Russia's small businesses need nearly a trillion rubles of financial resources, Yevgeny Primakov, president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said at the 5th Conference of representatives of Russia's small business community.
"Small business needs 230 to 580 billion rubles in loans, or up to 1,000bn rubles considering emerging business entities," said Mr Primakov.
However, as little as 2 per cent of small enterprises resort to external sources of funds, according to Mr Primakov.
He said the Chamber was eager to help settle the problem of financing small business. The World Bank and the Chamber worked out a project, envisaging US$300m in loans for Russian small enterprises. Lax credits under the project will be granted for five years.
