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Moscow allocated $1.2 bln to support businesses in 2020

The head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of Moscow also noted that in 2021 the authorities plan to increase the number of subsidies for small and medium-sized businesses

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The Moscow authorities have spent 90 bln rubles ($1.2 bln) to provide financial support to small and medium-sized businesses in 2020, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of Moscow Alexey Fursin told reporters on Tuesday.

"In general, the total volume of the economic block is 90 billion rubles, which was used to support businesses. As for financial support, our department coordinates three blocks. <...> Complete subsidiary support passes through us, 14 subsidies that we give out to SMEs. Now, according to the applications that were condidred, we have [allocated support] for 3 billion rubles ($39 mln). As for the next block, a separate block of guarantees, <...> we practically retained the same amount of support - about 10 billion ($132 mln) -9.7 billion [rubles] ($128 mln) for guarantee support and plus another 10.7 billion [rubles] ($141 mln) were allocated for concessional lending," Fursin said.

The head of the department also noted that in 2021 the authorities plan to increase the number of subsidies for small and medium-sized businesses.

"There are several areas that we have not covered by now, and it is clear that we will proceed from our budgetary capabilities, and, of course, from efficiency, because it is very important to see that this measure really solves something, not only compensates for part of costs, but worked, in terms of development," Fursin said.

He added that the department is working on two areas - IT and creative industries.

"We are working on a few more areas that are interesting for us from the point of view of certain drivers for entrepreneurs. This is a segment related to software - there is an application from them. <...> It is interesting for us to ensure that we stimulate these solutions and opportunities for development of the IT sector in particular through the state support. Taking into account that decisions have been made on both maneuvering and additional benefits for programmers, we are now discussing with the industry how exactly we could help them. We will allocate some specific subsidy, but this is one of the requests from two sides - from those who consume and from those who create. And the second block, which is very new today, is the creative industry. There are a lot of requests from this area. Sometimes they are sectoral, for example, support for young animators - how to enable them to develop faster through the support of the city and the state," the official explained.

The Moscow business support program includes 17 industries. The authorities of the capital now provide small and medium-sized businesses with 14 types of subsidies and grants.