The most important forms of state regulation of small business are planning, programming and forecasting, through which state policy for the development of this sphere is implemented.
Annual forecasts of socio-economic development of the Republic of Belarus necessarily reflect the main directions of development of small business for the coming period.
State policy in the field of small business is largely ensured through the development and implementation of annual programs of state support for small business in the Republic of Belarus. On their basis, regional programs for supporting entrepreneurship are formed, which are an agreed set of measures related to the unity of goals and objectives to ensure the sustainable development of small business, increasing the share of this sector of the economy in GDP. and the creation of new jobs.
The structure and content of the programs cover all aspects of small business activities in the republic, reflect the priority areas for the development of this sphere. For the first time, the State Program for the Support and Development of Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus was developed in 1992. Its main goal was to create at the state level legislative, socio-economic, organizational and financial conditions and mechanisms that support entrepreneurship as one of the most important factors in the formation of a socially-oriented market economy. The program provided: provision of legal support for entrepreneurship, development of new and clarification of existing legislative acts on a single conceptual basis (excluding contradictory decisions); introduction of special measures to ensure the availability of credit resources for business structures; financial support for the growth of business activity and assistance to newly formed business structures; creation of funds for financial support of entrepreneurship at the republican and local levels; implementation of a policy of consistent reduction of the tax burden; a system of measures for resource support of small business in the material and technical sphere.
State programs to support small business have been developed annually since 1997. And every year the Council of Ministers submits them for approval to the Parliament simultaneously with the draft republican budget.
Small business support programs are multifaceted and include measures to form an infrastructure for the development and support of small business at the republican and local levels; promising areas for the development of small business and priority activities of small businesses; measures to implement the main directions and develop forms of support for small business; measures to address employment issues by involving socially unprotected segments of the population in entrepreneurial activities, including the unemployed, internally displaced persons, people with disabilities, pensioners, retired servicemen, women and youth; and others.
Small business support programs are developed in accordance with the procedure established by the current legislation, and should be linked to programs to promote employment, implement migration policy, solve environmental problems and eliminate the consequences of emergency situations, as well as take into account trends in the development of territories.