GROWTH AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA'S REGIONAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 MOSCOW 006334 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR GRAHAM/MCKIBBEN USDOC FOR 4231/ITA/MACK/RISD/JBROUGHER/MEDWARDS STATE FOR EUR/RUS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EINV ELAB SOCI POL RS SUBJECT: GROWTH AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA'S REGIONAL ECONOMIES REF: A. MOSCOW 2449 ¶B. 05 MOSCOW 14851 MOSCOW 00006334 001.2 OF 005 ¶1. SUMMARY: While none would dispute that Moscow leads Russia in economic development, it is increasingly clear that many cities beyond Moscow are experiencing healthy growth. Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners in large provincial cities report expanded opportunities and gradually improving business climates. Corruption, not surprisingly, is commonplace and grudgingly accepted as a cost of doing business. Nonetheless, there are signs that businesses are becoming more assertive in protecting their rights against predatory bureaucrats. Finding and keeping qualified workers is another headache, as the best and the brightest still move to Moscow or abroad. Despite the obvious problems, regional diversification is clearly now part of the story of Russian economic growth. END SUMMARY. . SPREADING THE WEALTH ==================== ¶2. (U) During recent trips to five regional capitals -- Astrakhan (on the Caspian),Syktyvkar (near the Urals at the Arctic Circle),Smolensk (bordering Belorussia),Novosibirsk and Tomsk (western Siberia) -- we heard again and again how much the face of those cities had changed for the better over the last five years. One small businessman in Astrakhan who had moved there in 2001 told us we wouldn't recognize the place, the difference was so great; coffee shops and restaurants had sprung up catering to a growing middle class, and shopping malls had been replacing traditional outdoor markets. In Novosibirsk, while stuck in traffic unthinkable only a few years before, we heard that more (and increasingly foreign) cars were on the roads, that apartment prices had jumped 100% last year in response to surging demand for better housing, and how the buying power of the growing consumer class had led several U.S. investors to the continued expansion of their restaurant and coffeehouse chains. In Tomsk, 24-hour 1950's-style diners, cafes, and trendy European clothing stores lined the streets. Construction cranes were visible from every corner of Syktyvkar. Even in Smolensk, where regional growth rates lag behind the national average, contacts spoke of the significant growth in retail establishments that was expanding consumer choice. ¶3. (U) In these provincial capitals, contacts pointed to different drivers of growth. Shipbuilding in Astrakhan, paper in Komi, diamond cutting in Smolensk, oil in Tomsk, and metallurgy in Novosibirsk all play prominent roles in those regional economies. But it was at the small and medium-sized business level (SMEs) that the greatest optimism about prevailing trends was evident. Significant real income growth has meant greater purchasing power among the consumer base in most large cities, giving rise to numerous retail shops catering to that growing demand. Easier (though still not easy) access to financing had opened more opportunities to SMEs. Perhaps more important, according to many contacts, was that business owners were simply starting to get over the hump on the learning curve and getting better at what they do. As Olga Romanenko, head of OPORA business association in Astrakhan, put it, "You have to remember - private business in Russia is very young. We've lacked experience and business traditions. But we're learning." . BUREAUCRATIC ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT ================================ ¶4. (SBU) SMEs may also be benefiting from a general shift in attitudes among bureaucrats regarding the importance of small business. Now that President Putin has, on several occasions, publicly proclaimed government's need to support SMEs, "civil servants have gotten the message that small and medium-sized businesses are a driving force in the economy," the head of the Astrakhan Chamber of Commerce told us. "Good ideas are coming from Moscow," Smolensk's head of OPORA said, "and of course local bureaucrats do everything looking back at Moscow," she added. As a result, regional and municipal governments are reaching out to find ways to support small business. "Local leaders want to look good to Putin -- they MOSCOW 00006334 002.2 OF 005 want to demonstrate that they can generate growth," and so are working to assist SMEs, the head of Novosibirsk Oblast's Chamber of Commerce told us. ¶5. (SBU) In many cities, we heard, it helps that more public officials are coming into office with business experience. In Astrakhan, for example, the new Governor, a former businessman, appointed people with business backgrounds to seven of 14 top positions in the oblast. "They know the problems from the inside, and are able to give us real support," Romanenko told us. One former entrepreneur, recruited by Astrakhan's Governor, shared with us his initiative for educating and empowering SMEs (with inspection log books and access to a harassment hotline) to resist shake-down attempts by overzealous inspectors acting beyond the law (a tactic we have also admired at work in Rostov on Don). The new mayor of Syktyvkar, an entrepreneur in his early 30s, gained office by promising a better business climate. "He's part of a new generation that understands the potential business has to make a better life for people here," the Director of the Komi Chamber of Commerce explained. . BUSINESS STANDS UP FOR ITSELF ============================= ¶6. (SBU) Moreover, business owners are learning to assert themselves in this new environment. "After so many years of communist mentality, people are becoming more active, and are seeing that they can influence affairs," Romanenko said. As an example, she noted that she and her fellow tourist-business owners had effectively lobbied the Governor to replace an