Municipal Authorities Support of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (on the Example of a Municipality)

This paper is aimed to analyze problems in the interaction of small and medium-sized enterprises on the example of the Uryupinsk city and Almetyevsky municipal district. Research was based on the study of legal acts, scientific literature, semistructured expert interviews of entrepreneurs and representatives of municipal authorities, and open survey of entrepreneurs (questionnaire type). The paper distinguished formal and real practices of interaction between SMEs and municipal authorities, which form the basis for medium and small businesses at the municipal level. The author of the work came to the conclusion that this interaction is not optimal and inefficient. Key issues of interaction were mistrust of the authorities and business, the presence of administrative barriers, bureaucratization of reporting activities, the problems of staffing of SMEs, the weak level of information support and infrastructure of SMEs, total control and accountability of municipal authorities to the state governmnent). The author of the work came to the conclusion that in some municipalities (especially in small) municipal support of SMEs is formal, because local authorities often lack financial, time and administrative resources. Based on the results of the empirical study, recommendations were also made in order to improve the interaction of local authorities and SMEs.