Artem Zdunov made a report at the joint meeting of the Security Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Economic Council of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan

One out of every four entrepreneurs faces business pressure from the part of authorities, according to interviews of businessmen in 2017. These data were declared today by the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan, Artem Zdunov, who made a report at the joint meeting of the Security Council of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Economic Council of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The meeting was held today in the Representative Office of the Kazan Kremlin of Kazan, and was chaired by the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov.

The event was attended by the Prime Minister of the RT, Alexei Pesoshin, Chairman of the State Council of the RT, Farid Mukhametshin, Secretary of the Security Council, Airat Shafigullin, as well as the permanent members of the Security Council and the Economic Council of the Cabinet of Ministers of the RT, heads of ministries, departments, supervisory structures, heads of municipalities, heads of enterprises and organizations.

Representatives of the mass media were invited to the meeting.

Arnie Zdunov reminded that Tatarstan has been a leader among the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the last three years, according to the National ranking of the investment climate in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

He noted that the National ranking was the main instrument for managing the development of the investment climate. As part of the ranking, entrepreneurs assess the efforts of the authorities to improve the business environment.

For example, the ranking has four evaluation directions: regulatory environment, business institutions, infrastructure and resources, and support for small businesses.

The Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan reported that the republic had achieved the reduction of a number indicatorts of the ranking 2017 as compared to the figures of 2016. Thus, in terms of the indicator "average time of registration of legal persons", the number of days for registration has increased from 10 (in 2016) to 11.84 (in 2017). The evaluation by entrepreneurs of the activities, performed by the authorities for cadastral registration declined  - if the average score in 2016 was 4.21, in 2017 it was 3.93. The evaluation of the availability of necessary labour resources has also decreased.

As for the assessment of administrative pressure on business, it increased in 2017.

Thus, in 2017, the number of additional documents requested from entrepreneurs increased (as compared to 2016), the average number of control and supervisory  activities increased, from 15.36 % (in 2016) to 27.1% (in 2017) the share  of companies, facing pressure from the part of authorities or natural monopolies, increased.

In more detail, Artem Sdunov described the availability of permit documentation for small businesses on the example of obtaining construction permits (now the service is being transferred into an electronic form). He said that the experience of Moscow had been used in this matter, where 12 state services had been already made available electronically.

The experience of St. Petersburg has been used to improve the process of technology connection to networks. Currently the task has been set to bring the term of this service to 10 days by the entrepreneurs by 2018.

"The creation of industrial parks greatly facilitates the access to already developed infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses", said Artem Zdunov.

He also informed that according to the estimaation of the World Bank, the half of all entrepreneurs closed their businesses during the first year because they had not been prepared. In Tatarstan, there is the "Entrepreneurship Factory" for entrepreneurial training; as well, there are other programs to train start-up businessmen.

The President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, in his turn, called for the improvement of the investment climate in the Republic of Tatarstan and the reduction of administrative pressure on the business.

"The topic, which we are discussing today, is very important," he said. "This is what the President of our country, Vladimir Putin, the Government are talking about."

Rustam Minnikhanov also underlined that representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs - are the people who want to become self-sufficient.

"Here we need the hard work of all authorities," he said. "We need to work with entrepreneurs and have close contact with them. Entrepreneurs - are the citizens who want to work and earn, pay taxes, create jobs. In general, this requires a systemic approach from us. In many municipalities, we have not yet seen a good attitude towards investors."