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Moscow, Petersburg occupy middle positions in Business Pulse ratings

MOSCOW, October 16 (Itar-Tass) -Moscow, the Moscow region and St.Petersburg have been placed in the second or middle group of regions of the Russian Federation in the "Business Pulse" ratings presented by President of the Public Opinion Foundation Aleksandr Oslon and Director General of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives Andrei Nikitin at a press conference at Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The Business Pulse rating is a joint project undertaken by the Itar-Tass news agency, the Agency of Strategic Initiatives and the Public Opinion foundation. A total of 65,800 respondents were interviewed during the poll conducted in 75 regions of the Russian Federation.

The respondents were picked depending on whether they or their relatives and friends were in any way connected with business. This group of the respondents accounts for 20.4 percent of the population, including 6.3 percent directly involved in the business sector. The respondents were asked whether the conditions for the development of business were favorable in their respective region, whether the regional authorities promoted the development of business in their region and if the number of people going into business there was growing. Besides, all the respondents were asked whether business development was useful or rather harmful to the territory where they live.

The poll showed that in Moscow and St.Petersburg, only an answer to question "Four" -a general attitude to business, proved positive. From the point of view of the Moscow business sphere "the Moscow authorities impede, rather than encourage entrepreneurship," the poll showed.

In the opinion of the business sphere of the Moscow region, the number of businessmen was going up, but the attitude of the population to business is negative, rather than positive.

The first group on top of the Business Pulse rating with no regions near capitals in it, covers 28 territories, including the Baikal region, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Tomsk and Tyumen regions, Komi Republic, the Republic of Mariy El, Mordovia, Vologda, Bryansk, Kaluga regions.

The third group of regions, where the population find conditions for business not attractive enough, includes 21 regions, with the population of the Kaliningrad, Ivanovo, Kursk and Saratov regions giving negative answers to all the four questions asked.

All in all, such factors as the “Attitude to Business” and “Business Dynamics” aroused a positive response, while such parameters as "Business and Power" and "Conditions for Business" have been assessed"negative" with a little difference from a neutral position.

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