Support for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the Arctic – One of the Topics of the International Arctic Forum 2019

The Coastal Territories track of the business programme of the ‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ 5th International Arctic Forum includes a special session on the development of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the Russian Arctic regions. The session ‘Small Business, Big Potential’ is supported by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. The participants of the event are to discuss the particularities of running small and medium businesses in the Arctic region, which should be considered when envisioning state policies to support it.

The Arctic single-industry towns call for custom solutions, where small and medium-sized businesses are the only way to solve employment problems and diversify local economies. “The competitiveness of small businesses in the Arctic depends on many macroeconomic and infrastructural factors, and success here comes only through consolidation of efforts from all relevant ministries and departments, as well as with the support of major businesses,” Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, commented on the importance of this topic. “With this, the development of SMEs is significant for the region, and the state is to develop support measures, improve infrastructure and logistics capabilities, and generate international business projects.”

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, by the end of 2016, investments in the stock capital of small and micro businesses amounted to 801.6 billion roubles and 391.5 billion roubles in medium-sized enterprises. Since 2010 from 5 to 25.2 billion roubles of annual subsidies from the federal budget were allocated to support small and medium-sized businesses, including farmers.

“The national project ‘SMEs and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiatives’ meets the critical objectives of developing the small business sector by 2024. The key indicators are the growth of the number of people employed in SMEs to 25 million and of GDP to 32.5% and support for small and medium-sized businesses in the Arctic,” said Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Vadim Zhivulin. “The national project stipulates for a large-scale programme to provide access to concessional lending and further development of microfinancing, leasing and launching the mechanisms for alternative sourcing, such as crowdfunding and stock exchange tools.”

Federal projects ‘Expanding SMEs Access to Financial Resources, Including Concessional Financing’, ‘Acceleration of SMEs’ and ‘Promotion of Entrepreneurship’ are to contribute to this task: the development of infrastructure (‘My Business’ Centres), support for exporting enterprises, setting up industrial and technoparks in the regions (the Arctic zone is on the priority development areas list), making entrepreneurship attractive for public.

The business participants of the International Arctic Forum 2019 are to consider the details of regional infrastructure and develop a series of measures to improve the logistics that is, in turn, to lead to the increased turnover. The leading international business communities are to discuss launching and implementing international projects. The technological innovations and harsh climate business practices exchange is to contribute to the development of SMEs in the Arctic significantly.

‘Arctic: Territory of Dialogue’ 5th International Arctic Forum is to take place in St. Petersburg on 9–10 April 2019.