Trends in the Development of Small Business in Russia and the Baikal Region in 2017–2023

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider modern, mainly quantitative, trends in the development of small business in two subjects of the Baikal region — the Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region. At the same time, the current trends are compared with the all-Russian trends and key indicators that traditionally characterize the state of small business in developed countries, and with the target indicators of the Strategy for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. As a result of the analysis of a number of absolute and relative indicators, conclusions are drawn about a rather specific modern picture of small business development in the regions under consideration against the background of such all-Russian trends as an increase in the number of small and microenterprises with a reduction in the number of employees employed in them, a decrease in the proportion of the number of employees of small enterprises in the total number of employed and an almost unchanged value of the contribution indicator small business in Russia's GDP. It can be seen that while maintaining such dynamics, it is impossible to achieve the target targets of the Strategy. At the same time, since its development, a significant number of negative external factors have appeared that affect the development of business, including small ones, which have caused the emergence of problems of a new nature. Consequently, we should not talk about the inefficiency of the measures taken by the state and other support for small businesses, but rather about the insufficiency of these measures and their untimely actualization within the framework of the impact of newly emerging negative environmental factors.