Almaty is developing small and medium businesses

Almaty is developing small and medium businesses

In order to develop small and medium businesses in Almaty, a wide range of financial and non-financial support tools are used.

42.2 billion tenge was allocated to support business due to state and regional programs (Business Roadmap-2025, Economy of Simple Things, AIC, Almaty Business-2025, Almaty Business), more than 110 projects were approved for a total loan amount is 8.3 billion tenge in 2022,.

Supporting SMEs affected by the January riots, city deferred payments, discounted on rent in large trade facilities, and canceled rent collection in communal facilities for a certain period. A number of changes were made to the Almaty Business-2025 city program. To support entrepreneurs, a new loan released with a rate of 2% per annum (up to 10 million tenge for up to 12 months, secured and partially guaranteed by SEC Almaty JSC in case of insufficient collateral). The rate on unsecured lending was reduced from 12 % up to 9% (for a period of up to 24 months with an amount of up to 6 million tenge), a deferment on repayment of the principal debt and exemption from fines and penalties up to 180 days was provided for existing borrowers of MFO Almaty. 6.3 billion tenge was allocated from local budget for implementation of these support measures.

Particular attention is given to the support of social projects. In 2021-2022 SPK Almaty JSC implemented 9 projects with an investment of 131 million tenge, and created 72 new jobs.

Almaty is also actively developing small industrial parks for SMEs. To date, 8 industrial parks with 670 jobs have been created (the amount of investments is 4 billion tenge. 53 enterprises in the food, light, furniture and construction industries have been launched in industrial parks. Now another 12 new industrial parks with a total area of ​​76.5 thousand square meters are under construction. They plan to create more than 2100 jobs. The amount of investments is 8.6 billion tenge.

Qoldaý Center for Entrepreneurship providing consultations to SMEs in Almaty at one window operating principle. They have provided more than 28.3 thousand consultations, helped to develop 500 business plans/projects 17 projects have were to funding up to 475 million tenge, received 219 permits, 2,589 students have completed the training course.

For reference: following the results of the first three months of 2022, the number of operating SMEs in Almaty amounted to 217,822 with an increase of 10.5% compared to the same period in 2021.