Large corporations create unequal conditions for cooperation with SMEs; these relationships need to be corrected - Russian economic development minister
VSEVOLOZHSK. April 17 (Interfax) - Large corporations establish unequal relationships when interacting with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and this situation needs to be corrected, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said on Friday at the national My Business forum of entrepreneurship support infrastructure in Vsevolozhsk.
"The second area [in addition to productivity growth] that we also see as a priority is to equalize the relations between small businesses and our large structures," Reshetnikov said.
"This concerns large corporations, the same procurement under law 223 [the law on procurement by state companies and state corporations]. We have resumed the work of the headquarters, a kind of constant monitoring. Honestly speaking, we haven't delved deep into this issue for several years. We have now analyzed the practices of our corporations, how they treat small businesses, how the contractual framework is built, what their procurement practices are, how they treat payments, payment deferrals, what penalty sanctions they have, and so on. And of course, we saw that over this time, let's say, conditions have become very unequal. That is, a lot is expected from small businesses, a very strong penalty system exists, but they themselves are not ready to take on these obligations. Neither regarding payment, nor payment terms, nor other aspects. Therefore, obviously, this situation needs to be equalized," Reshetnikov said.
"Another example here is our platform economy. Powerful platforms have emerged. On the one hand, that's great, wonderful; a communication channel has appeared that any new entrepreneur can access quite easily. [There are] huge markets - metropolitan markets, foreign markets from any region. A powerful logistics system that really allows all this to be done much faster and easier. But on the other hand, the same issues arise. Issues of the timing of money return, issues of product returns in general, returns of goods of proper quality, issues of card promotion, issues of competition, issues of counterfeits, including on platforms, and so on. That is, a very substantial layer of issues," he said.
There is a permanent working group, including with platforms, and "all these issues also need to be resolved, need to be resolved together with entrepreneurs, understanding what works and what doesn't work." "Of course, here the task of the regions, the task of the 'My Business' centers is to act as collectors, on the one hand, of all the problems, and on the other hand, of all the solutions and constant communication with business," he said.
