OREANDA-NEWS The volume of purchases of the largest state-owned companies (about 12 thousand legal entities) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2023 amounted to almost 8 trillion rubles, which is 13.5% more than the same indicator in 2022, according to the website of the government of the Russian Federation.

"The volume of goods and services supplied by small and medium-sized enterprises under Federal Law 223-FZ ("On Procurement of goods, works, services by certain types of legal entities") is consistently growing," said First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, whose words are quoted in the message. - By the end of 2023, the record for the entire duration of the quota for purchases from SMEs was updated. Their total amount has reached almost 8 trillion rubles."

At the same time, Belousov stressed that not only the volume of purchases from small businesses is growing, but also the number of such suppliers. By the end of 2023, 213 SMEs signed contracts with state-owned companies, which is 10.2% more than in 2022.

Most of the purchases by state-owned companies from small businesses were related to the supply of manufacturing products (2.45 trillion rubles), construction work (1.9 trillion), and the provision of services in scientific, engineering, and professional activities (401 billion rubles).

"Four of the five contracts of the largest customers in 2023 were concluded with SME suppliers," said Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation (SME Corporation, in particular, monitors compliance with requirements for the volume of purchases from small businesses). "There is a trend towards increasing purchases of industrial products from small and medium-sized businesses."

According to him, state-owned companies have purchased 4.3 trillion rubles worth of industrial products from small businesses.

The SME Corporation clarified to Interfax that the vast majority of purchases from small businesses fell on SMEs. Companies purchased goods, works, and services from the self-employed (equated to SMEs) for only 7.2 billion rubles (3.3 billion rubles a year earlier). At the same time, the number of such suppliers has grown from 4.5 thousand to 8 thousand people.

From the latter, state-owned companies mainly purchased financial intermediation and insurance services (1.32 billion rubles), advertising and market research services (990 million rubles), services in the field of creativity, art and entertainment (560 million rubles), professional, scientific and technical services (510 million rubles).

SME Corporation also noted that last year the share of purchases from a single supplier decreased (to 8.5% from 9.5% in 2022) and the level of competition increased. So, if in 2022 there were 2.15 applications per purchase, then in the past there were 2.22 applications. At the same time, the total number of applications submitted for participation in the procurement of state-owned companies from SMEs increased by 15%, to 349 thousand units (302 thousand in 2022).

In addition, the corporation stressed that in 2023, the volume of small-volume purchases more than doubled (up to 500 thousand rubles) and amounted to slightly more than 1 trillion rubles, which is 646 billion rubles more than the same indicator in 2022.

According to current legislation, state-owned companies must purchase at least 25% of the total annual volume of purchases from SMEs. At the same time, 20% of this volume should fall on special trades (only SMEs can participate in them). In 2022, these standards were extended to all state-owned companies in the Russian Federation (about 20 thousand legal entities), and not only to the largest federal and regional ones, as it was before.