The Program "Small Towns of Russia" Institute "Open Society" (Soros Fund)

The Program "Small Towns of Russia" was set up within the framework of Institute "Open Society" (Fund) in 1999.
The mission of the program is the development of local communities of small towns as the bases of forming an open society in Russia.
The purpose of the program is to promote economic, social and cultural development of small towns of the Russian Federation.
Small towns of Russia were chosen as object of realization of the program being key model of the Russian local community. There are several reasons for such a conclusion:
small cities represent local enough and uniform communities with a net of social and interpersonal connections;
small towns, being urbanistic settlements, are at the same time, as a rule, also the public, economic and cultural centres of rural areas surrounding them. Local communities of small towns have preserved close contact with the rural community, which is proved by similar voting results of small towns and rural areas electorate at elections of all levels;
small towns have electable institutions of local self-government, and, as a rule, an independent budget.
For this very reason small towns are ideal object for rendering system influence on local self-management in Russia which is a basis of a civil society. At this very level the authority is as close to the voters, as possible; it is accountable to them and is focused on their interests. At the level of local self-management each citizen can directly take part in the management to assert his interests and to influence the strategy of development of the municipality according to his interests.
One main reason of the instability of local self-management in Russia is the weakness of its economic base. And, though it is impossible to deny the necessity of settling interbudgetary relations, the true decision of this problem is strengthening of the economic base of municipality itself, developing local business and attracting of external investments to the town.
Within the framework of the program there are several projects, the central of them is "Strategy of development of small towns" aimed at assisting small towns to mobilize their own economic opportunities, to improve business situation and create favorable investment climate in the town. Such a strategy can be worked out only with the involvment in this process of all the layers of the local community and establishment of partner relations between authorities, community and business.
To perform this task it is necessary to attract in towns not only material, but also the best intellectual resources. Towns - participants of the project "Strategy of development of small towns" have an opportunity to involve the best Russian consulting organizations, which passed competitive selection of the program "Small towns of Russia" in order to help to develop a strategy and investment projects. The services rendered to towns by these organizations are payed out due to means of the grant of Institute "Open society".
The central figure in developing and carrying out the strategy is the elective municipal authority. And the program "Small towns of Russia" considers it to be the key partner. Therefore the program pays special attention to various forms of improvement of professional skills of the Heads of towns and employees of the municipal administrations who are in charge of the questions of strategic planning of town development.

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Independent noncommercial organization on city and regional development "URBEKS-development" - the strategic partner of the association.

The scope of problems it deals with includes development and realization of strategy of development of the association through set of program and project directions on the basis of author''''''''s technology of activity organization.
The basic types of activity:
complex expert andconsulting services in the sphere of the government and local self-management;
project and program development of both complex and branch character (with the coordination of the town''''''''s plan of development with the regional and federal projects);
information and analytical, marketing and exhibition works.
The services if necessary can include training of the personnel for the organization of administrative activity, techniques of the organization of the effective communications and making decisions, municipal managememnt and other organizational methods and techniques.
All works are carried out in an interactive mode, with use of modern techniques of trainings, and author''''''''s techniques of development of the person.

The chairman of the board - Bochkareva Tatyana Viktorovna;
the Director - Samartsev Sergey Evgenyevich.
Telephone: 313-5992; 976-1154;
E-mail: urbex@rol.ru

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Rating agency "Expert R? " is the first and the largest in Russia independent rating agency set up in 1997 by business magazine "Expert ".
The strategic purpose of the agency is to render all-round informational and analytical support to the companies working on the Russian market, and also to federal, regional and local authorities.
With this purpose the rating agency specializes on unique for Russia rating researches published in magazine "Expert":
annual rating of two hundred largest industrial enterprises of Russia "Expert 200. The largest";
annual rating of 100 largest industrial enterprises - exporters "??P-100. The Russian export";
annual "Investment rating of the regions of Russia".
Ratings of reliability of the financial, auditor and insurance companies;
Rating estimations of credit status of industrial enterprises, banks, insurance companies, subjects of the Russian Federation and municipalities.
Besides, the rating agency, having an extensive and various database, publishes business - directories and thematic reviews on various segments of the Russian economy and regions of Russia, makes express analysis of problems of separate branches, regions and cities under the order of clients, gives branch, regional and municipal, investment and credit ratings. It also conducts conferences, seminars and round tables on pressing questions of social and economic development with attraction of VIP, takes orders to create WEB-representations and internet-portals.
The rating agency "Expert R?" as a partner of the Association "MED" not only provides the opportunity of fast information search necessary for making decisions on the widest range of economic questions, that are of interest to the Association and its members, but also takes part in solving the most urgent municipal problems.

The general director - Grishankov Dmitry Eduardovich
Address: Moscow, Bumazhny proezd, 14, 12^th floor.
The map:
Phone: (095) 251-1666 Fax: (095) 251-8611

E-mail: - the general questions - info@raexpert.ru ?
ordering production - sales@raexpert.ru
the Site: www. RaExpert.ru

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Independent noncommercial organization "the Centre of legal support of local self-management" was founded in 2002 with a view of rendering legal services to institutions of local self-government.
Thus the Centre contributes to strengthening and development of local self-management in the Russian Federation.
From the point of view of the purposes and tasks of Association "MED", the work of the Centre on improvement of quality of legal acts of bodies and officials of local self-management will result in qualitative change of that part of local legislation which regulates economic sphere as a whole and investment - in particular.
Similarly, the efforts of lawyers of the Centre, directed on exception from the legislation of those norms which contradict to the rights of local self-management, will remove the obstacles slowing down the development of economy in regions.

