now there are only 800 such companies (excluding trade and construction), for them it is proposed to extend the validity of financial support measures: programs of umbrella guarantees and preferential investment lending. As follows from the presentation by Maxim Reshetnikov, if these measures are extended until 2030, SME+ companies will attract more than 900 billion rubles, and their income will grow by more than a third.

The desire to support companies that have gone beyond small and medium-sized businesses is demonstrated by the authorities not for the first time: in 2019, the Ministry of Economy prepared amendments to the law “On the Development of SMEs”, extending the right of such enterprises to remain in the register of SMEs and, as a result, apply for state support for another two years after the loss of status (they were eventually not accepted). The high probability of support for the new proposal of the ministry is explained not only by the fact that, unlike the amendments of 2019, it is focused only on a part of the SME+ sector, but also by its relevance in the conditions when the companies of the “transitional” category are actually declared the driving force behind import substitution.

Christina Borovikova