Opening the meeting, the acting Head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, noted that business is actively developing in the republic, and industry, trade, exports, including non-oil, are growing. There are various types of business support: tax breaks, subsidies, soft loans, property preferences, infrastructure support. There are regional development funds and institutions. At the same time, for the second year in a row, the volume of investments in the region has decreased.

“Bashkortostan is one of the leading economies of the Volga Federal District. The goals that the republic sets itself in its strategy of socio-economic development fully correlate with the federal agenda,” said Svetlana Chupsheva.

However, in her opinion, the current growth rates do not correspond to the possibilities of the region, as well as the volume of investments and the lack of export diversification.

The co-chairman of Business Russia, Andrei Nazarov, also agrees with her, who also spoke about possible points of growth of the region from the perspective of the business community.

“At the level of republican authorities, we have already formed an understanding that the investment climate is an important component of the quality of life in the region. But still, the problem area, in my opinion, is the weak work of the municipal level,” he said and proposed to introduce two standards for the municipalities in the region: on the condition of the investment climate based on the regional standard of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and on the protection of the business developed by the business-ombudsman and the Center of Public Procedures “Business against corruption”.

Andrei Nazarov also noted the need to audit the already adopted standards of the activities of the executive authorities to ensure a favorable investment climate.

In addition, the expert proposed to localize the search for potential investors and to achieve greater efficiency, working with companies already investing in neighboring regions. Andrei Nazarov also called for introducing tax incentives for business and restarting the Republican venture fund so that it becomes not just a place for the distribution of money, but a structure that actually manages innovation processes.

“A sharp breakthrough for the region will occur if we succeed in implementing the project “Territories of Advanced Social and Economic Development in the Russian Federation” in Bashkortostan in a format similar to the Far Eastern one. Until 2018, this format was impossible for other regions, but today this opportunity has appeared, and the government has already submitted applications for the creation of several TADs,” explained Andrei Nazarov.

To increase awareness, it is necessary to use major events of the federal scale - exhibitions, forums. In particular, All-Russia Investment Sabantuy “TransUrals” will be planned in cooperation with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and business associations in June this year. We set ourselves two tasks - attracting investment and increasing business activity. We invite all regions of Russia to it, and first of all - all the neighbors from the Volga and Ural federal districts.

During the discussion, this idea was supported by the leader of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Svetlana Chupsheva. In her opinion, not only agglomerations, large centers become points of attraction, points of growth: “We must create the same conditions for small cities, because there are many of them in our country.”

In addition, Andrei Nazarov called for expanding the format of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives “boiling point” to a “boiling region” and testing this initiative in the Republic of Bashkortostan as a pilot project.

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