We have been actively promoting the national SME development policy by running PJSC Rostelecom’s SME Partnership Programme. For more details on how PJSC Rostelecom supports SMEs through its procurement practices on website.

The approved SME Partnership Programme ensures that PJSC Rostelecom’s procurement process promotes the national SME development policy which, among other things, aims to:

• increase the share of SMEs in the total procurement by organisations
• increase the share of direct procurement from SMEs in the total procurement by organisations
• increase the share of procurement for innovative and/or high-tech products, research, development, and technological services from SMEs in the total procurement by organisations
• create a system to deploy and transfer new technical and technology solutions developed by SMEs, including those facilitating innovative development of an organisation and integrated into its business growth strategy
• cut costs and enhance technical and administrative processes of organisations.

Rostelecom and Joint Stock Company Russian Small and Medium Business Corporation have run a series of workshops for SMEs dedicated to participating in Rostelecom’s procurement process. The goal of the workshops is to communicate existing SME support programmes to small and medium-sized businesses and increase the share of SMEs in PJSC Rostelecom’s procurement. In 2018, a total of 37 workshops, attended by over 10 thousand SMEs, were held across all Russian federal districts. The procurement workshops continued in 2019 with 21 events held in Q1 2019 alone.