Omsk Region Is Ready to Help Compatriots Who Have Relocated on an Individual Basis

On November 2, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development of Omsk Region held a video conference for compatriots on doing business in this Siberian region. Participants placed particular emphasis on developing social entrepreneurship and businesses in agriculture.

Omsk Region is a traditional home for Russian Germans and is especially eager for them to return from abroad. A whole district where ethnic Germans live in compact rural communities has been preserved here to this day. In addition, the region ranks 13th in Russia for the development of social entrepreneurship: the authorities have already supported more than 100 socially oriented business projects through various forms of assistance. So new market entrants will have people to turn to for advice. People here are responsive and hospitable in the Siberian way, always ready to help.

Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Omsk Region gave a detailed account of the types of assistance available to farms, personal subsidiary plots, and agricultural cooperatives. They particularly noted that the region needs additional land for growing potatoes. Livestock farming, however, is also developing quite successfully.

The regional Ministry of Agriculture offers grants to develop your farm: you need to provide just 10% of the funds yourself, while the ministry provides the remaining 90% as non-repayable assistance. The amounts are quite substantial: from 5 to 20 million per farm; agricultural cooperatives can also receive up to 20 million rubles. A competition commission evaluates grant applications and awards grants to the winners. You can find the grant terms here. The funds must be used within 1.5 years. The same application mechanism applies to grants for family farms and cooperatives. In those cases, the period for using the funds is slightly longer—up to 2 years.

The “Avangard” industrial special economic zone is waiting for new residents. A free customs zone is being established here to allow duty-free imports of equipment and vehicles for those ready to invest at least 120 million rubles in the region. All available benefits, of course, are granted only to residents of Omsk Region.
For businesses of any type and size, the regional economic development and entrepreneurship support complex is ready to provide all necessary assistance, including on an individual basis. It can also help find reliable suppliers of equipment, components, machinery, and other types of industrial goods abroad. This is extremely important in these difficult times! Webinar participants from among the compatriots immediately took up the offers.

The Regional Business Incubator also presented its opportunities: property support and preferential premises; consultations on obtaining a social contract or other specific forms of assistance, and so on. The Industrial Development Fund interested meeting participants with business financing at a low (by Russian standards) rate of 4 to 8% per year.

From 2019 through 2024, Russia is implementing the national project “Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurship and Support for Individual Entrepreneurial Initiative”.
It is part of Russia’s priority development goals through 2030, set out in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 21, 2020, No. 474. All state and regional measures and programs to support entrepreneurs are collected on the мсп.рф website. The #Мойбизнес project operates as a “one-stop shop” in every region to support small and medium-sized businesses.

In February 2020, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov was appointed project curator. Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov became its head.
The main partner for all small and medium-sized business support programs in Russia is the “Sber” bank. Its financial indicators are the best demonstration of the development of the financial sector.

The financial results of the country’s main financial powerhouse, Sber, for the first 9 months exceeded analysts’ expectations. According to a recently published report, the bank has already earned 1.15 trillion rubles in 2023. Net profit for the third quarter alone amounted to 411.4 billion rubles. The bank continues to demonstrate the resilience of its business, while its loan portfolio has grown 22% since the start of the year, to 37.9 trillion rubles, maintaining loan quality at a consistently high level. In addition, return on equity for the first 9 months was 26%, and Sber raised its year-end forecast from 22% to above 24%.

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