THE NUMBER OF UNITARY ENTERPRISES IS REDUCED ANNUALLY IN THE ROSTOV REGION

An interview of Governor of the Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, on the intermediary results of executing the National Competition Development Plan and advancing competition in the region.

- What kind of intermediary results the Rostov region has been able to achieve on the key targets of the National Competition Development Plan?

- Last year, Rostov devised and approved a list of 33 key targets on increasing the share of private business on the markets of goods, works and services in various fields of operations.

The targets, that FAS recommended to achieve by 2022, are already reached on 16 markets – including pre-school, secondary professional and general education, heating supply, residential housing construction, and communications.

11 other markets in the Rostov regions are represented only by private business, characterized by competition with different intensity levels. They include, in particular, industry, oil products, electric power, livestock breeding, passenger transportation by taxi, and some others.

We are now mainstreaming a regional Action Plan for developing competitive environment. It will comprise, for example, measures to develop business on the market with low competition.

- To be more specific, on which market do you see positive changes in terms of expanding the list of services, perhaps, reducing the costs?

- The market of communications services. More than 200 operators provide these services in the Rostov regions. Monitoring in 2018 showed that in terms of consumer satisfaction this market is among the TOP-5 leaders for each of the three criteria: quality, price level and choice opportunities.

Positive changes are also observed in retail and culture services markets.

- How does Rostov build the work on preventing violations of the antimonopoly law by the authorities?

- We act in accord with the principle that “preventing violations is easier than eliminate its negative consequences”.

Practice shows that violations more often happen due to low legal knowledge and awareness rather than malicious intentions. Unfortunately, some government officials also fall into this group. Therefore, several legal acts are drafted and adopted with reference to the main norms of the antimonopoly law as well as competences, pursuing which a risk of violating the antimonopoly law can emerge.

- Does the Rostov region have special programs to support small and medium business, for example, stimulating their participation in public procurement?

Since 2017 the system of granting financial assistance to business in the region ahs been reformatted in view of the federal approaches. Now the priority is put on reactive state support measures, including microloans at concessionary interest rate, leasing at favorable terms, and guarantees.

Adequate infrastructure is an additional factor to support small and medium business. It comprises around 50 facilities, particularly, various funds.

Five regional projects are adopted and are in force under the frame of the National projects: soft financing of small and medium companies, acceleration, popularizing entrepreneurship, improving conditions for doing business, creating a farmers support system. Around 6 billion RUB will be spent on these regional projects by 2024. “Non-financial” support in accord with the projects include also training workshops for applying the law on procurement.

- Competition development experience from which region you find interesting and important for copying in the Rostov region?

The Rostov region is on the third place in Russia – after Moscow and the Moscow region – on small-volume procurement in the “digital” format. It’s not bad to learn form the capital city, but we also have something to share.

The experience of the regional portal is included in the White Book as one of the best regional practices on managing public and municipal procurement. It is also marked by the Branch of the All-Russian People’s Front in the Rostov region and Rostov Regional Branch of “OPORA RUSSIA” National NGO of Small and Medium Business.

- Which precompetitive practice of the Rostov region may be of interest for other regions of Russia?

- The number of state and municipal unitary enterprises in Rostov is decreasing year-to-year. It is difficult for business, especially small companies to compete wit them, especially since unitary entities enjoy particular preferences granted by the authorities. To withstand price competition with unitary enterprises, businessmen are forced to deteriorate the product quality. We endeavor to rectify the trend.

Following our analysis, we’ve got a full picture on the number of municipal unitary entities in municipalities, the sectors they operate and the growth rates, as well as which state unitary entities are supervised by particular authorities. It enables “pin-pointed” influence on the dynamics of the number of unitary enterprises. The forecast is made till 2022. For example, it is expected that the number of municipal unitary entities will be reduced to 270 in 2019, and to 158 in 2022.

Similar monitoring in other regions of Russia will allow exposing bottlenecks in competition between economic entities.