incompetent head of the regional tourism agency. A group of Smolensk small business owners told us that increasingly, small business owners knew their rights, e.g., about what inspections were allowed and how often. "Step by step, we see attitudes changing as businessmen become educated and bureaucrats realize there are limits on what they can get away with," we heard. Vladimir Shargayev of the Smolensk Anti-Corruption Commission agreed: "Bureaucrats used to prey upon the ignorance of business people. But now, there is lots of legal assistance, and people know they no longer need to pay -- they can take them to court." ¶7. (SBU) Representatives of the Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center told us that though such business activism was not growing rapidly, it was growing. Collective action is still rare, but they estimated that five percent of businesses in Novosibirsk now belonged to some sort of professional association. As the head of Astrakhan's Chamber of Commerce put it, "We're not going out into the streets with posters, or holding public meetings, but we are quietly influencing policy," as with a year-long cooperative effort between the Chamber and the regional and local governments to identify and reduce administrative barriers. According to the Director of the Novosibirsk Small Business Development Center, as more businesses regularize their activities and abide by the laws, they are developing a different relationship with government: "Now that they legally pay taxes and payroll, there is less fear, and they can make demands like, 'Why are there potholes? I pay my taxes!'" ¶8. (U) Thus, gradually and persistently, SMEs in many regions are taking increasing advantage of and even expanding the economic free space in which they can operate. Their on-the-job training -- about business best practices, about their own rights as owners, and about how to cope in what remains a challenging environment -- is having a cumulative beneficial effect. Their gains may not be evident to first-time visitors off a plane from Moscow, we were cautioned, but such evolutionary progress was clear to anyone familiar with where things stood only a few short years ago, we heard. . SO MUCH FOR THE GOOD NEWS ========================= ¶9. (SBU) For all their optimism about the general trends, small business owners were still clear-eyed about the considerable obstacles in their way. For example, though MOSCOW 00006334 003.2 OF 005 credit had become more available and affordable, long-term credit was still hard to come by. Real estate markets remain opaque and unnavigable, and are becoming increasingly unaffordable. For some (e.g., in Syktyvkar) security was an issue, with competitors sometimes opting for arson or intimidation rather than fair market competition. The objectivity of the courts in many regions remains suspect. And of course, there is always the red tape. Two of the most often-cited problems mentioned, though, had to do with maintaining a qualified workforce and coping with corruption. . HARD TO FIND GOOD HELP THESE DAYS ================================= ¶10. (SBU) Any time we met with owners who required a skilled, non-professional workforce, they identified a shortage of qualified employees as a huge challenge. "The system of vocational education that we had in Soviet times has been destroyed," a member of the Smolensk Coalition for SME Support explained, "and for 15 years people's skills have deteriorated." The head of the Novosibirsk City Chamber of Commerce complained that educational institutions churned out plenty of lawyers, accountants and secretaries, but that skilled laborers were in huge deficit. Starved for cash and unreformed, the old vocational education system does little now to meet modern labor market needs, we repeatedly heard. (See also Ref A.) ¶11. (SBU) When qualified applicants are available, both professional and non-professional, too often they don't stick around. "I don't like the job applicants that I do get, and those who I would like to have stay all move to Moscow," Lyudmila Pushkareva, the owner of a Smolensk apparel company, told us. Aleksey Kantemerov, President of the Astrakhan Chamber of Commerce, was resigned to the unfortunate reality of migration patterns: "Just as a fish looks for deeper water, a man looks for a better place." The head of a Novosibirsk branch office for an IT firm told us that the entire first generation from her office, save herself, was now in Moscow. This internal brain drain constituted a real constraint on regional growth, we heard. Regional capitals do tend to attract young workers from the surrounding (depressed) rural areas, and migrants (both legal and illegal) from the CIS continue to come, but in most cases, not enough to offset the losses. Absent dramatic increases in immigration, the deficit will likely grow, as Russia's demographic crunch begins to reduce the country's total working age population in 2007 (Ref B). . THE STENCH OF CORRUPTION... =========================== ¶12. (SBU) Most of our contacts were rather fatalistic about the presence of corruption in their regional economies. "People accept corruption like they accept the sun," Lada Yurchenko, the Deputy Director of the Siberian Civic Initiatives Support Center, told us. According to the Novosibirsk Oblast Chamber of Commerce, "If business can only operate without corruption, then it won't operate." OPORA in Astrakhan told us that, despite the changed attitudes of many civil servants, law enforcement structures remain as predatory as ever and negatively affect tourism and trade. OPORA in Smolensk told us that without personal connections, business found it difficult to get bank credit, to secure property, or generally to gain the necessary permissions to operate a business. When we asked the head of the Novosibirsk City Chamber of Commerce whether there were any serious anti-corruption steps being taken locally, he replied: "It's easy for two people to say they want to lift a tractor, but that doesn't mean they can do it." Only Moscow, he explained, could provide the necessary muscle to tackle the task. . ...ISN'T SO