IGOR ARTEMIEV: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE MOSCOW REGION IN COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT SHOULD BE REPLICATED IN OTHER REGIONS

On 2 November 2019, head of FAS Igor Artemiev had a working meeting with Governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov  to discuss the progress in fulfillment of the National Competition Development Plan in the region*

Under the frame of the meeting, Governor approved the Road Map to facilitate competition in the Moscow region that had been coordinated with FAS.

“The Moscow region is the first among the subjects of the Russian Federation to coordinate with FAS and approve the key competition development targets. In 2018 the question was about 34 markets. Today the Moscow region is among the first to update the Road Map on competition development. The updated Map comprises 41 markets. The number of markets has increased due to the regional specifics”, highlighted Igor Artemiev.

The additional markets, for instance, are related to the regional elements of the National Projects: the market of digitalizing public services, non-raw materials and non-energy sectors.

Head of FAS pointed out that some measures undertaken in the Moscow region can be replicated by other regions. For example, to develop competition on social markets, the region intends to develop e-services in the system of social protection and employment and train the population how to use them. Approving the Guidelines for procurement by customers from the Moscow region and municipalities in the Moscow region will make procurement transparent and accessible. To reduce the share of state participation in the economy in the Moscow region, inefficient state unitary enterprises will be liquidated and efficient ones will be privatized.

To fulfill the National Plan, antimonopoly compliance is implemented by all executive bodies (100%) in the Moscow region. According to 2018 data, antimonopoly violations by the authorities decreased by 40%. Local self-government bodies in municipalities in the Moscow region are also recommended to implement a system for preventing antimonopoly violations.

Following instructions from the Governor of the Moscow region, the Guidelines were drafted on additions to the state programmes of the Moscow region aimed at conformance of the state programmes to the competition principles (such provisions are included in all 19 state programmes of the Moscow region). The Moscow region reduced the number of unitary enterprises on the market of ceremonial and funeral services considerably and introduced a moratorium for establishing them; as a result the share of private business has increased to 96%. This experience is included in FAS White Book.

In 2018, the share of small and medium companies on procurement increased to 36.45% (+3.43%). The value of their contacts increased by 17.36%.

The Moscow region demonstrates a positive effect from implementing the Competition Development Standard: it is now the leader in Russia by the number of formed small and medium companies. According to the Federal Tax Service, in the preceding year 13240 small and medium companies were formed in the Moscow region.