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Fund of social adaptation "Partner" is a noncommercial organization founded in 1999.
The basic purpose of the Fund is to work out and implement programs of social adaptation of former military men, members of their families and other categories of citizens.
The activity of the Fund is directed on the prevention or minimizing negative social consequences of military reform.
From the point of view of the purposes and tasks of Association "MED", the techniques of the Fund "Partner" can be of use in solving social problems in small towns of Russia with depressive economy.
The fund achieves its aims by means of:
development and realizations of projects in the field of a social and legal protection;
decisions of problems of employment, creation of new vacancies, including development of small business;
realizations of programs of social and psychological adaptation and retraining;
setting up centres of social adaptation and professional retraining;
making scientific and practical researches in the given area;
collecting, summarizing and spreading information on the given questions;
rendering consulting services in legal matters, advertising, marketing, economic analysis;
conducting charitable actions to support former military men, members of their families and other categories of citizens;
attracting of means of home and foreign investors.
The Fund "Partner " organizes business - incubators and centres of support of business, promotes microfinancing of the enterprises of small businesses.

Address: 101000, Moscow - the Centre, Myasnitskaya street, 24, block 1, office 66, Fund "Partner"
Phone: (095) 925-52-78, (095) 923-27-15
Fax: (095) 928-87-64
E-mail: ncrdo@aha.ru, partner@exmilitary.ru

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The non-state educational establishment "Institute of corporate management and strategic researches "ROSSPA" works on the market of educational services in the sphere of professional retraining and additional business education in various spheres of knowledge with the use of modern effective methods of training.
The main activity of the Institute is directed towards the work with municipalities and corporate clients (management of enterprises and leading experts of local self-government).
Institute "ROSSPA" was founded in 1991.
At the initial stage the main activity was training of managers according to the programs of Open University (Great Britain). Our experts were the first in Siberia to introduce method of remote training, which is widely known today.
Since 1994 " ROSSPA" has been working in the project ISCRA (Investment Support Centers Russia) for enterprises, investors and local authorities. This program ISCRA was realized with the support of the Ministry of the International Economic Development of Great Britain - DFID (former Know-How Fund) and the Ministry of Industry.
Thus, on the basis of the Institute, within the framework of the program ISCRA, there were set up the Clinic of business - plans and the Regional centre of support of investments, whose activity is aimed at training and consultating clients in the matters of strategic planning of vital activity, re-structuring of enterprises, investment policy of municipalities. Together with teachers from London Business School (Great Britain) we conducted training seminars, rendered consultions in order to support projects for municipal enterprises seeking investments, for investors and experts of local administrations.
During the period of realization of the project there was attracted more than 30 million US dollars of additional investments to the enterprises, and more than 3000 persons were trained in the regions of Western Siberia.
Today the Institute unites experts having great practical experience in various spheres of consulting and teaching activity.
The core of the company are teachers - graduates of Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk State Technical university, the Siberian Academy of state services having degrees of candidates and doctors of sciences, who also have passed additional training in "Open University", "London Business School", "World Bank". If necessary, leading experts of Russian and foreign companies, administrative structures and other organizations are involved in works under some programs.

Principles and technology of work of Institute "ROSSPA":

- work with directors and experts of enterprises of all types of ownership, considering the level of their development and individual needs;
- use of modern methods of the training combining theoretical preparation and practical consultations on concrete problems of development (training consulting);

• use of effective remote technologies, allowing to give consumers with a low level of the income an opportunity to study at a modern level;
• flexible forming of individual corporate programs of training and consultations, considering the features of the region and branch of industry;
• constant updating and development of curriculums;
• support of business of the client according to individual plan after training.

The technique of work of teachers and advisers of the Institute is based on interaction with working groups set up at enterprises and in municipalities. These groups after training help advisers to introduce innovational intellectual solutions, improving the overall performance.
Curriculae of the Institute cover the whole spectrum of modern ways, allowing to keep competitiveness in the market, namely:

• strategic planning of development of the enterprise and municipality,
• creation of control systems of knowledge and the personnel,
• building a system of budget (financial) management,
• development of plans of marketing and positioning on the market,
• realization of complex organizational changes, innovations,
• re-engineering of business - processes, process management,
• introduction of the international control systems of quality, environment protection and safety,
• anti-crisis management.

The programs of the Institute are maent for:

• experts of local administrations and the municipal enterprises;
• directors and/or ownres of enterprises of average and small business;
• heads of public organizations, experts of non-commercial sector.

Now the "Institute of corporate management and strategic researches "ROSSPA" offers such educational services, as:

Anti-crisis management (including training of arbitration managers).
The international standards of the financial reporting (according to the program of the International Association of Bookkeepers).
Methods of efficient staff management.
General management.
Financial management
Marketing management.
Management of development and changes.
Investment appeal of regions.
Investment policy and methods of support of enterprises (the program for experts of local administrations).

Preparation of investment suggestions
Estimation of investment suggestions
Re-structuring of the enterprise and increase of profitableness of business
Integrated systems of management (ISO 9000, 14000, 18000)
Reforming housing and municipal services
Development of power supply infrastructure of municipalities during reforming the ??? ??.

Financial and budget management
Re-engineeering of business - processes and process management
Strategic planning of development