Rustam Minnikhanov: “Kazan has good examples of small business support”

(KZN.RU, February 25). It is planned to create a new modern multifunctional center for business in the building of the Department of Architecture in Kazan. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, said this today at the session of the Kazan City Duma. According to him, work on the drafting of this center is carrying out today.

“I think it will be not only a multifunctional center for the provision of services, but also co-working center, conference rooms, educational center, because education for entrepreneurs is an important resource”, said Artem Zdunov, the Minister of Economy of the RT, who also took part in the session. It is worth noting that there are 4 branches multifunctional center in Kazan. During the year, more than 650 thousand applicants appealed to them.

The Mayor of Kazan said that nearly 33 thousand economically active subjects of small and medium-sized businesses and 31 thousand entrepreneurs have operated in the city throughout the year. Their number increased by 9%. Employment in this sector amounted to over 203 thousand people.

“Small business in Kazan is a third of the reproduction of labor potential, a third of the total working population of the city and almost a fifth of all tax revenues of the city budget. It is almost 2 billion rubles: 18.5% of total tax revenues”, said I. Metshin.

The Minister of Economy said that there are 52 subjects of small and medium enterprises per 1,000 residents in the capital of Tatarstan. “This is a good indicator compared to other Russian cities”, said A. Zdunov. He also said that last year, 160 small and medium-sized businesses received state support in Kazan, including the program “Leasing-grant”.

I. Metshin said that important and timely decisions were made for the financial support of business a year ago. First of all, to subsidize part of the interest rates on loans issued by the bank. During the year, the entrepreneurs received almost 366 million rubles with per cent compensation for the expense of the city budget, said I. Metshin.

In addition, the project “Rent holidays” was launched in 2016: provision of premises on terms of preferential rent. According to the Mayor, in total 77 premises with a total area of 12,800 square meters were put up for auction in 2016.

Also, a set of measures aimed at reduction of administrative barriers, implemented in Kazan. “We worked out all the regulations in detail, we were able to seriously reduce the time of the provision of a number of municipal services”, said I. Metshin.

“We have begun to establish a project office, a universal software product for businesses, which will allow to register a business electronically, open a bank account, take land on lease, obtain a building permit, in short, to quickly get all the municipal and state services”, noted the Mayor.

Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan, drew attention to the fact that Kazan has a good initiative and interesting examples of small business support.

“Our well-being depends on us. Today the RT is the largest donor, we are in first place in our Federal District tax figures”, he said. “The goal is to provide maximum assistance to the economy, both large and medium and small businesses”. “The city should take into account that the area of advancing social and economic development and special economic zones appear today, it is necessary to be competitive in this regard”, he added.