VLADIMIR MISHELOVIN: REGIONS HAVE ALL RESOURCES NECESSARY TO SUPPORT COMPETITION

The second part of the National Conference on “Developing competition in municipalities in the subjects of the Russian Federation” focused on regional experiences in competition support. The session was moderated by Head of FAS Fiscal Control Department Vladimir Mishelovin.

“Our main goal is to employ the most effective mechanisms in each region to achieve a principally new level of competition development. Supporting business initiatives locally will facilitate problem- solving in employment and saturating markets with goods and services for which there is consumer demand, and build up new incentives for developing regional economies”, pointed out Vladimir Mishelovin.

According to Head of FAS Fiscal Control Department, a new Competition Development Standard for the regions of the Russian Federation is approved that determines socially important markets, sets numerical targets and specifies the Road Map to achieve them. It concerns the most important spheres: preschool education, medical care, social services to the population, etc.

Deputy Minister of the Economy of the Omsk region, Denis Kushner informed that Omsk is in the leading positions in the ranking of regions. Considerable changes have taken place in the public and private sectors in the Omsk region in 2016-2019. For instance, the number of state unitary enterprises in the Omsk region decreased by 22%, and the share of private sector in the structure of economic entities in the Omsk region exceeds 84%.

Denis Kushner reported about active development of social entrepreneurship. Omsk will host the next Forum of social entrepreneurs and investors to discuss support measures for entities in the social services sector. As a result of systemic efforts in private business collaboration, the queues (waiting lists) to sign up 3-7 y.o. children to day-care centres are eliminated and now the efforts are focused on eliminating the queues for toddlers.

Acting Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Bashkortostan on Monitoring Social-and-Economic Development, Denis Bulatov, outlined the Action Plan to increase the share of municipal contracts for small business to 31% of the total volume. Bashkortostan analyzed markets and found reserves to increase procurement from small and medium business. Changes were made to the procurement schedules and then execution of the Action Plan was monitored.

Bashkortostan has formed a profile of a typical SME in municipalities. Mostly, such companies have up to 15 employees, more than 5 years experience, operating mainly on the markets of commerce and public catering, with up to 5 million RUB revenue.

Head of FAS Fiscal Control Department Vladimir Mishelovin compared this approach to a business model with a similar consumer profiling.

“Today, business has accumulated numerous practices and technologies that can be useful for the public sector in terms of managing the economy and increasing its efficiency. A lot is being discussed about management practices at the level of the federal centre; however, administration in regions or towns remains an essential factor for pursuing the economic growth strategy. The Conference has highlighted the main issues and approaches to competition development at different levels, and a lot of participants emphasize the value of such cooperation between FAS, representatives of regional executive authorities and municipalities”, said Vladimir Mishelovin, summing up the first day of the Conference.