Nowatell - The Russian-European Centre for International Business

Programmes of the Centre

Programme

of the Russian-European Centre for International Business
on promotion of foreign economic co-operation
between small and medium-sized businesses
for their activities in Russia and EU countries

Small and medium-sized enterprises are a large and complex phenomenon of socio-economic life of all countries. It is present practically in all sectors of the economy. In the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises all social groups are involved. Small and medium-sized business is a strategic factor in sustainable economic development of every country and vice versa. The closure of small and medium-sized enterprises can have serious negative consequences, both economic and social. For these reasons support of small and medium-sized enterprises is one of the political priorities of governments who want to solve the dual socio-economic tasks. The development of small and medium-sized businesses means from a social aspect jobs and life quality for citizens, their supply with goods and services needed for them, formation of the middle class and the democratic institutions of civil society and the realisation of social programmes.

Activites of small- and medium-sized businesses appear to contribute to the GDP, improvment of the quality and competitiveness of goods and services, increasing the diversification of small- and medium-sized business activities, to the growth of foreign trade and to the implementation of priority national projects in health, education, housing and development of the agriculture.

The most important strategic goal of the policy of Russian Federation in the field of development of science and technology is transformation of the economy of the country on an innovative way and entry into the WTO. A solution to this global task is the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the innovation, scientific and technical fields. The knowledge-intensive projects, which are conducted by small and medium-sized businesses, shoud address the final result, which is able to become an innovative and marketable product. According to the experiences of European countries about 90% of all knowledge-intensive projects and technologies are carried out by small and medium-sized businesses. The development of small innovative companies is based, in general, on extensive scientific research by universities and scientific research institutes and production enterprises, which were based on achievemet of the major scientific laboratories and departments of enterprises. Nowadays, there exists a high demand by competitiveness and quality of products and services by small and medium-sized business dictate necessity for introduction of marketing technologies and outsourcing. The main activity direction of the Russian-European Centre for International Busnes from the beginning was and still remains the development and support of small and medium-sized bsinss by means of information supply trough cooperation with business and trade associations.

An important factor for the development constraints of small and medium enterprises is the lack of accurate and reliable information. As a result, the Russian-European Centre for International business established a target programme to promote foreign economic cooperation between small and medium business organizations in their activities on the territory of Russia and the EU countries.

As part of this programme will be offered:

development of information supply of the RECIB to build information structures for organizations of small and medium businesses (including issues of legal regulations of business activities in Russia and European countries); promotion of trade offers and investment projects of small and medium-sized businesses, which require joint implementation; as well as to create conditions for the development of partnerships between international small- and medium-sized companies and partners in Russia and in European countries
supporting the development of financial and credit mechanisms, based on the use of existing networks of specialized financial, credit and deposit institutions that were founded in Russia and European countries to establish joint programmes and projects to support small and medium-sized enterprises
support of the development of innovative activities of small and medium entrepreneurs, which is realized by events of the RECIB. These events are aimed at solving the organizational and technical issues that relate to the need of small and medium-sized enterprises to include advanced technologies. This is an essential prerequisite for the development of competitive enterprises and to maintain production at the highest levels
support of international expansion of small and medium enterprises in Russian and European markets with the use of modern forms and methods of information, marketing and other support, through the embedding of these companies in the process chains of large companies and through cooperation in individual cycles of the manufacturing process
support of introduction of modern management technologies and for dissemination of experience in large-scale use of the Internet
promotion of comprehensive satisfaction of small- and medium entrepreneurs in the form of complex consulting services in all aspects of corporate activity
support for organization of training and retraining programmes for small and medium enterprises
promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises in innovation, expansion in the market for innovation and science intensive productions as well as improving the mechanisms for the export of science intensive productions
assistance in the establishment of international and national infrastructure for the development and support of the international business cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises
supporting the establishment of joint national and international systems for information supply and consulting for small and medium-sized enterprises
assistance in creation and development of international programmes for the organization of international cooperation companies as well as of Russian and European funds for promoting small and medium enterprises and investments

The "Programme of the Russian-European Centre for International Business on promotion of foreign economic co-operation between small and medium-sized businesses for their Activities in Russia and EU countries" was adopted by the Advisory Board and accepted for further activity by the administration and the cooperating partners of the Russian-European Center for International Business.