Agenda: supporting business amid increasing coronavirus cases; creating a digital platform for government support to SMEs; and implementing the strategy for combating illegal trafficking in industrial products.
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
During a meeting with Government members held last week, the President approved our proposals for supporting businesses amid the spread of the coronavirus infection. We must not only help them maintain employment, but also offer them an opportunity to recover quickly after the latest wave of the coronavirus subsides.
The first resolution has already been drafted. It stipulates a one-time payment of grants to small and medium-sized enterprises and socially oriented companies that have been hit hard during this period, primarily those that are working directly with the people: hospitality businesses, catering, fitness and sport, additional education, consumer services, culture, leisure and other sectors.
The volume of grants will be calculated based on one minimum wage per employee and will also ensure the payment of salaries. The total sum will amount to some 38.5 billion roubles. We believe that this measure will be enough to make up for part of the revenue shortfall and provide support to some 3 million people. Grant applications can be filed remotely within six weeks starting 1 November 2021. The Federal Taxation Service will receive and process the applications, and will start allocating the funds on 15 November.
The Government is also working to create a system that will enable the state to provide the assistance people need proactively, without the usual documents and applications to the services concerned but based on individual circumstances.
A similar digital platform is being created at the President’s instructions to help small and medium-sized businesses, so that they will only need to register to automatically gain access to all services and support measures, including regional ones and those they were unaware of, up to and including the automatic entry of the data needed to receive bank loans.
This calls for streamlining electronic interaction among many services, both federal and regional ones. Therefore, we will begin with an experiment. It will be launched on 1 December 2021. The Government has drafted a resolution to this effect. This experiment will help us fine-tune the new service comprising all instruments needed to receive and process information from various sources and to provide targeted services and remote assistance to businesses. But the main thing is to ensure high quality standards.
In fact, we will create a one-stop shop system for businesses, so that small enterprises, self-employed citizens and all those who are only thinking of starting a business will have access to a full package of state support measures and the most in-demand commercial services, from assistance at the start to legal support and vocational training, which people often need when they have already taken the first step and have to decide what to do next.
One more decision has to do with the Strategy for Combating Illegal Trafficking in Industrial Products until 2025, which the Government adopted this year. A comprehensive action plan for its implementation has been formulated. This document has been approved today.
There is much work ahead to create and introduce modern mechanisms and methods of combating counterfeit products. We must begin by creating a product coding and traceability system, introducing comprehensive monitoring in all industrial spheres, and making quality forecasts of possible developments on shadow markets.
It is important to protect our citizens from shoddy goods. We must thoroughly analyse the idea of creating a database of mala fide producers, importers, suppliers and sellers. Of course, we need skilled personnel for implementing these measures, and so we must organise their training.
Colleagues, while creating this database we must work systematically with the business community, holding regular consultations with reputable businesses. This will make the measures against counterfeit products more effective.
