“The programme of support for small business will be started in 2005,” Andrei Sharov of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade said. According to Sharov, the project is aimed at the development of micro-financing institutes.
"Our task is to create a link between an enterprise and a micro-financing organisation," he added. In his words, the matter concerns state subsidies covering interest rates of the bank loans for small businesses.
Mr. Sharov said that next year's budget allocated rubles 1.5bn to the small business support. State subsidies, he continued, may account for 10-15% of this sum.
The programme will be affective if co-financing is provided by constituent federation members and private companies. It is supposed to facilitate access of private entrepreneurs to bank loans and make it possible to extend the micro-financing market by at least 20%.
