The participants discussed the modernisation of socio-economic relations, public-private partnerships, and specific projects to support private entrepreneurship on the public services market.
Dmitry Medvedev’s opening address:
Meeting with business leaders in the public services sector
Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon, colleagues. I’ve met with many of you before to discuss private entrepreneurship on the public services market. Frankly speaking, this is a rather sensitive issue in many countries, not just in Russia; however, it is doubly so in our country. Still, many of those present have been working on this market for some time, and quite successfully.
I would like us to briefly go over the experience you have gained. For my part, I would prefer that the focus be not on presentations of your achievements (it’s great when things go right, of course) but on problems constraining the development of this type of entrepreneurship in Russia and what can be done, together with the Government, to improve things. For some reason it is a common belief in Russia that it is the Government’s job to take care of social issues – at least a lot of people seem to think so. However, this is not so elsewhere in the world. The government as well as society are equally interested in having everyone involved, including businesses which can offer high quality services. The Government should certainly provide some minimum guarantees, create an up-to-date and effective legal framework and invest in projects that represent national priorities. Business activity in this sector should boost the overall quality of services provided, produce new business leaders, and propel this market’s modernisation. At this stage, the situation here is not as good as we would like it to be.
Investors and business leaders face a host of problems when trying to enter this market. I have already said that the legal framework is rather fragmentary, and a number of organisational, administrative and tax barriers still persist. Outdated requirements are still in force, and profits from services are low. On the other hand, one should bear in mind that this market is not expected to yield huge profits, but a business should generate some income still.
To make doing business in the public services sector more attractive, we need to work out an integrated approach to resolving these issues. We will certainly continue developing tools for supporting small and medium-sized businesses in general; we recently discussed this at the Sochi investment forum where I spoke about this. The next issue is the availability of bank financing, greater government support, and setting up a federal guarantee fund for small businesses.
I’d like to remind you that starting January 1 at least 15% of state contracts are to be signed with small companies and socially oriented non-profits. All of this is very important for you. We will continue to issue federal budget subsidies, including financial assistance, to certain groups of businesses, varying between 1 million and 10 million roubles. There will be also targeted subsidies for organising preschool centres, preschool leisure groups and innovation youth centres. Overall, we will spend quite a lot on subsidies, so it is an issue for discussion: we should discuss their correct distribution.
Second, it is certainly important to introduce public-private partnership mechanisms. We have been talking about this at length but have not done enough so far. Anyway, everything you are doing in your sphere of business should be based to a large extent on public-private partnership. I hope the law on the principles of public-private partnerships in Russia, which we expect to be adopted in the near future, will resolve at least part of these issues.
There is one more thing I’d like to mention: it is precisely your businesses that can make a crucial contribution to the creation of quality social information services. This would improve people’s lives and create a more precise understanding of what our people, what individual groups of social service users, really need. I suggest reformatting our work so that we cover more issues in a more compact manner. I’d like to address this audience, or rather those who plan to speak here. Please, keep your reports short and do not turn them into lengthy presentations, because what you say may be important but we already know much of what you plan to say – after all, this is what the ministers have been invited here for. I am asking you simply to formulate your proposals on developing legislation, especially since we have advanced the project at hand within the framework of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. You have been working with Andrei Nikitin as it is and know each other quite well. And so I hope that you will carry on your fruitful cooperation, but for now it is more important to listen to what you have to say.
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