Small business development in Brest region — trends and examples.
Small Business in the Brest Region
In 2004, more than 75,000 people were employed in the field of small business, accounting for 12.2% of the region’s workforce. Over the past five years, the annual growth of employment in small business has ranged from 5% to 8.5%. Financial assistance to small business entities in the region is provided by the Brest Regional State Institution for Entrepreneurial Financial Support.
As of July 1, 2005, the region had 2,991 individual entrepreneurs, 2,319 private commercial organizations, 460 enterprises with foreign investments, and 414 farms registered for tax purposes. This means that for every 1,000 residents of the region, there are 1.6 commercial enterprises and 20 individual entrepreneurs.
Small enterprises operate in almost all sectors of the economy. A large share is accounted for by enterprises whose main activities are trade (33.8%), industry (28.8%), construction (11.2%), and transport (10.4%). The main types of activity of individual entrepreneurs include: retail trade – 46.7%, outerwear production – 6.5%, household services – 5.4%, freight transport services – 4.8%, taxi services – 2.5%, and wholesale trade – 1.5%.
In 2004, tax revenues from business entities accounted for 23.7% of all tax payments to the region’s consolidated budget, including 4.1% from individual entrepreneurs, 8.2% from private enterprises, and 11.4% from enterprises with foreign investment.
In the first half of 2005, tax revenues from small business entities amounted to 171.5 billion rubles, including 33.2 billion rubles from individual entrepreneurs, 66.9 billion rubles from private enterprises, and 71.4 billion rubles from enterprises with foreign investment.
The share of revenue generated by small business entities in 2004 amounted to 12% of the total revenue of all other business entities in the region. Net profit exceeded 17 billion rubles, with almost half of this amount earned by industrial enterprises (49.2%) and 24.8% by construction companies.
Job Creation
In 2004, more than 75,000 people were employed in small business, accounting for 12.2% of the region’s workforce. Over the past five years, the annual growth of employment in small business has ranged from 5% to 8.5%.
In 2004, the average number of employees in small enterprises was 28,600, which represents a 29.5% increase compared to 2003. In the overall workforce of the region, this figure amounted to 5.8% (compared to 4.6% in 2003). According to statistical reports, in 2004, an average of 13 people worked in each of the 2,157 small enterprises in the region. Additionally, many workers were employed under civil law contracts: in 2004, this form of employment accounted for 2,600 people.
