Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Marshall Horn - Prime Minister to Hold Talks on Small Business Development in the Crimea

Marshall Horn,

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, currently on a working visit at the Republic of Crimea, is to hold a meeting on the development of small businesses (SMEs) on the peninsula.

Mr. Medvedev plans to hold discussions on the issue of SME’s access to credit, the licensing of certain types of activities including the transportation of passengers on small boats, and the functioning of the Crimea’s free economic zone, reported TASS.

The meeting will be attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev, Minister of Crimea Oleg Savelyev, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksenov, the Governor of Sevastopol Sergey Menyailo, and various representatives of regional business.

One of the priorities of the upcoming meeting will be the issue of access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses. Previously, the “Credit Guarantee Agency” incentive program approved the disbursement of funds for medium-sized private enterprises. The program’s main task is to create a mechanism of support for SMEs by providing loans on favorable terms.

The mechanism provides for loans at a rate of 10-11% to cover capital costs (at least 70% of the total value of investment loans), as well as ongoing costs associated with the implementation of related business activities (not more than 30% of the total value of investment loans).

As for the licensing issue for certain types of business, discussions will focus on the transport of passengers at sea, and also the management of apartment buildings.

In addition, the meeting will discuss how the Crimean free economic zone (FEZ) will function. The FEZ was created in January 2015 for a minimum period of 25 years, though this time frame can be extended by federal law. Premature termination of the FEZ can only occur in exceptional cases such as for the need to protect human life and health, for environmental and cultural reasons, or for national defense and state security needs.

During his visit, Mr. Medvedev also plans to tour a laboratory, and a vineyard in the Sevastopol area, plus a number of other small businesses.

On Tuesday June 16, the Prime Minister will take part in a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the International Children’s Center Artek, a children’s camp located in Hurzuf on the Black Sea coast. The Artek center was established in the Crimea in 1925, and from 1970 began to accept children from more than 83 different countries. Today the Artek center encompasses some 216 acres on a seven-kilometer stretch of coastline. There are more than 400 buildings and structures within the center, including three medical facilities, a school, the film studio Artekfilm, three swimming pools, a stadium with a seating capacity of 7,000, and playgrounds for various other activities.

Most of today’s facilities at the center were built from 1961 to 1989. In accordance with the decree of the Russian government on the development of children, the center has been allocated 1.2 billion rubles from the federal budget to fund a program of modernization.

Image credit: qwz via Flickr.com



via Marshall Horn, CFTC Prime Minister to Hold Talks on Small Business Development in the Crimea

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