Russia
SME Policy Advocacy in Russia
Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)
SME Policy Advocacy in Russia
The initiative arose in order to address the implementation gap in taxation, administrative barriers, and corruption at the regional level. It stems from a nine-year project of the Center for International Private Enterprise, seeking to improve the business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia.
Publications capturing the project’s best practices have been published by CIPE in Arabic and French. Anti-corruption and coalition-building techniques developed under the project have also been applied by CIPE in Ukraine, Thailand and Lebanon.
Impacts include:
- The project helped launch 17 regional coalitions which include 225 business associations.
- The regional coalitions conducted 222 advocacy efforts related to 138 legislative changes on the regional level.
- The business associations represented reported a 30 percent increase in membership.
- Over 5,000 firms were protected annually from government interference and rogue bureaucrats by CIPE partner business associations.
- The International Institute for the Management of Business Associations, self-sustaining by the project’s end, had trained over 1,800 professionals.