Bakhyt Sultanov held a meeting in Almaty on Trade Development and Price Stabilization
On February 16, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov held a meeting in the Almaty Akimat on issues of trade, price stabilization for socially significant food products and compensation for losses incurred by business entities during the period of unrest.
At present, Almaty is the largest commercial and cultural center of Kazakhstan. About one third of enterprises registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan are located in this city.
“Trade is the main branch of the Almaty economy. In 2021, the growth of retail trade amounted to 13.5%, the volume was 4 trillion 212 billion tenge. The share of retail trade in Almaty, in the volume of retail trade in the Republic of Kazakhstan makes up 31.5%,” Bakhyt Sultanov noted.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov, the January events had a negative impact on the work of individual business entities, especially in the trade sector. To date, the government commission has approved a mechanism for compensating the damage of affected entrepreneurs, which is proposed to be amended. The Regional Commission of Almaty proposed to amend the existing mechanism.
According to Almaty Mayor Yerbolat Dossayev, it was proposed to compensate for damages according to a simplified calculation with payments of up to 10 million tenge for all categories of damage, as well as to apply a simplified mechanism for the category “equipment” and compensate for lawyers’ fees.
“This will reduce the time for consideration of applications from 1 month to 2 weeks and significantly speed up the procedure for compensating business for damages,” said Almaty Mayor Yerbolat Dossayev.
The issue of stabilizing prices for socially significant food products was also discussed. To stabilize prices for socially significant food products, 11 billion tenge was allocated from the local budget to fix prices for vegetables, meat products, eggs and groceries. The allocation of loans to large producers of social bread, dairy products and sunflower oil is also being worked out.
In addition, as the city akimat reported to the Deputy Prime Minister, the akimat is currently considering the possibility of creating mini-hubs by allocating concessional financing and land plots within the city for the construction of easily erectable temporary storage warehouses. This will reduce the dependence of convenience stores on resellers, relieve owners of small retail outlets from the need to purchase on their own, in large wholesale markets. In general, this should have a positive impact on the price level in small intra-quarter stores.
Based on the results of the meeting, Bakhyt Sultanov instructed the Almaty Akimat and the Committee of Trade of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan to continue monitoring and analyzing prices, take measures to increase the “turnover scheme” as part of the stabilization of prices for socially significant food products, and intensify the activities of regional commissions to investigate intermediary schemes along the entire food pricing chain , as well as continue work to provide assistance and compensation to affected business entities.