Federal SME and Entrepreneurship Programmes in the Russian Federation

This chapter examines federal programme support for building the capacities of SMEs and entrepreneurs and developing the business support infrastructure. It examines existing programmes for building an entrepreneurial culture, start-up grants, youth entrepreneurship support, support of innovative SMEs, support for production modernisation, support for export-oriented SMEs, microfinance, loan guarantees, support for tailored municipal programmes, support for diversification of mono-industry cities and development of the business support infrastructure. A number of areas for improvement are identified in these programme areas. The chapter also recommends introducing new measures for entrepreneurship awareness, entrepreneurship training, high-growth enterprises and large firm-SME supplier linkages and further increasing the scale and quality of the business development services infrastructure, including the business incubator system.