‘Mr Akhmetov, 7 lean years passed — 7 fat years will come’
The farmers were gathered in Kazan to discuss the business and to ask several question directly
In order to support small businesses in agriculture, the government of Tatarstan proposes to strengthen the implementation of state programmes through cooperation with the banks, thus allowing to issue the entrepreneurs preferential loans for larger sums. It was said at the Business Marathon-2016. Minister of Agriculture of Tatarstan Marat Akhmetov during the meeting with regional farmers made it clear that he believes in them and told about how Robert Musin supports him during the morning meetings by telling Bible events. Read more in the article of Realnoe Vremya.
According to the Bible events
Business Marathon-2016 for small and micro businesses gathered the representatives of agricultural producers in the Kazan Riviera hotel and entertainment complex to discuss with the government of Tatarstan the urgent issues of state support.
Fist speaker was Deputy Prime Minister of Tatarstan and Minister of Agriculture of Tatarstan Marat Akhmetov. He welcomed the audience, with many of whom, according to him, he has met at fields, farms and workplaces.
According to the minister, the agricultural industry is a special field – it is not just an economy but a lifestyle. He cited the market issues, insufficient state support and severe climate conditions as the difficulties for the industry.
The minister told what they discuss with the chairperson of the board of directors of Tatfondbank PJSC Robert Musin at the informal meetings.
'The many quite successfully manage even in the conditions that we have, including climate. Almost seven years of drought. I have a close friend – Robert Musin. He is a banker, by the way, well-known in the Republic. Every time when we meet on the promenade early in the mornings he says to me: 'My dear friend, Marat Gotovich, seven lean years have passed, seven fat years will come.' I wish it happened,' noted the Minister of Agriculture. By the way, the phrase about seven lean and fat years refers to the Old Testament (Genesis, Chapter 41).
According to the official, now in the Republic there are 20 programmes to boost a business activity of the rural population and the ministry always tries to keep in touch with the entrepreneurs for any question.
Akhmetov also noted that many state programmes need to be supported by the bank products, which can ease the life of the entrepreneurs and will give high performance. Minister of Economy of Tatarstan Artyom Zdunov supported Marat Akhmetov in this. It is about 1-1,5 billion rubles of state support for the entrepreneurs in Tatarstan, in the country, it is up to 10 billion rubles. Due to the attraction of the bank capital, these figures will increase up to tens of billions of rubles.
The major direction in the Ministry of Economy is the state support of small businesses, family livestock farms. As evidence, the minister cited the data of leasing-grant programme, within the framework of which this year 75% participants were from agriculture.
The minister hoped that his team within the framework of Business Marathon would discuss with the state bank the plans for cooperation in this field.
5% loans and new sites for development
Artyom Zdunov and Marat Akhmetov left the meeting earlier. First Deputy Minister of Economy of Tatarstan, the director of the Department of Entrepreneurship Development Rustem Sibgatullin instead of his head continued to tell about what measures were taken to support SMEs.
The work is being conducted in several directions in the Republic. First, it is the development of a network of multifunctional centres for business, which are currently five opened in Tatarstan — in Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk, Yelabuga and Chistopol. Next year it is planned to open five more. The second direction is connected with the federal corporation for development of SMEs, which is actively introducing the business navigator in the Russian regions. In Tatarstan, now the programme includes Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Almetyevsk, and in plans — to cover all municipalities. Besides, Tatarstan was chosen as a pilot region to create a regional leasing state-owned company, its objective is to implement the programmes of preferential leasing of equipment.
The fourth direction is connected with state orders and orders of large enterprises. There is the special site for the search of such orders — smb.tattis.ru.
Ordinary managers do not allow the farmers to the federal chains?
Among the entrepreneurs, most of the participants were farmers from regions of the Republic. The first question was connected with the program Leasing-grant, under which funding is provided in proportion 60% to 40%, out of which 60% are the funds of an entrepreneur and 40% — of the state. An entrepreneur Gafurov said that within the framework of this program if it is approved, they are imposed certain conditions — an increase of at least 25% of jobs and the increase in deductions for tax. However, after the purchase of new equipment, there will be no need to increase jobs. But the entrepreneurs with similar indicators, according to him, are 'cut' from the programmes. Rustem Sibgatullin noted that the ministry does not impose mandatory thresholds, and they ask for only three indicators: jobs, how many the company will be able to provide and the increase of tax deductions. The entrepreneur, in his turn, noticed that anyway, until you don't put 25% in the agreement with the ministry — you are not allowed. However, the deputy minister said nothing to that.
The farmers also raised a very pressing issue — the difficulty of entering of their products to the federal trade centres. A surprising conclusion of the meeting was the fact that the top managers of networks advocate 'for' the products of farmers on their shelves, but the middle managers had not been aware of such problem of small businesses before.
Yahya Safiullin, who owns several companies operating in the fields of mechanical engineering, manufacture of wood products, and in the field of agriculture, had a lot of questions and wishes. One of the questions concerned the paperwork when obtaining loans.
According to him, a simplification of the communication will benefit not only businessmen but also to a bank itself, as, in his opinion, the workers physically do not have time to process all the information. 'I have two family members who left your bank because they worked overtime and weekends. People physically do not have the time.'
Deputy Director of the Department of Small Businesses of Rosselkhozbank Aleksey Istomin retorted that the bank lives in the legal field formed by the Central Bank.
'On the basis of the documents that we collect from the company, the financial analysis is performed and reserves are formed. Reserves are those deductions that 'eat' our profits. We still, despite the fact that we are a state bank, is a commercial organisation. The task set by the shareholder is to make money. But the reserves eat that profit.'
The bank cannot afford to generate higher reserves because it leads to an increase of risks and an increase in rates of a borrower. Thus, Aleksey Istomin assured that in other normal banks the documents are essentially the same as theirs. At the same time, under the terms of the Central Bank, Rosselkhozbank just has to collect the documents for all businesses. So the speaker answered to the second comment of the entrepreneur.
There was not much time devoted to the session, so not everyone could ask their questions. At the same time, the farmers had an opportunity to discuss with the speaker all problems and ideas privately — after the official part.