“BALANCED REGIONAL COMPETITION POLICY ON THE FINANCIAL MARKET IS NEEDED”

Stated Irina Timonicheva, Deputy Head of the Chief Department of the Bank of Russia in the Central Federal District

The Government of the Moscow region is holding the National Conference on “Developing competition in municipalities in the subjects of the Russian Federation”. Around 300 representatives of regions from all over Russia are attending the event.

The plenary session focused on approaches to competition development at the federal, regional and municipal levels. Speakers in the first part of the session also covered the regional specifics. For instance, Deputy Head of the Chief Department of the Bank of Russia in the Central Federal District, Irina Timonicheva, said: “The findings of a survey conducted by the Bank of Russia demonstrate a high degree of competition unevenness across the regions of Russia. It determines the need for a balanced regional competition policy on the financial market. Involvement of local self-government bodies in implementing the new Competition Development Standard will help increase accessibility of financial services and actualize the consumer-orientation principle”.

Other key speakers at the plenary session included Deputy Chairman of Government of the Moscow region, Alexander Chuprakov, and Chair of the Committee of the Moscow region on Competition Policy, Elena Volkova, who discussed the regional specifics of pursuing competitive principles.

According to Alexander Chuprakov, the Moscow region was to first among the subjects of the Russian Federation to agree with FAS and approve the key targets for competition development. There are 34 such targets for the Moscow region, and departments and government agencies will be guided by them to ensure efficient social-and-economic development of the region.

Deputy Chairman of Government of the Moscow region pointed out that “breakthrough” solutions are employed in particular sectors of the regional economy to form a common competitive environment.

“The Moscow region is among those territories that have accumulated the best regional experience in engaging private companies to render social services for the population. The region has demonstrated significant achievements in centralizing and digitalization procurement operations and land-and-property competitive bidding; other “forefront” segments include psychological-and pedagogical assistance to children with disabilities, medical services and many more. Good results have reached in terms of removing inefficient state and municipal enterprises from competitive markets. These efforts have been undertaken in the Moscow region since 2015, and more than 550 unitary enterprises are already liquidated”, stated Alexander Chuprakov.

The Moscow region has developed and introduced a system motivating efficient work of local self-government bodies to support competition development, which recognized as one of the best practices recommended for use in other regions of Russia.

“The Conference on developing competition in municipalities in the subjects of the Russian regions is a wonderful opportunity for exchanging experiences with the colleagues from other regions. The Moscow region is ready to share the established practices, give information about the existing systems and digital projects that are becoming an important element for developing competitive environment, particularly, in procurement”, emphasized Deputy Chairman of Government of the Moscow region, Alexander Chuprakov.

Elena Volkova who chairs the Committee of the Moscow region on Competition Policy added that “the Moscow region is one the advanced areas, where digital technologies are implemented successfully at all procurement stages. Our e-store for small-scale procurement has already proved to be an excellent trading site.   Since it has launched, fund saving on small-scale procurement has reached over 2.5 billion RUB. The contract execution stage also is an important factor in developing competitive environment. To exclude possible violations in contract execution, a technological basis should be formed enabling transparent actions of the parties and creating equal conditions for the contract parties. Only in these settings business can be confident in the contractual system”.