As a result of the recent update of the SME business register, the number of registered small and medium-sized enterprises exceeded 6.56 million, updating the record from the beginning of their accounting. At the same time, the number of self-employed persons reached 10.2 million. Since the beginning of 2024, there has been an upward trend in the number of entrepreneurs since last year: as a result of 2023, the number of SME entities has increased to 6.35 million, adding 5.9% compared with 2022.

" At the beginning of 2024, the growth of small and medium-sized businesses continued. This indicates that the sector has successfully overcome the impact of the sanctions shocks of recent years. This has been facilitated by, inter alia, the implementation of the SME sector support package under the " Maloe and Middle Entrepreneurship " project, approved by the President. The State system provides for the targeting and monitoring of the effectiveness of the proposed measures in the regions. All this enables the State ' s priority directions to be maintained and the proposed measures adjusted to their effectiveness and emerging challenges " , underlined by the Vice-President of the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak.

However, almost half of the SME entities established since the beginning of 2024 have been engaged in retail and wholesale trade (38.2 per cent), transport (7.8 per cent) and construction (5.9 per cent).

" As of 10 May, there are some 2.34 million entities registered in the SME registry. Of the low, micro-enterprises account for about 2.14 million, small-scale enterprises 184 thousand and medium-sized enterprises 18,000. Individual entrepreneurs in the country are almost twice as large as 4.2 million, and the Russian Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Rechetnikov, noted.

The largest sector of SMEs is represented in the capital, with almost 927,000 entrepreneurs in Moscow, twice as many (456,000) in Moscow. In the third place of St Petersburg, there are some 377,000 businessmen. The Top-5 regions are closing the Krasnodar region, with the result of 306,000 SMEs and the Sverdlov region, with almost 214,000. In South-West constituent entities of the Russian Federation, there are some 107 thousand entrepreneurs.

" Small and medium-sized business today is a full-fledged participant in the national economy, providing importation, developing production, creating new jobs. In 2023, the share of SME loans in total lending reached 21 per cent. By comparison, this figure was only 10 per cent in 2020. SME loans increased almost twice (72 per cent) and accounted for 92 per cent of all loans granted after 2023. This indicates that small and medium-sized businesses are striving for development and expansion " , noted by the Director-General of the SME Corporation, Alexander Isaevich.

***
Entrepreneurs ' support in the region is carried out within the framework of the " Small and Medium Enterprise " project.