Increasing business activity of Russian SMEs: problems and solutions illustrated with the example of Volgograd region

Small and medium-sized businesses (SME) are among the drivers of territories' economic development. In modern Russia, it has not yet been possible to ensure the sustainable development of this economical sector. The increase in SME activity in Russia is an actual scientific and practical problem, especially for the Volgograd region, the development of which has signs of depression. The purpose of this work is to identify promising areas for improving the SME regulation to ensure the increase of its activity in the Russian Federation on the example of the Volgograd region. To achieve the goal, the following tasks were solved: the current state of SME and its regulation policy were characterized; the problems hindering the SME development were analyzed; the structural and dynamic analysis of Volgograd region economic development indicators and regional SME activity was performed; the main directions of SME regulation improvement in the Russian Federation and in the Volgograd region were determined. The following general scientific methods are used: generalization and abstraction, statistical and comparative analysis, graphic modeling, tabular visualization of the results. The source of statistical data was the Federal Body of State Statistics of the Russian Federation - Rosstat. As a result of the statistical analysis it was found that the SME sector in the economy of the Volgograd region (in general) and in the agricultural sector (in particular) from 2014 to 2017 was developing successfully. However, in other sectors, including the priority manufacturing sector, its business activity increasing is problematic. The acceleration of SME development in all economic sectors of the Russian Federation and the Volgograd region will be facilitated by: harmonization of SME regulation with cluster construction and other areas of economic policy; creation of a unified integrated system of accounting for indicators of SME sector development; modernization of the tax system; development of rural cooperation; creation of a single integrated digital platform to support entrepreneurs, as well as to monitor and regulate the SME development.