The development of small businesses in the Republic of Belarus began about 12 years ago. Since that time, the state’s policy in the field of small businesses as well as the legal framework regulating the activities of small and medium businesses has been steadily developing. Over the years, significant changes have taken place in the quantitative and qualitative consistencies of entrepreneurial structures.

At the current stage of economic development in the country, entrepreneurship helps to fill the market with goods and services, creates the prerequisites for the development of a competitive environment, and serves as a source of budgetary revenue. By providing opportunities for employment and self-employment of the population, private entrepreneurship decreases social tensions and gives people the chance to apply their talents.

At present, more than 28000 small enterprises operate in the Republic of Belarus (including 26000 private enterprises) in addition to over 180000 individual entrepreneurs. In total, the small business sector employs over 900000 people (including individual entrepreneurs and their employees), a figure that accounts for about 20 percent of the country’s economically active population. The retail, the public catering, as well as the industrial, and the construction sectors compose about two-thirds of all small enterprises. Gradual changes take place in the structure of the entrepreneurial sector of the economy. There is a trend towards an increase in the number of small private businesses. The state’s policy for supporting and developing entrepreneurship is an integral part of the national economic agenda. The policy is aimed at the creation of favorable conditions for the successful development of small businesses and the practical implementation of the people’s entrepreneurship initiatives.

Today, the country has an integrated system of entrepreneurship support. Its structural elements include the Department of Entrepreneurship of the Ministry of the Economy (the state body responsible for the state’s policy in the field of entrepreneurship support), the Council on the Development of Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus, the Inter-departmental Commission on Support and Development of Small Businesses, Regional Councils (commission) for the development of entrepreneurship, entities of the entrepreneurship support units (entrepreneurship support centers and small entrepreneurship incubators), and non-governmental associations of entrepreneurs. In order to develop advantageous conditions for the sustainable development of small entrepreneurship, specialized state and regional programs have been carried on since 1997.  In February 2005, the Government approved a new program of state support for small entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus. The implementation of the program’s activities will help to eliminate the factors that restrain the development of small entrepreneurship, to enhance state support, and to encourage the formation of small businesses. The main directions of the program include the creation of a favorable climate for the development of entrepreneurship; the development of a system of financial support of small entrepreneurships; the improvement of informational support of small enterprises; the development of international cooperation in the field; and the improvement of the small business personnel training system.

The country has the infrastructure to support small entrepreneurship that consists of 38 entrepreneurship support centers and 9 small entrepreneurship incubators. The main purpose of this infrastructure is to assist small companies in their formation and in the improvement of business skills.

The centers provide information and consulting services for small companies, develop business plans, make marketing surveys, organize seminars on the issues of organization and implementation of entrepreneurial activities, provide access to sources of funding, and promote products (work or services) to foreign markets by participating in national and international exhibitions and fairs. The incubators stimulate the organization of new small businesses by temporarily providing them with offices, production facilities, and opportunities to use office equipment. They also help the new businesses with finding partners and introducing new types of products to the market.

Small entrepreneurship is not well developed in small towns and in rural areas. These areas often lack goods and services and have employment problems. To involve the rural population in entrepreneurship activities, the Center for the Development of Rural Entrepreneurship has been organized. The center is primarily involved in training new entrepreneurs on how to organize their own production; in supporting the registration and the operation of small enterprises; and in consulting on the issues of commercial activities management, accounting, market research, public opinion study, and advertising. Further work is under way to establish regional non-profit organizations, whose activities would be aimed at developing and supporting small enterprises by providing securities for business loans.

At the same time, the growth of small entrepreneurship faces today many problems that hold back the development process. To reduce the negative impacts of these difficulties, a range of measures was implemented in 2004 to simplify the procedure of State registration of business entities, to reduce the number of business activities that require licensing, to minimize the administrative restrictions hindering the development of entrepreneurship, as well as to regulate the taxation system and the customs procedures.

The draft Law of the Republic of Belarus “On State Support of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus” includes the criteria for objectively defining small and medium enterprises, delineates the reforms of state support for small entrepreneurship, and regulates the rights, duties, and responsibilities of small businesses.

The future state policy in the field of small and medium entrepreneurship will be aimed at improving the legal and the economic conditions; at developing further financing access; at increasing the efficiency of small business support infrastructure; and at promoting international cooperation in the field of small and medium entrepreneurship.