OREANDA-NEWS. A regular meeting of the Working Group on implementing a multilateral Agreement on development institutions’ interaction in securing continuous financing of innovation projects was held at the Economic Development Ministry. The meeting was chaired by Management Board Member, Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman Mikhail Kopeikin.

A key issue discussed at the meeting was to agree upon a draft agreement on organizing information exchange between development institutions on the approved projects and projects being considered. The Working Group’s participants agreed to sign this agreement till the end of the 3nd quarter of 2013.

Vnesheconombank informed the Working Group’s participants on the successful implementation of the joint legislative initiative on introducing amendments to the Federal Law “On the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurial Activity”. The amendments are to become effective on October 1, 2013. These amendments are to remove restrictions with regard to a participation share of one or several development institutions in small and medium-sized companies’ capital, with the development institutions providing the state’s support for innovation activity without being small and medium-sized enterprises.

Vnesheconombank also presented new instruments for supporting SMEs: a guarantee mechanism for small and medium-sized enterprises and OJSC SME Bank’s Program “Baltica Innovations” for companies of the North-West Federal District from the Leningrad, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Pskov regions and the city of Saint Petersburg. These instruments are becoming accessible for portfolio companies of development institutions taking into account approved amendments to the Federal Law “On the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Entrepreneurial Activity”.

The Working Group was established in order to implement the Agreement on development institutions’ and interested organizations’ interaction in securing continuous financing of innovation projects at all stages of innovation cycle. The Agreement was worked out on Vnesheconombank’s initiative and signed in April of 2010. The Agreement aims to organize interaction between the parties to identify needs of innovation companies and provide them with instruments, services and conditions for their participation in implementing innovation projects on the territory of the Russian Federation and on the global market.

The Working Group is comprised of representatives from state financial development institutions (Vnesheconombank, ROSNANO), the Russian Venture Company, the Skolkovo Foundation, SME Bank, the Fund to Assist in Developing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Scientific and Technical Sector as well as the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, such non-governmental organizations as OPORA ROSSII, the Russian Venture Investment Association and  the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs.