Main page > Investment opportunities and economic information > Industry > Small Scale Enterprises Small Business Development
There are almost 13 thousand small enterprises on the territory of the Leningrad Region. 128.7 thousand people are employed by this thriving sector of the regional economy (in 2003 - 121.6 thousand people). According to the Tax Ministry of the Russian Federation, by January 1, 2005 the number of individual small businessmen registered on the tax account of the Leningrad Region was 51,343 people. The Leningrad Region is second only to Saint Petersburg among the subjects of Northwest federal district in the number of small enterprises and people employed in their operation. In total, 23% of the working age population of the region is employed in small business (including the registered farms - 6032 units).
The sectoral structure of the small industrial enterprises of the region is multifaceted and covers almost all spheres of manufacture. The forestry and timber-processing industry plays a leading role among the small enterprises of the region and employs almost half of the small industry employees in the region. The mechanical engineering and metal working industry employs 22%, the food-processing industry 12%, the construction materials industry 6%. The aforementioned sectors produce more than 80% of the industrial output of all small enterprises, and their share of the people employed at the small industrial enterprises is more than 76% of the regional total.
Small business in the Lengingrad Region continues to suffer fromt the inaccessibility of credit from domestic banks and complex leasing schemes necessitated by increased risk in the region and a shortage of property available for collateral. To overcome this problem, the Leningrad Regional Government has developed a new system of financial aid for small business owners which includes the creation of a system of granting the guarantees for the credits of small enterprises in commercial banks despite the absence of a hundred-per-cent mortgaging property and subsidizing the bank interest rate on credits for small businesses. This project is the first of its kind in Russia.
As part of this program, the Russian “Agency of Credit Maintenance” was created in 2003 with the full support and active participation of the regional government. In 2005, 46 million rubles were allocated for the activity of the Agency from the regional budget. The Agency is the only organization of its kind operating on the in the Russian Federation.
The governor of the Leningrad region Valery Serdyukov is the author of the all-Russian concept of development of the small and medium-size business which was approved at the session of the State Council of the Russian Federation under the presidency of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin. |
