The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation recently launched the “SMEs and Start-ups Supporting Initiative”, as a part of the effort to implement the National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation through to 2024 on which the President Putin signed executive order on May, 2018. 

The initiative, approved on December 24, 2018, was mainly implemented by the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance. It includes five themes: “Improving the business environment for enterprises”, “Expanding financing opportunities for SMEs”, “Accelerating the development of SMEs”, “Establishing the platform for rural cooperation” and “Promoting entrepreneurship”. This initiative will support all stages of business development from ideas to export.

This initiative has the following three objectives:

• The number of employed people in SMEs, including start-ups, should increase from 19.2 million in 2018 to 25 million in 2024;

• The share of SMEs in GDP should increase from 22.3% in 2017 to 32.5% in 2024;

• The share of SMEs in total non-resource exports should increase from 8.6% in 2017 to 10% in 2024.

At the same time, the government will provide tax incentives for entrepreneurs and simplify the loan process. It is estimated that there will be 2.4 million registered enterprises in Russia by 2024.