Government meeting
Excerpts from Dmitry Medvedev’s opening remarks:
Government meeting
Naturally, healthy competition is vital for any industry. This fully applies to the consumer market that remains one of the most resistant to current economic risks. Its contribution to the GDP and tax revenues is fairly high. Moreover, wholesale and retail trade provides jobs for almost 20 percent of the labour force on average (12.5 million people) -- more than any other industry.
Generally, our trade follows global trends. Today wholesale business is done by a host of relatively small companies. Retail trade operates in all formats – from hypermarkets, markets and fairs to online sales and other forms of modern trade.
However, Russia is beset with many problems that prevent it from matching the leading countries. To begin with, there are serious disproportions in retail formats. The share of retail chains continues to grow and has come close to a quarter of all retail trade, whereas the share of small retail markets and fairs is decreasing. Distance selling accounts for a mere 2.5 percent of the total. Needless to say, we should balance the development of all of these formats.
We must be more active in creating favourable conditions for small- and medium-sized business. About a third of all small companies are involved in trade. They provide selling power for other small companies, including local agricultural and food producers, thereby creating more jobs and promoting domestic production. This is particularly important, considering our plans to replace a number of imported goods.
The quality of the regulatory background is yet another problem. Various federal executive bodies are in charge of regulating trade, which is putting it under excessive pressure. To resolve these problems the Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared a draft trade strategy up to 2016 and up to 2020.
<…>
