This was reported by Yury Zafesov, Director of the Purchasing Department of PJSC ROSSETI, during the Zero Day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2018) at the session "Technological Breakthrough: The Role of Small and Medium-sized Innovation Companies in the Russian Economy".

ROSSETI is implementing a roadmap to provide small and medium-sized enterprises with more access to purchases. About 700 companies participate currently in the program of partnership between the ROSSETI's subsidiaries and affiliated companies, on the one hand, and small and medium-sized enterprises, on the other hand.

During the past year, the ROSSETI Group's companies have increased the volume of purchases only for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by almost 60% compared to 2016, amounting to 99 billion rubles.

The share of purchases made by the group only for representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises was 30% last year, having exceeded the standards set by the government.

Totally, more than 34 thousand purchases have been executed in 2017 with a total purchase procedures cost consisting 480 billion rubles. The volume of purchases from all the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was increased by almost 1.5 times in the last year compared to 2016 and amounted to 234 billion rubles. Thus, the share of purchases from SMEs in 2017 was 51% of the total purchases volume of the ROSSETI Group's companies, and if to take into account the exceptions as per Government Decision No. 1352, then this share was 70%.

The main purchases volume of the last year, i.e. 63%, fell to new construction, reconstruction and technical re-equipment.