BAD, ONCE YOU GET USED TO IT ======================================== ¶13. (SBU) Still, like sewer workers who have decided not to let the smell interfere with their work, most small business owners have decided to plug their noses and press ahead. To an extent, we heard, corruption-related costs were largely MOSCOW 00006334 004.2 OF 005 just another expense -- certainly something to grumble about (like taxes) but also something they would simply need to, and usually could, cope with. As one Novosibirsk business owner sardonically quipped, "Corruption isn't a problem, if you pay." According to contacts in several cities, the landscape seems to have morphed some as well, with fewer cash-filled envelopes exchanging hands. "It's more about connections and string-pulling than bribery and corruption," a Novosibirsk restaurateur told us. "I've surrounded myself with partners who have the right connections. You've got to be willing to include people. If you're not willing to share, someone will stick a spoke in your wheels," he explained. ¶14. (SBU) Gifts and charitable contributions have also emerged as primary methods for building and maintaining necessary connections. Most of the business people we asked said that, of course, they sent birthday, New Year's and Women's Day presents (but nothing too extravagant) to key bureaucrats and officials. "For us, this isn't corruption. It's just smart business," we were told. Many contacts also reported regularly receiving official letters on government stationery requesting donations -- sometimes for charitable causes championed by the Governor's wife, other times for computer equipment, reflective vests, or similar, mundane operational needs of the local government. "It's normal, and an opportunity to give back to the community" we heard. Several business people noted that good old fashioned bribes more often came into play when initiated by a businessman who wants to get around the law, or to accelerate an otherwise lengthy process. For those willing to play by the rules and fortunate enough to work in a field without heavy government regulation, the occasional hand-over of some cash to the fire inspector or a few others may still be necessary, but regular gifts or contributions to "grease the wheels" were the main methods for keeping their businesses on track. SHRINKING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXTORTION ===================================== ¶15. (SBU) More businesses appear to be "playing by the rules," which over the long-term should reduce their susceptibility to extortion. Sergey Semka, a deputy in the Novosibirsk Regional Administration, told us that ten years ago, new businesses were popping up everywhere, but a minority were legally registered. As of five years ago, 70% were registered, and now 99% were. With the documents to prove their right to operate, small businesses had become harder targets for attempted shake-downs. Several owners told us that they had gradually transitioned to completely above-board payroll systems to lower their vulnerabilities. (Note: A general, gradual trend out of the shadow or "gray" economy that was occurring was also driven by growing interest in accessing credit, whether for business, cars, homes, or other investments that require transparent accounting, we heard.) ¶16. (SBU) Regional officials have worked as well (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) to minimize the points of leverage that government has over business. The Governor of Novosibirsk, we learned from several NGOs, had installed a new transparent electronic tendering procedure for government contracts to replace the old back-corridor deals that had been the norm. A member of the Astrakhan City Duma claimed that they "work constantly to reduce direct contact between businessmen and civil servants, including restricting the number of inspections that are allowed." In Novosibirsk and Astrakhan, business associations reported that the implementation of a new "one-window" process had greatly simplified business registration and dramatically reduced the points of contact between SME owners and officials. However, the perceived success of this federally mandated program varied considerably from region to region. In Smolensk it got poor marks from business contacts, suggesting it was for show, and had not really simplified registration. In Syktyvkar we heard, "Sure there's one window, but you've still got to go to it five times.") ¶17. (SBU) In a few exceptional cases, SMEs have even overcome their fatalism and gotten into the anti-corruption fight. In MOSCOW 00006334 005.2 OF 005 Tomsk, business associations have partnered with NGOs and the media for a USAID-funded initiative to ferret out corruption loopholes in all proposed legislation, and have published corruption "grade tables" for every regional Duma deputy (that have reportedly cost some their seats in subsequent elections). The coalition's legal aid service has provided over 2000 free consultations to companies bold enough to resist extortion, and a professionally produced public information campaign has further raised awareness. Corruption may still permeate most government-business interaction, but business owners are better educated about their rights in most, and in rare cases like Tomsk, business is actively fighting back. . COMMENT ======= ¶18. There is no question that Russia's impressive economic growth over the past seven years has not spread to all corners of the country. Most of rural Russia, many of the former military-industrial cities, and nearly all of its towns dedicated to a single factory or industry have largely been left behind. Still, many regional capitals are plugged in and are benefiting from and contributing to Russian growth. The fact that they may fall far short of the flashy wealth of Moscow matters little. What matters is how far they have come. The visible signs of growth -- more shops and restaurants, cars, construction, and the palpable optimism of many SME owners -- are good indicators that part of the story of Russia's growth is one of nascent regional diversification and revival. BURNS