There is such a person - SME. And everyone wants to help him. 10 days ago we had a meeting with the deputies of the Senate Committee on Economic Policy. Topic - SME support. Such a polite, productive, substantive conversation. I understood that specifics were welcome. But taking advantage of the moment, I spent my 10 minutes to tell the crooked understanding of SMEs by the bureaucracy. SMEs are not some kind of homogeneous mass. You cannot "take and help" him. *** Here are 5 arguments. 1) There are several dozen FACTORS by which an individual enterprise can be helped - demand, raw materials, personnel, interest rate, building, equipment, duties, etc. 2) There are 1.4 million SMEs and thousands of INDUSTRIES and they are all different (profitability, key success factors, clientele). 3) Industries are not autonomous - they are linked in endless chains / matrices. 4) SMEs are scattered across 16.5 thousand settlements and each of them has its own unique specialization. 5) SME operates in a different legal field. Someone is "white", pays taxes and plays by the rules. Someone is in the "shadow", has an extra margin and pays for it informally. *** Let's now multiply this by each other. These are THOUSANDS of potential combinations of direct support measures for SMEs and MILLIONS of business bundles. It is very exciting to endlessly discuss who, where and how the state can help. Occupation for centuries, permanent work. The problem is that the classic SME is Amazon. This is an endless variety of flora and fauna that exist in a huge economic space. Equilibrium from chaos. We can interfere with some link in the chain, upsetting the balance. But we will not be able to predict where the next problem will shoot in the ecosystem. SMEs are responding to demand. Demand is expressed in physical volumes and prices. If it is attractive and there is healthy competition, SMEs appear on their own. If we distort prices and competition, then instead of high-quality suppliers we get low-quality ones who agree to play by incomprehensible rules and for small margins. This degrades the quality of goods and services, and in the end - increases prices. If we liquidate one type of business (legal hookah), then we just get the second (underground hookah / strong alcohol). As long as there is demand, supply will appear, but already worse and more expensive. *** Changing principles is more important than individual improvements. 1) What is pushing SMEs? From the State Planning Commission to incentives based on the signal price function. An example from social networking is the market value of services. If it is sufficient, then such personnel (entrepreneurs and personnel) will come there, who will organize the process themselves so that the quality will increase and there will be accessibility. 2) How to help SMEs now? From "what ELSE can be done" to "what needs to STOP doing". For example, stop creating incomprehensible restrictions in a pandemic and directing biased armies of auditors. Or remove all restrictions and invented fees. 3) How can we help SMEs in the future? From point measures for individual enterprises - to collective goods (without discrimination) based on clustering. If we give state support to one enterprise and do not give it to another, and they both compete in the same market, then we destroy the concept of competition with our own hands. If we haven’t guessed right yet with the enterprise, then goodbye to the whole industry. http://senate.parlam.kz/ru-RU/news/details/3902?fbclid=IwAR08tLQfiKn8huQkf7Nzk5ur3rtMsPndiKcLzL8G5FlUFd_BZooial0E84g