Small Business Raring To Expose its Enemies
By Yekaterina Dranitsyna
Staff Writer
Bloomberg
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The fourth Small Business Forum, organized by the governor’s public committee for small business, will be held at the Lenexpo exhibition complex on Thursday and Friday, with obstructions to the sector already singled-out for attack. Previously the forum, which will combine seminars with an exhibition, was held at the Tavrichesky Palace. “Unlike previous forums it will not look like Soviet-style meetings of party members with executive personnel,” Roman Pastukhov, president of St. Petersburg Entrepreneurial Union, said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times on Monday. “For the first time small companies will be able to show off their achievements and not only talk about their problems,” Pastukhov said. At the moment small business contributes 25 percent of all tax payments to the city budget, “which is really a significant contribution,” Pastukhov noted. According to data from the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade data, St. Petersburg accounts for 12 percent of small companies registered in Russia. Small companies employ over 700,000 people, which is about one third of the whole of the city’s workforce. The number of small companies in the city is four times higher than the national average. The exhibition in Lenexpo will feature small companies from 18 St. Petersburg districts as well as the activities of the public committee for small business. Each city district was offered 16 square meters for organizing an exhibition free of charge. Organizers suggested that each district present no fewer than four small companies operating in the high-tech industry, housing and other public services, the Lenexpo web site says. Six round tables will be held during the exhibition. Participants will discuss state support of small business and ways to overcome administrative barriers, how the reform of the housing maintenance system will affect small business, the role of small business in the high-tech industry and industrial production, development of small business in retail, credit schemes and sources of financing, as well as women entrepreneurs. “To summarize the results of the forum the public committee for small business plans to organize the city government meeting,” RBC cited Sergei Fyodorov, chairman of the public committee, as saying at a press conference Friday. Special emphasis will be put on small business in industrial production and housing services. “We will complain about energy companies. The policy carried out by monopolists hampers the development of small business in industrial production and the high-tech industry. Lots of problems emerge in the consumer industry and services as well. Retail chains are stepping on small business,” Fyodorov said to RBC. Among the most important problems to be discussed at the round tables, Pastukhov listed the interaction of small business with the authorities, the role of small business in housing services and problems in funding. Pastukhov said he hopes that the final resolution, which will appear after the forum, will be realized in practice. “All previous resolutions were, for various reasons, ultimately not realized. We need the state to pay more attention to small business,” Pastukhov said. “We expect a positive outcome from the forum, we expect to see a productive dialogue between business and the authorities,” he said. Over 1,000 companies and organizations were invited to take part, according to Pastukhov, and not only small companies but also transport and construction companies, banks, educational centers and insurers. The exhibition will end with a final meeting with the city governor, members of the city government, the public committee for small business, forum participants and guests.
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