On 31 May 2018, the governor opened the extended meeting of the Council for Entrepreneurship and Competition Development to the Government of the Penza region, which was held within the Regional Forum of Entrepreneurs.
Nowadays, more than 47,000 business entities are operating in the Penza region. The share of small and medium-sized businesses in the gross regional product exceeds 30%. Small enterprises accounts for 72.6% in the turnover of all ventures in the Penza region.
“The project “Development of small and medium-sized businesses and support for individual initiatives” was noted by President Vladimir Putin as a priority,” the head of the region stressed. “Over the past year, the performance of small enterprises in the Penza region has risen by almost 20%”.
“Despite the positive trend, the industry still deals with several problems, including administrative barriers, complicated competition with business leaders, and tricky legal framework,” he added. “One of the major tasks of the regional and municipal authorities is to create favourable and competitive environment. Fair competition is a prerequisite for the social and economic development of the region and country as a whole”.
Ivan Belozertsev indicated the unwillingness of state customers to work with small businesses as another problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible.
“We should not forget that the National Plan calls for the increased share of procurement by 2020, in which small businesses and socially-oriented non-profit organisations participate. These figures will at least double as compared to 2017,” he emphasised.
The governor demanded that the heads of municipal authorities in the Penza region interact with representatives of business community in more active and effective way.
“This requires creating a modern frame of services for private sector and making the system of cooperation between entrepreneurs and government agencies more convenient and business-friendly,” Ivan Belozertsev stated. “We should respond quickly to the challenges that business owners face in real life. We should also assist them in addressing these challenges”.
