Krasnodar, 16 December – Yug Times. Yuri Volkov, Director of Department for investment, small and medium enterprise development of Krasnodar region, recounts about investment of huge money in the small and middle business sector, well-developed infrastructure, and tasks for the future.
Q.: What can you say about the entrepreneurial society in the Kuban region? How many registered entrepreneurs are there in the region, and in what sectors of the economy do they work?
A.: Entrepreneurship is one of the leading factors of the region’s economic growth, for it ensures the inflow of tax and other revenues into the local budget, and creates competition in every sector of the economy.
Presently, the small and midsize business sector in Kuban unites more than 330,000 entrepreneurs, that offer jobs to about 30% of the labour power employed.
Q.: According to official statistics, small and midsize business ensures up to 20% of the GNP. What is the entrepreneurs’ share in the gross regional product? And how is this figure changing with time?
A.: It is a key figure for us, because it shows the degree of development of this sector of the economy. In 2011-2015, the share of small and midsize business in the gross regional product grew from 26% to 33.3%. To compare: its share in the gross national product grew only by 0.5% over that period of time, reaching 19.9% only.
We will be able to know the current share of small and middle business in the Kuban economy only in February 2018, when official data will be released by the Krasnodar Statistical Agency.
Q.: The region is known to be actively working on new forms of entrepreneurial support. In this respect, what is the advantage of, say, co-working-centres?
A.: Their main advantage is minimization of expenses businessmen have to pay to start their business. [In the co-working centres] the beginning entrepreneurs get free working places and free legal, accountancy and information support.
Q.: The Microfinancing Fund has been founded to help solve the problem of low affordability of the bank credits for entrepreneurs. How efficient is this structure?
A.: The cost of the loans issued by the Fund in November exceeded 100 million rubles - so this is the answer to your question. Such a high demand for loans is explained by lowered interest rates. Another beneficial factor is customer-oriented approach in the framework of governmental credit programs.
Q.: Is the work of the regional Guarantee Fund so much successful?
A.: I think it is, and statistics proves it. In 2016, the number of guarantees issued to small and midsize businesses nearly doubled. Over the 11 months of this year, 84 guarantees to the total amount of 556 million rubles were issued — so that the entrepreneurs were able to get bank credits to the total amount of 1.445 billion rubles.
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