HispanicBusiness

Vladimir Putin met the leadership of the all-Russia public organization Opora Rossii, which includes more than 370,000 small and medium-size businesspeople. This year Opora marks its 10th anniversary. In this connection, a forum and a congress are being held in Moscow, at which the new leader of the organization, Aleksandr Brechalov, has been elected. The president invited the participants in the meeting to engage in a more active dialogue on the development of entrepreneurship in Russia and said that small and medium-size businesses should play a more prominent role in the country's economy.

[Putin] "The number of small and medium-size enterprises in the country has been increasing, but of course this number is far from the level it should be at, keeping in mind that in the countries with developed market economies the percentage of small and medium- size enterprises or their contribution to the total GDP of the relevant country is bigger than what we have here. Here, it is slightly more than 20 per cent, 21-22 per cent, while in the USA it is 50 per cent, and even more in other countries, 60 per cent or more in China, I think, and a whole range of other countries, those with developed and developing market economies. Their indicators are higher than that of ours, and we should certainly be moving in this direction."