MOSCOW, February 7 (RAPSI) – The number of complaints received by the office of the Moscow business rights commissioner in 2019 increased by 2.24 times in comparison with the figures registered in 2018, and made 4,257, the business ombudsman Tatiana Mineyeva informs on Friday.

The number of applications is growing. In January only there were 51 written applications; the total number for 2020 will be perhaps 10 times more, Mineyeva wrote.

She believes the rise was caused not by the fact that businesses encountered more problems, but because of increased awareness of the business ombudsman institution in Moscow.

Most complaints concerned criminal proceedings, inspections, problems related to the provision of public services, state procurement, commercial disputes between businesses, and failures to act on the part of government agencies.

According to officers of the ombudsman’s administration, the applications were used to develop initiatives aimed at the improvement of laws regulating the business community, for instance those in the sphere of criminal prosecution of entrepreneurs, banking services, land and property relations, taxes, outdoor advertisements, state procurement, hotel business, trade, and labor safety, which are to be included in an annual report to Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

The principal aim of the projects to be developed and initiated in 2020 is to improve business climate in Moscow, Mineyeva noted.