A subcontracting center for small businesses will be established in the Vitebsk region

March 18, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The state support program for small businesses in the Vitebsk region for the period 2010-2012 was approved today at a session of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies, a BELTA correspondent reports. The program provides for the implementation of the main directions of regional state policy in the sphere of small business. It is aimed at creating organizational, legal and economic conditions that promote the dynamic and sustainable development of entrepreneurship, and the formation of a rational industry structure of entrepreneurial activity. In accordance with the program, small businesses will receive financial support from the regional budget. Thus, Br180 million is planned to be allocated for state financial support to private businesses in the form of subsidies to reimburse part of the interest on bank loans, leasing payments, and part of the expenses related to participation in exhibitions and fairs in the period from 2010 to 2012. One of the main directions of the program is the expansion of industrial cooperation and partnership between small and large enterprises. In particular, the economy committees of the regional executive committee, city and district executive committees, as well as entrepreneurship support centers and small business incubators will accumulate and analyze proposals from industrial enterprises regarding their needs in manufacturing import-substituting components, and prepare proposals for attracting private businesses to their production within the framework of industrial cooperation. The program also provides for the creation of a subcontracting center, which will provide assistance in information and consulting support for the industrial cooperation processes of small and large economic entities. "Entrepreneurship in the region has been given a green light," said Alexander Atyasov, Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies, commenting on the program. In his opinion, it will be able to provide favorable conditions for the sustainable development of small businesses, stimulate the development of production and innovation, the latest technologies, and create jobs. There are 7.6 thousand legal entities and 28.8 thousand individual entrepreneurs operating in the Vitebsk region. The number of people employed in small businesses has increased from 50,000 in 2005 to 82,000 (as of January 1, 2010). Annually, more than 12,000 jobs are created in small businesses. Last year, 18.5 thousand jobs were created, including 2.8 thousand in small towns. -0-