Finance Ministry unlikely to help small businesses in 2003

This year the Russian Finance Ministry probably will not be able to allocate 100m rubles ($3.16m) for the support of small businesses, which is envisaged by the 2003 federal budget, Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin declared at today's meeting of the enlarged Board of the Anti-Monopoly Ministry. "We will not manage to use these resources" because in the third quarter of 2003 the Anti-Monopoly Ministry will introduce amendments to the procedure of spending resources of the fund for the support of small businesses, Kudrin specified.

The Finance Minister also stressed that the formation of this fund should be a temporary measure, because first of all, it was necessary to create favorable conditions for the development and functioning of small businesses, i.e. to develop the banking system and create necessary infrastructure.