The meeting of regional Commissioners for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, which took place on February 18th in online format , was chaired by the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Titov.  

.  More than 100 people took part in the meeting, including business ombudsmen and employees of authorized offices, representatives of the largest regional business associations.

    A regular meeting chaired by Boris Titov was devoted to the consideration of the most pressing current issues.

    The meeting was attended and made presentations by the head of the Department for work with regional authorized representatives of the Office of the Commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs Ernest Mingazov, invited speaker, general director of the ANO Platform for working with appeals of entrepreneurs "ZaBusiness.RF" Elina Sidorenko, adviser to the Commissioner  under the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs Anton Sviridenko.

He opened the meeting and made a presentation on the stages of preparation of the annual report to the President of Russia on the results of the work of the Institute of Commissioner Ernest Mingazov.

    Elina Sidorenko, General Director of ANO Platform ZaBiznes.RF, addressed the audience with a proposal for close cooperation at the regional level with the institution of ombudsmen for the protection of entrepreneurs' rights in the framework of consideration of appeals related to the criminal prosecution of entrepreneurs.

    “We are ready to share with the regional commissioners any of our resources, the need for which may arise when working with requests from entrepreneurs, in particular, in the topic of criminal prosecution,” Sidorenko said at the beginning of her speech.

    Also she paid special attention to the announcement of a new project that is scheduled for this spring.  According to Sidorenko, in the very near future in a number of regions, including Moscow and the Moscow region, it is planned to hold events with the participation of regional leaders, the prosecutor's office, the Investigative Committee and other law enforcement agencies.

    “The main purpose of such meetings is to promote the development of the business climate in the Russian Federation and to ensure an effective, transparent and uninterrupted process of appealing against actions and inaction of law enforcement agencies in relation to representatives of the business community,”  said the the Director General of ANO Platform ZaBusiness.RF in her speech.

    “We hope that such events will lay the foundation for the formation of new standards for the work of government bodies with appeals from entrepreneurs, as well as reduce the level of complaints against law enforcement agencies in the Russian regions,” Elina Sidorenko clarified.

    Anton Sviridenko, Advisor to the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs of the Russian Federation, announced the results of monitoring the current situation in the regions, including monitoring the standards for the accumulation of MSW and tariffs for the services of regional operators, tariffs for wastewater disposal, and also mentioned the existing and not fully resolved problem of return by entrepreneurs  loans issued at 2% per annum.

    “The monitoring was attended by managers and owners of 5,305 companies from 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.  According to entrepreneurs, in 2020, a full-scale crisis erupted, revenue fell by 80%.  At the same time, thanks to business support measures, there were no massive bankruptcies; only 3.1% of organizations left the market.  At the same time, a degrading demand had a negative impact on the work of companies, 78.8% of respondents indicated that the demand for their services or products in 2020 either decreased or disappeared altogether, ”Anton Sviridenko said in his speech.

    At the end of the advisor's report, Boris Titov noted that the situation in the field of entrepreneurial activity is gradually improving.

    “This is evidenced by the results of surveys of entrepreneurs, which we regularly conduct in the regions.  It is clear that the pandemic in Russia is receding.  The time is coming when we will defend the right to development, not the right to survive, ”said Boris Titov.

        At the same time, the Federal Commissioner drew the attention of the meeting participants to the need for high-quality information support for their work.

 “A bad result of the work of the Ombudsman is when only 30% of representatives of the business environment know about the existence of the institution of the Ombudsman in their region,” stressed Boris Titov.

During the meeting, the floor was taken by the business ombudsmen representing the Sverdlovsk, Volgograd regions and St. Petersburg.

    Business Ombudsman of the Sverdlovsk Region Elena Artyukh reported on the difficulties encountered by entrepreneurs when paying deferrals for rent and redemption payments for leased municipal (state) property.

    Olga Ustinova, Ombudsman from the Volgograd Region, spoke about the progress made by the departments of the Federal Tax Service of Russia to implement a project to eliminate unfair behavior of business entities and strengthen cash discipline in retail markets.

    Regional Commissioner from St. Petersburg Alexander Abrosimov shared with his colleagues the nuances of the difficulties arising when applying for visas for foreign citizens who carry out service and warranty maintenance of imported equipment in the Russian Federation.

    When discussing the problematic issues voiced by the regional commissioners, proposals were received for amending Russian normative legal acts.

     “Based on the results of the meeting, we will formulate the business proposals received for their further consideration at the highest level,” concluded Boris Titov at the end of the meeting.