Number of operating small companies has increased over the year by 9 per cent, active ones - by 13 per cent, finprom.kz reports.

A small business is very active in the capital: the number of small operating enterprises grew by more than 40 per cent over the year in Nur-Sultan.

At the end of March 2019, the number of operating small enterprises was 279.9 thousand, an increase of 9.3 per cent over the year. 56.1 per cent of them are active enterprises, a year earlier the indicator was 54.3 per cent.

The number of small active enterprises increased by 13 per cent over the year and amounted to 157.1 thousand. In comparison with the same period last year, the number of operating small business companies was 139 thousand, with an increase of 5.4 per cent per year.

By type of economic activity, most active small enterprises are concentrated in the field of wholesale trade, retail and car repair: 23.8 per cent, or 37.3 thousand enterprises, 15.8 per cent more than a year earlier (32.2 thousand enterprises).

The construction sector is in the second place, it has 15.9 thousand active enterprises with an annual growth of 26.7 per cent.

Education is also in the top three industries with the largest number of active small companies: 15.2 thousand with an annual growth of 5.6 per cent for the year.

In the regional context, the largest number of small active companies is in Almaty and Nur-Sultan: 36.7 thousand and 25 thousand, respectively. Together, their number increased by 23.7 per cent over the year.

In addition, Karaganda region is among the leading regions, it has 10.4 thousand enterprises. East-Kazakhstan and Almaty regions rounded off the list of top five: 9.9 thousand and 7.9 thousand small active enterprises, respectively.

57.2 per cent of the active small business of the country are concentrated in these five regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan.