Category: Russian Economy

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) – Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) –

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Only 30% of entrepreneurs in Russia are familiar with the concept of creative industries and associate it with creativity (38%), advertising (17%) and new technologies (13%). At the same time, every fourth respondent classifies their business as a creative industry. These are the findings of the study "Entrepreneurs of Russia: Research Monitoring" (PRIM), which is conducted by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, Sberbank and the Public Opinion Foundation.

"According to the results of the PRIM study, only a third of entrepreneurs have heard of creative industries, but every fourth already considers their business to be related to this area. Even with relatively low awareness, many entrepreneurs already associate their activities with creative industries, since their business is somehow related to the creation of original content, design, innovative solutions or cultural values. The study also shows a significant demand for creative specialists: 57% of the entrepreneurs surveyed have experience of cooperation with creative specialists, and 40% of this group intend to continue cooperation. Such dynamics are explained by obvious advantages: according to entrepreneurs, working with creative specialists allows them to attract new clients, strengthen the image and brand recognition, and improve the quality of goods and services," said Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Tatyana Ilyushnikova.

71% of entrepreneurs have solved creative tasks over the past year, such as creating visual content for promotion (42%). At the same time, 57% of survey participants have engaged external specialists to solve creative tasks. In outsourcing in this area, business owners see both advantages (a chance to attract new clients and improve reputation) and problems (low quality of work, lack of understanding of the specifics of the business). Another 20% of those who have never worked with freelancers would like to start.

“Our study showed that 71% of entrepreneurs annually face the solution of creative tasks in their own business. Most often it is the creation of visual materials for promoting goods and services. At the same time, 42% of businessmen try to cope themselves and a third of them experience significant difficulties. The main problem is in personal qualifications (own and employees), a lack of funds and the lack of creative ideas. Understanding this, Sberba proposed a decision-a Giga assistant who is already available to several hundred thousand entrepreneurs in the Internet banking business. It is developed on the basis of Gigachat’s own neural network model and takes on one of the most important business tasks: it creates a variety of text content, including cards for marketplaces, correctly processes customer reviews, invents promotions. The assistant issues personalized tips and sales analysts based on a particular business data. In parallel, it reduces routine and other standard business tasks-from writing letters to creating an online store directly during a joint dialogue with the owner. We understand how valuable the time of entrepreneurs is, so in the near future we will make a GIGA assistant accessible to all Russian entrepreneurs. After all, now it is evident how generative AI seriously simplifies work with the creative and helps to increase business efficiency, ”said Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank.

In addition to data on creative industries, Sber's research, which took place from May 27 to June 5, 2025, gave an idea of the mood of entrepreneurs in general. Thus, 54% of owners of individual entrepreneurs and LLCs assess their financial situation as satisfactory. 42% believe that it will remain stable in the coming year, and 27% expect improvements.

69% of entrepreneurs do not plan to either expand or reduce their business. 20% of survey participants intend to expand – most often these are young people aged 18-39 (in this category, 30% of respondents answered this way) and those who assess their financial situation as good (35%).

Government support remains important for entrepreneurs. The most popular are special tax regimes (52%), preferential lending (38%), tax breaks (27%) and grants (25%). Women entrepreneurs are more often interested in special tax regimes, training programs and business consulting.

63% of entrepreneurs have employees. The main methods of retaining them are flexible hours (52%), compensation for transportation expenses (37%) and development opportunities (35%). Employees are motivated mainly by money (85%), gratitude (56%) and constructive criticism (43%).

The study covered 614 owners of individual entrepreneurs and LLCs, for whom entrepreneurship is the main type of activity. The survey was conducted by telephone using the CATI method, the statistical error does not exceed 4.8%.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) – Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

In the first half of 2025, more than five thousand new small and medium-sized businesses in the tourism sector were created in Russia. Thus, the total number of tourism SMEs in the country reached almost 76.5 thousand, and their revenue by the end of 2024 exceeded 1 trillion rubles.

"Over three years, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism sector has grown by 12% and is now approaching 76.5 thousand. And the total employment in the SME segment in the tourism sector is 296 thousand people. The growth rate of domestic tourism and targeted government support provide opportunities for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Moreover, this is a two-way street: the active involvement of SMEs in the creation of tourism infrastructure is not only a response to market demand, but also the creation of new points of attraction for the redistribution or increase of tourist flows," said Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Dmitry Vakhrukov.

According to the SME Corporation, the growth rate of SMEs in tourism is 1.5 times higher than in other industries.

"The key feature of the growth of tourism SMEs was the high growth rate relative to SMEs in all industries – more than 1.5 times. Since the beginning of 2025, more than five thousand SMEs have been created in key areas of tourism with a reproduction rate (the ratio of opened and closed enterprises) of 1.7. In general, for all industries, this ratio is significantly lower and is 1.1. Another important trend is the interest in tourism on the part of young people. Every fifth SME is accounted for by young entrepreneurs under 35. At the same time, the average age of entrepreneurs in the tourism sector is 44 years old, which is a year higher than the average for the SME sector," said Alexander Isaevich, General Director of the SME Corporation.

About 45% of SMEs in the tourism sector have hired workers, their number is 234 thousand people. Another 62 thousand are self-employed citizens who work as guides and also provide temporary accommodation services.

