On 14 February, a ‘Co-working Centres as a New Form of Government Support for Beginning Entrepreneurs’ session was held during Young Enterprise Day of the Russian Investment Forum held by the Krasnodar Territory Investment and SME Development Department.

The session was moderated by Arseniy Uralov, President of the Association of Accelerators and Head of the Scientific and Educational Centre ‘Technological Forge’. Arseniy Uralov reported that there were 307 co-working centres in Russia in 2017, including 107 in Moscow. In his opinion, co-working centres can be considered a new format for office real estate. This platform allows start-up companies to reduce their costs associated with their activities during the most difficult period, i.e., at the beginning.

The Scene of Action state co-working centre was opened in Krasnodar last September and became the first of its kind in the region. Beginner entrepreneurs could get free jobs, as well as free legal, accounting and informational support at the centre. Places in the centre are provided to winners of competitive selection. Vitaly Voronov, Head of the Krasnodar Territory Investment and SME Development Department, emphasized, “The most important thing is to create a community of people who would feel comfortable”: “As a result, a get-together should evolve into a format of synergy.”

State co-working centres were previously opened in two cities: Moscow and Rostov-on-Don. Dmitry Shvets, General Director of the first state co-working centre called Nagatino Club, and Polina Korostieva, Deputy Director of the Department of Economics of the Rostov-on-Don City Administration, shared their experience with the session participants.

Diana Lipinskaya, Director of the ‘Center-Invest Bank’ Krasnodar Branch, spoke about the collaboration between co-working centre residents and financial and credit institutions. According to Diana Lipinskaya, co-working centres should become a place where state, university, financial, and non-financial institution efforts are joined.