The MCCI’s Vice President presented Moscow”s experience of SME support to the participants of the Forum of Russian and Croatian banks
On November 12th, the XIII Russian-Croatian online banking Forum "Banks in modern conditions: lessons and opportunities" was held.
Mr. Andrey Nesterenko, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Croatia, and Mr. Tomislav Tsar, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Croatia to the Russian Federation, addressed the conference participants with a welcoming speech. Mr. Nesterenko briefly described the current state of the Russian-Croatian economic cooperation and said that the meeting of the Intergovernmental Russian-Croatian Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation is scheduled for the second quarter of 2021. Mr. Tsar expressed confidence that this forum, whose agenda includes new elements, "will benefit everyone" and wished success to the Russian-Croatian cooperation.
Greeting the audience, the assistant organizer of the of the Forum of theCroatian Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Josip Zaher, said that because of the collective efforts of market participants and the regulatory efforts of the Republic of Croatia, the coronovirus crisis did not cause doubts regarding the stability of the national banking system. He spoke about the state of the Russian-Croatian commodity exchange and wished that good relations between our two countries would continue to be accompanied by growth.
The President of the Croatian Banking Association, Mr. Ivan Jandric, who delivered a welcoming speech, noted that the crisis brings new opportunities and it is important for our countries to learn from each other’s experiences.
The first two sessions of the Forum were moderated by Mr. Garegin Tosunyan, the President of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In his report "Trust and Responsibility as the Basis for Sustainable Development of Society and Economy", he assessed the state of the Russian banking market and the economy as a whole, noting that the year-end economic downturn is expected to be serious - 5-6%.
He analyzed in detail the performance of the Russian banking system, noting that the situation within the banking market is more positive than expected, particularly, the deposits of individuals and legal entities in the third quarter increased significantly, compared to the previous year. He also expressed confidence that the introduction of “fintech” (financial technologies) for the banking sector will make it possible to adapt more quickly to various conundrums arising in the market".
Mr. Istvan Lendiel, the General Secretary of the Banking Association of Central and Eastern Europe, spoke about the banking strategies, used in Europe during the Coronavirus. He noted that European banks are still coping with problematic loans, spoke about how the digitalization of the banking sector and the revitalization of investment banking.
Mr. Ivan Jandric, the President of the Association of Banks of Croatia, gave an overview of the situation in the banking sector and economy of the Republic of Croatia during the "coronovirus crisis". In particular, he spoke about the process of replacing the local currency with the euro, which should be completed by 2023. This year, according to forecasts of the Ministry of Finance of Croatia, the country is expected to decline 8% in its the economy.
The Deputy Marketing Director of the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBCH - general sponsor of the forum), Mr. Vladimir Shikin, made a presentation on “The impact of the pandemic on lending. He, in particular, said that in March-September, credit deferrals were provided to more than 2.5 million Russians, introduced the strategies of credit information exchange in Russia and the forecasting analysts of NBCH, spoke about the instrument of segmentation of SME clients - scoring bureau.
The second session of the Forum was devoted to the development of banks in the era of digitalization, ecosystems and marketplaces. Mr. Andrey Leushev, the President of Farzoom-fintech, made a report on "Open and closed type ecosystems as a new type of competition in the banking market" and Mr. Vyacheslav Seminihin, the CEO of MPlace, made a report on "Digitalization, ecosystems and marketing as a rThe third session was moderated by Mr. Igor Loginov, the Deputy Director of the Department for Work with Government Authorities and Public Organizations of ARB (Association of Russian Banks).
Mr. Vedran Jaakšić, the Executive Director of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (CBRD), made a presentation on "Review of the measures taken in connection with COVID-19 and the CBRD program to support small and medium businesses". "The crisis has strongly spurred digitalization, but we must not stop, we need to create a virtually new, sustainable innovation economy ... We must not only repair, but also improve," he said.
Ms. Nairui Grigoryan-Vedeneeva, the Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Department of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made a presentation on the state of SMEs in Russia, the main measures of state support and proposals for their expansion. According to her data, the reduction in the number of SMEs as of August 10 compared to March 10 this year was more than 4%.
At the same time, the number of micro-enterprises (240 thousand) and individual entrepreneurs (115 thousand) decreased, while medium-sized enterprises showed a steady growth trend ( 5.2% since the beginning of the year). Many SMEs also recorded an increase in the number of employees, which indicates that some entrepreneurs had to "whitewash" shadow personnel in order to receive subsidies on wages for their employees.
According to the speaker, at the beginning of the pandemic the CCI of Russia initiated a survey "Business barometer of the country" about the state of business in the regions. According to the results of the last, fourth survey, which was attended by more than 12 thousand respondents (government and business representatives) from 81 regions of Russia, we can conclude that the government assesses the current state of the SME sector more optimistically than entrepreneurs.
The speaker also addressed the problems of product labelling and transition from UTII, which are difficult for business in this problematic period. Also, she said, it is necessary to stimulate consumer demand - and voiced the measures proposed by the RF’s CCI.
According to the speaker, today, the government has announced the extension of the period of deferrals on taxes and credit obligations provided to businesses by the state - previously the RF’s CCI has repeatedly requested this.
“Based on the basic points of SME support, regardless of the pandemic, we think it is necessary to radically simplify the conditions for doing business, reduce administrative pressure on business and encourage private business to participate in the production sphere," said Ms. Grigoryan-Vedeneeva.
At the end of the report, she said that within the special project "The best banking program for SMEs”, The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation holds an annual contest, in which entrepreneurs from all over the country evaluate the level of banking services - and its results often surprise bankers.
Mr. Oleg Knyazev, the Deputy Chairman of the Bank's SME Board and Chairman of ARB's SME Finance Development Committee, gave an overview of the state support measures for small and medium-sized businesses in connection with COVID-19 and the Bank's SME program to support small businesses. He talked about various loans issued by the Bank to SMEs (for the resumption of operations; "Anti-Crisis-Invest"; "Anti-Crisis-Reverse", etc.), as well as the deferral of loan payments.
With a report on "Measures to support small business in Moscow. Business proposals for their enhancement and improvement", Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the Vice President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made a speech at the Forum. He reminded that today, in Moscow, there are more than 70 measures to support SMEs and spoke in detail about the issues of supporting the export activities of the Capital’s companies - in particular, subsidies for reimbursement of actual costs for certification of export products, obtaining patents and certificates, certification of management systems, adaptation of products to foreign market requirements, transportation of products outside Russia, cashebacks for exporters, noting what selection criteria should be required from the applicants to receive these benefits.
The speaker also described the program "Made in Moscow", under which auspices the city finances the costs of companies to participate in exhibitions and business missions. Another measure of support is financing the costs of creating "gold accounts" on large electronic platforms such as Alibaba, B2B and B2C marketplaces.
The export catalog "Made in Moscow" was created with the participation of business associations, said Mr. Vardanyan. Today it includes about 3000 companies from 12 industries. The partners of the Moscow Export Center use this catalog to form offers in diverse areas. Cooperation with the export accelerators also helps companies to activate their export activities (joint implementation of a company's project in the foreign market, with the city covering 85% of expenses).
The speaker also familiarized the audience with the IT-platform "Business Market”, created on the basis of the CCI - an international platform for business proposals, which was recognized at the last year's international CCI Forum in Rio de Janeiro. "In April, we created a virtual exhibition platform at the "Business Market" and held a festival of franchises with stands presented in 3D format. Today, we hold thematic and regional exhibitions in this format," said Mr. Vardanyan and invited the Croatian side to present their products on the Russian marketplace.
Another relevant project of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry - "Documents in order" - contains solutions to issues that are problematic for business. The MCCI member companies receive these materials free of charge, saving money for consultations with expensive specialists. Today, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry creates a library, where more than 150 cases are already available. By agreement with the city, this project will function on the platform "Open supervision".
According to Mr. Vardanyan, in the last five months, the MCCI has held more than 50 different online conferences dedicated to the peculiarities of doing business in different, the construction of a "smart" city, the nuances of private medicine, export of tourist services, etc. On the agenda is the preparation of a separate session for Croatia. This issue, as Mr. Vardanyan noted, has already been discussed with representatives of the Economic Chamber of Croatia.
"I am certain that the substantial part of our Forum will increase every time," Mr. Tosunyan said at the end of the event. We proved that we can't be sidelined by neither the pandemic nor by the crisis. A meaningful and creative interest will overcome many obstacles".