Consumer services for the population is a field of activity for the provision of services for the repair and manufacture of products for individual orders, other services related to the satisfaction of personal needs of a person. The level of development of consumer services for the population, which accounts for more than 12 percent of the total volume of paid services, largely determines the possibilities for the effective use of material and labor resources by the population, reducing the time spent on the consumption of household goods.
services. In accordance with the National Classifier of the Republic of Belarus (OKRB 015-2003) Services to the population, approved by the Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Certification under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated December 9, 2003 N 49, more than 900 types of services provided by legal entities are classified as household services and individual entrepreneurs. At the same time, per capita consumption of household services in rural areas and their range is much less than in the city. This situation is due to a decrease in the number of residents living in rural areas, "aging" villages, low level of solvency of the population. Due to the insufficient development of infrastructure, the costs of organizations for servicing the rural population are higher than in cities, including due to transport costs. The system of consumer services for the population is formed by the Belarusian State Association of Consumer Services for the Population (“Belbyt”) and the consumer services departments of the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee. Household services to the population are also provided by public utilities, motor transport, local industry and individual (under patents) businesses. In consumer services, there are nine main industry groups of services: dry cleaning and dyeing, laundry services; repair and construction of housing; repair, coloring and tailoring of footwear; repair and tailoring of clothing, fur and leather products, hats and textile haberdashery; repair, tailoring and knitting of knitwear; services of hairdressing salons, baths and showers, services of rental organizations, ritual and ritual services; services of a photo studio, photo and film laboratories, other production services; repair and maintenance of household television and radio-electronic equipment, household machines and household appliances, repair and manufacture of metal products; maintenance and repair of vehicles, machinery and equipment; production and repair of furniture. The main share in consumer services is occupied by industrial services, which reach 80% in the total volume of sales of consumer services. They appear both individually and through specialized organizations. The economic efficiency of consumer services enterprises depends on many factors. The main ones are the lead time and the quality of services. For example, in Belarus, the term for the provision of services for the repair of household appliances is up to 12 days, and in Western Europe - one day.

Goals and objectives of consumer services for the population.

The purpose of the development of consumer services is to ensure the solvent demand of the population with a wide range of high-quality consumer services, their availability for the consumer through the creation of highly efficient production. To achieve this goal, it is planned to solve the following tasks:
- expansion of the network of consumer services for the population, especially in rural areas;
- ensuring price and territorial accessibility of household services;
- maintenance of state social standards of consumer services for the population and the achievement of rational standards for the consumption of domestic services;
- improving the quality of consumer services and the culture of serving the population;
- improvement of organizational structures and management system;
- introduction of new types and forms of rendering personal services to the population;
- increasing investment and innovation activity, including with the attraction of foreign capital;
- ensuring the process of reproduction of existing fixed assets and their technical re-equipment;
- organizing the development of advanced technologies for new types of services and equipment for the consumer services sector;
- ensuring the cost-effective operation of organizations in all industry groups of consumer services, increasing the utilization rate of production capacities;
- formation of a competitive environment, including through the development of small and medium-sized businesses;
- creation of equal conditions for public service organizations of the population of all forms of ownership and individual entrepreneurs;
- improvement of the regulatory legal framework for consumer services to the population
- organization of a system for studying the demand and advertising of personal services;
- advanced training of personnel based on the creation of a system of their continuous professional training;
- improvement of the consumer rights protection system, including through the development of certification, standardization and industry control system.
In order to effectively solve the assigned tasks, measures have been developed for the implementation of the Program
The development of consumer services for the population will be carried out according to the following
directions:
1. Increasing sales volumes and improving the structure of personal services.
2. Development of consumer services in rural areas.
3. Raising the technical level of production and the quality of personal services
4. Improvement of the management system and organizational structures
5. Development of entrepreneurship and creation of a competitive environment in consumer services
6. Improving state regulation of consumer services
7. Directions for the development of sectoral groups of household services.
Certification of the main types of household services will be introduced, which will improve their quality, safety for the health of consumers and the environment. It is planned to allocate 68.4 billion rubles for the development of the sphere of consumer services for the rural population, including 47.1 billion rubles from the republican and local budgets, 11.3 billion rubles from own funds, and from the Innovation Fund Ministry of Trade - 10 billion rubles.

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