On March 23, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will participate in the small and medium business innovation forum Competing for the Future Today.

The forum will also be attended by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko, representatives of relevant ministries and agencies, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, businesspeople from 80 Russian regions, leaders of 123 unions in various industries, industry representatives, international organisations and multinational companies. The forum is organised by the Russian nationwide public organisation of small and medium businesses Opora Rossii.

The forum will focus on current problems facing small and medium businesses as well as measures to support innovation. The forum will help to outline the top priorities of Russia's innovation policy.

- There are 17,000 medium businesses, 228,000 small companies, over one million microenterprises, and four million self-employed businesspeople and farmers.

The government has already adopted a series of measures to support small and medium businesses. A total of 10 billion roubles have been appropriated for this purpose in the 2010 federal budget alone.

- This is not Vladimir Putin's first meeting with representatives of small and medium businesses. He delivered a speech at the plenary session of a similar forum organised by Opora Rossii in which he discussed government support measures for this segment of the economy.