Kalinin pointed to the orientation of small businesses to retain staff

Thousands of Russian small and medium-sized companies have refocused on retaining staff amid a lack of reserves for investments. This was announced on June 3 during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) "Transformation of small business: a new formula for SME growth" by the president of the organization "Support of Russia" Alexander Kalinin.

The head of the business association presented the data of a large-scale survey, according to which entrepreneurs actually lost their investment resources.

"Small enterprises say that they have run out of reserves for investments. That is, 80% of enterprises said they would refrain from investing this year because there are no sources," Kalinin said.

Despite the shortage of funds, the situation did not lead to mass liquidations of companies. Instead of shutting down their operations, the businessmen concentrated their efforts on preserving the core of their employees and preventing layoffs.

"[Entrepreneurs] have indicated that they will keep both their enterprises and their employees," Kalinin added, commenting on the position of the overwhelming majority of survey participants.

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On May 25, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin noted that the authorities need to continue to support domestic businesses in overcoming the challenges they face. During the meeting with members of the Russian government, special attention was paid to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of the structural transformation of the economy. Russian Deputy Prime Ministers Alexander Novak and Dmitry Chernyshenko delivered their reports.