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Mr Putin said at the conference that the share of small businesses in the structure of the country’s GDP should be increased to at least 12% in 2001, and 8.5 million people should be employed in this sphere.

He said that the most pressing problems of small businesses were the absence of stability guarantees and inability to protect themselves in the face of criminal and administrative racket. Mr Putin also said that the state was very inconsistent in matters of support for small business, that it would be wrong to support only big companies.

Mr Putin said that small business is subject to fiscal pressure and deprived of financial support. Moreover, its development is hindered by the existing licensing practice. Therefore, the respective law should be amended and the list of the types of activity subject to licensing reduced.

Mr Putin also said that more unfinished construction projects and companies that were formerly part of the defence industry should be transferred to small businesses.

At present, there are about 900,000 small companies in Russia permanently employing about 7 million people. Small businesses produce from 10% to 11% of the country’s GDP.