Nizhny Novgorod region to discuss cooperation with Armenia

The 24th meeting of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Commission of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia will take place today at the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin.

The participants of the meeting will discuss, among other things, the experience of small business development in both countries. A member of the Federation Council Committee for Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Government and Northern Affairs, Co-Chairman of the Russian part of the Commission, Nikolai Ryzhkov, deputy chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, co-chairman of the Interparliamentary Committee, Ermine Naghdalyan, and Acting Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Yevgeny Lyulin, will take part in the meeting.

The choice of the venue was not incidental. The Nizhny Novgorod region was ranked first in the Volga Federal District on the Development of Small Business as of the results of 2013. Valery Shantsev, the head of the region, signed the complex target program in 2006 to support small and medium-sized businesses. Since then, the number of small and medium-sized companies has grown by one-fourth. More than 35 percent of all people employed in the economy of the region work in small and medium-sized businesses.

According to the Russian Statistics Agency, the share of small and medium-sized businesses in GRP of the Nizhny Novgorod region, has doubled and reached 18.4 percent compared with 2005. In municipal areas and urban districts, there are 42 centers and foundations to support entrepreneurs. A network of business incubators is developing as well.