Kazakhstanskaya pravda 205 (28584)

The progress of the President's instructions on cardinal improvement and expansion of the business environment, as well as current issues and the most promising areas for the development of small and medium-sized businesses were considered yesterday in Almaty, where, in the framework of the working visit, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev held a number of meetings, visited individual companies of the southern metropolis.

The topic of high technologies, including increasing the competitiveness and digitization of a number of important spheres of activity of small and medium-sized businesses, was touched upon during the meeting of the head of the Government with members of the regional council of NCE "Atameken".

During the meeting, the Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov spoke about the development of the business environment within the framework of the draft Strategic Plan-2025. Ablay Myrzakhmetov, Chairman of the Board of Atameken, and Vladimir Bobrov, Head of the Processing Industry Committee of NCE, raised questions in their speeches concerning strengthening cooperation between business and government bodies and improving the effectiveness of state support measures.

President of the Astana Group of Companies Nurlan Smagulov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC “Technodom Operator” Eduard Kim, founder of LLP “Redprice” Ramil Mukhorjapov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the holding "Bazis-A" Alexander Belovich, Chairman of the Board directors of Centras Capital company Eldar Abdrazakov and general director of LLP “Smart Pay” Olzhas Kundakbaev took part in the discussion.

The participants discussed a number of issues related to subsidizing bus routes in Almaty, digitization of tax administration, improving the efficiency of advisory bodies, providing online access to information on land plots, creating small industrial zones, transferring non-core assets of local executive bodies to the market environment, as well as the opening of a full-scale Business Support Center in Almaty.

Bakytzhan Sagintayev noted that the development of SMEs is one of the most important priorities of the work of the Government, and the main goal here is to create favorable conditions for domestic business. In this regard, work is carried out on a number of areas, in particular, on providing financial support measures.

So, currently more than 13 thousand business projects have been financed, a program for the development of productive employment and mass entrepreneurship has been adopted, under which microcredits are granted up to 18 million KZT with a nominal rate of no more than 6%.

Legislative support is being rendered along with financial - measures are being taken to deregulate the business. Currently, the number of permits has been reduced by more than three times, an audit of state control and supervisory functions has been carried out. Practical recommendations have been developed, suggesting the abandonment of the existing order of conducting selective inspections and most of the inspections under a special order. The work on the revision of the legislation has also been completed for the purpose of providing the business with reports and information to state bodies. It is planned to reduce almost a third of the types of such information.

It is noted that the important issue remains the requirements of regulatory and legal and technical acts for the construction of health facilities and education. To solve this problem, a working group has been established, necessary changes are introduced to SNiPs. It is planned to abolish more than 30 obsolete sanitary rules to health and education organizations.

In addition, a lot of work has been done to ensure business access to public procurements and purchases of a quasi-public sector; for this purpose, an electronic procurement platform, a system of category and pre-qualification selection has been introduced.

Work is also underway to increase the share of local content for each system-forming enterprise.

In conclusion, it was noted that it is important for the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan to know exactly what impedes the development of business and what state assistance can be provided. In an effort to get an answer to this question, as they say, first-hand, the Prime Minister visited a number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Almaty.

Currently, the Government is carrying out a comprehensive work to attract business to the implementation of the Third Modernization of the Economy, which was declared the Head of State. This work is primarily aimed at the widespread adoption and use of digital technologies by businesses in all priority sectors of the economy.

In particular, in this direction, work is under way to create a system of appropriate incentives for entrepreneurs, including improving the regulatory framework, reducing costs for the digital transformation of enterprises, creating favorable conditions for attracting investments in digital projects.

At the same time, the Government will continue to support business in the framework of new state programs: the development of agribusiness and the development of productive employment and mass entrepreneurship, which also contain business support tools, including in the form of concessional lending.

Guri Shedin