The largest number of SMEs in tourism in 2025 opened in Moscow (537), Krasnodar Krai (465), St. Petersburg (282), Moscow Region (244), and the Altai Republic (225). In the ranking of cities, besides Moscow, the resort city of Sochi leads in this indicator (86 SMEs), followed by Krasnodar (83), Yekaterinburg (72), Ufa (60), and Kazan (53). The top 10 municipalities in terms of business growth in tourism also included Gelendzhik (48), Perm (48), municipalities of the city of Moscow (47), Anapa (45), and Novosibirsk (44).

Let us recall that in order to support the tourism business, the SME Corporation allocated a special limit of "umbrella" guarantees in 2025, which will allow small and medium businesses in this area to attract at least 25 billion rubles by the end of the year. A full range of financial and non-financial support measures for the creation and development of entrepreneurship in the tourism sector is presented on the SME.RF Digital Platform.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) – Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On July 15, the Federation Council held a round table on the topic of "Development of special economic zones of the technology-implementation type as a driver of innovation." The event was organized by the Committee on Economic Policy with the participation of Senator Vladimir Kravchenko. The discussion was attended by Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Svyatoslav Sorokin, representatives of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, heads of special economic zones (SEZ) of the technology-implementation type, as well as industry experts.

Today, there are seven special economic zones of the technology implementation type operating in Russia. Despite their small number, they demonstrate impressive results from year to year, promoting the development of high-tech production and innovative infrastructure. They include: SEZ Technopolis Moscow (Moscow), Saint Petersburg (Saint Petersburg), Dubna (Moscow Region), Tomsk (Tomsk Region), Innopolis (Republic of Tatarstan), Istok (Fryazino, Moscow Region), and Saratov (Saratov, Saratov Region).

In his report, Svyatoslav Sorokin noted the importance of technology implementation zones in the formation of non-resource growth of the economy and the technological sovereignty of the country.

"Today we see that, despite the fact that there are only seven technology-implementation SEZs, they generate almost half of all revenue and jobs created in the SEZ territory. This speaks to the high efficiency of this format and its key role in the development of high-tech production," the deputy minister emphasized.

Today, there are more than 570 residents registered in the TVT SEZ, 32 of which have foreign capital. The total revenue of residents exceeds 1.75 trillion rubles (43% of the total revenue for all SEZs), and the volume of investments amounted to more than 764 billion rubles. Thanks to the activities of these zones, more than 50 thousand highly paid jobs have been created.

"Residents of technology-implementation SEZs today produce unique IT solutions, medical products, and products for the aviation and space industries. These are real growth points and architects of the innovative economy," noted Svyatoslav Sorokin.

The roundtable participants discussed proposals for fine-tuning the SEZ mechanism, aimed at increasing their efficiency and investment attractiveness. The Ministry of Economic Development will work on initiatives from the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to adjust the methodology for assessing the efficiency of special economic zones, providing for increased attention to the development of technologies and the introduction of innovations. The new approach will be implemented taking into account the emphasis on technology implementation processes that ensure the implementation of the strategic goals of the national economy – structural adaptation of industries and the achievement of technological sovereignty of the country. These measures are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Russian enterprises, accelerating scientific and technological progress and ensuring the sustainability of economic growth in the context of global competition.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federal

Source: Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) – Ministry of Economic Development (Russia) –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

At a meeting on Tuesday, July 15, State Duma deputies supported in the first reading a systemic bill that will help increase investment in the housing and utilities sector and modernize the utilities infrastructure.

The bill was prepared in the context of fulfilling the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to attract budget and private funds in the amount of 4.5 trillion rubles for the modernization of critical infrastructure by 2030.

"The bill introduces a rule for resource supplying organizations to approve investment programs. We also link these programs with depreciation already taken into account in the current tariffs. In the absence of legislatively established directions for depreciation, it is impossible to track what purposes it is spent on (major repairs, covering current expenses, or placing funds on deposits), since this remains at the discretion of the resource supplying organization," Deputy Minister of Economic Development Mikhail Kaminsky noted at the plenary session.

Depreciation charges in the housing and utilities sector are part of the cost of fixed assets that organizations include in their costs to compensate for their wear and tear. Depreciation is already included in the tariffs that the population pays for housing and utilities services, while depreciation can also be used for purposes not related to the modernization of housing and utilities facilities, which leads to insufficient funding of investment programs and accelerated wear and tear of infrastructure.

Now the direction of depreciation to finance investment programs will become mandatory. This will allow the investment resource already included in the tariff to be used for the development of the industry. According to Mikhail Kaminsky, today no more than 10% of organizations have investment programs.

The mechanism of regulatory agreements, which will be extended to the heat supply sector and fine-tuned in water supply, will help support investments in the regions of the Russian Federation. The agreement will establish the procedure for determining and changing tariffs for the heat supply organization, and will record the obligations of the subject of the Russian Federation, the municipality to set tariffs for the entire term of the agreement. This is necessary to attract private investment and provide regions and municipalities with the opportunity to provide budget support measures to resource supply organizations.

“We are thus providing the opportunity to record long-term mutual obligations of resource supplying organizations, regions and municipalities: organizations will receive long-term tariffs that take into account investment programs for a period of at least five years, and regions and municipalities will receive modernized infrastructure facilities,” Mikhail Kaminsky clarified.

The bill also introduces a unified approach to monitoring the implementation of investment programs. Currently, regional state control over investment programs is carried out within the framework of tariff regulation. Now the bodies authorized to do so, which are determined by the region itself, will work according to the rules of the basic law on control. In particular, they will receive the right to inspect the implementation of investment program activities.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.