The financial support provided to SMEs under the national project " Small and Medium Enterprise " for the first half of 2024 was summarized. Under preferential credit, leasing and guarantee programmes, small and medium-sized businesses were able to attract 692 billion roubles.

" The small and medium-sized business of the concessional lending programme is most demanded. At the same time, 70 per cent of the recipients of credit support are micro and small enterprises. The main items of expenditure received — the investment tasks of enterprises and the replenishment of working capital — were noted by the Vice-President of the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexander Novak.

More than 40 per cent of the funds have been secured through concessional bank programmes “888” and “1764”, more than 300 billion roubles. The " 888 " programme is a special financial instrument to support the business of the NPD, the LLR, the Zaporac and Herson regions. In the first six months of this year, entrepreneurs entered into 215 contracts totalling 660 million roubles. Of the recipients, 56 per cent are the Donetsk People ' s Republic enterprises, 33 per cent are the Luganese People ' s Republic, 11 per cent are the Zaporoz and Herson regions.

" The Russian Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Rechetnikov, has been particularly interested in financial support from the real sector of the economy - manufacturing, tourism, transport and warehouse complexes and agriculture. "

Key support tools remain a popular businessman. More than half of the finances involved businesses through bank loans. For example, over 22,000 contracts, totalling 208 billion roubles, were concluded under umbrella sponsorship. By comparison, in 2023 the figure was 93 billion roubles and the number of treaties was 7.2 thousand. The Regional Guarantee Organizations (REOs) issued 9,000 sponsorships to the business and engaged 155.3 billion roubles. Entrepreneurs may apply to public microfinance organizations in each region for up to 5 million roubles for 3 years. In 2024, a total of over 26 billion roubles were issued to small and medium-sized businesses.

" The number of companies that have been able to obtain credit through sponsorship has almost tripled to 19,000. We see that, with the high key rate of ozone sponsorship, business can obtain credit on optimum terms. Our analysts say that every 3 entrepreneur could not get credit without sponsorship. There is also evidence of efficiency for the State, with SME ' s 1 budget line attracting 240 roubles " , the Director-General of the SME Corporation, Alexander Isaevich.

Small and medium-sized businesses are provided with preferential leasing tools. In the first half of 2024, concessional leasing support amounted to almost 2 billion roubles. It was received by 179 entrepreneurs who work in engineering and metalworking, chemical and food industries and polygraphs.

In particular, nearly 15.7 billion roubles of 900 credits were attracted by companies in the light industry. Of these, more than 10 billion roubles were received by small and micro-enterprises, which are the most difficult to attract bank financing. The increase in the number of loans supported was 33 per cent, and support remained at 2023.

A traditional financial support tool for entrepreneurs is the special service of the ICP.RF Digital Platform. Since the beginning of the year, small and medium-sized businesses have received 3,000 loans worth 7.3 billion roubles. The average micro loans for Russian SMEs engaged through the platform were 7.3%. The average size of the micro loans was 2.4 million roubles and the crediting period was 2.6 years.

The concessional financial support provided by the project also has a positive impact on the quantitative growth of the SME sector as a whole.

Thus, as a result of annual updates of the Single Register of SME Entities, the number of medium-sized businesses since 2017 has been as high as possible.

" About 3,000 companies are increasing the criteria for small and medium-sized businesses each year. In addition, there are 20.6 thousand medium-sized companies operating in Russia today, which has been the highest since 2017 when the SME registry began. This represents a 16 per cent increase over 2022 - 17.7 thousand enterprises and 11 per cent higher than last year ' s 18.6 thousand companies " - Maxim Rechetnikov.

The number of " newly established " entrepreneurs is also an important indicator.

" The number of newly established SMEs is now 1.59 million. This is 9 per cent or 132,000 more than in the same period last year. The results of the updating of the Single Register indicate business activity " were explained by the Deputy Minister for Economic Development of Russia, Tatiana Ilumshnikov.

Traditionally, small and medium-sized businesses operate in the Central Federal District, 1.9 million SME entities. In the second place, the Privian Federal District, there are more than 1 million entrepreneurs in business. The three South Federal District is closing, with over 700,000 enterprises registered in its territory. There are 685,000 SME entities in the North-West Federal District, 618,000 in Siberia, 510 thousand in Ural, nearly 311,000 in the Far East, 223,000 in North Caucasus.

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Entrepreneurs are supported by the Maloye and Middle Entrepreneurship Project