From 2024, the number of scheduled business inspections is planned to be halved

Measures to further improve the business climate in Kazakhstan were considered at a Government meeting chaired by Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov.

Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov reported that by the end of last year, the number of operating small and medium-sized businesses in the republic increased by 23.4% to about 2 million enterprises. The total number of people employed in this sector increased by more than 18% to 4.1 million people. In general, today about 40% of all people employed in the economy work in SMEs. The volume of output by SMEs also increased by 28% and amounted to over 59 trillion tenge.

In order to further improve the business climate, work is underway to introduce a new regulatory policy for entrepreneurs, in particular, the abolition of unnecessary and outdated requirements. In addition, risk management systems are being automated in all areas of state control and supervision. This will make it possible to appoint business inspections without human participation as early as January 1, 2024. It is expected that as a result, the number of scheduled inspections will be reduced by 2 times.

The Minister added that in 2022, 46 thousand projects were subsidized and guaranteed as part of SME support. This year, more than 266 billion tenge of budget funds have already been allocated for these purposes, which is almost 100 billion more than last year.

Deputy Chairman of the Board of NCE "Atameken" Timur Nakhipbekov, Akim of Almaty region Marat Sultangaziev, Akim of Pavlodar region Asain Baykhanov and First Deputy Akim of Astana Nurlan Nurkenov also spoke about the work carried out.

As Alikhan Smailov noted, the development of entrepreneurship is one of the strategic directions of the socio-economic development of the country. Thus, the share of small and medium-sized businesses in the economy should exceed 40% by 2030. To this end, systematic measures have been implemented to support domestic entrepreneurship, the Government, together with NCE "Atameken", is improving the legislative framework in this area.

Along with this, a new Tax Code is currently being developed, which will significantly simplify tax administration with full digitization of all its processes. Also, since last year, measures have been implemented to improve the regulation of entrepreneurial activity "from scratch". In parallel, the necessary work is being carried out to automate state control systems.

The Prime Minister added that within the framework of the program documents, financial and other support measures are provided to business. In just 5 months of this year, more than 6 thousand projects were subsidized for a total amount of loans of about 440 billion tenge. In addition, over 4 thousand projects have already been guaranteed for another 144 billion tenge.

«As a result of the measures taken, the share of small and medium-sized businesses in GDP increased by more than 3 percentage points last year and amounted to 36.5%. And this dynamic must be maintained», — Alikhan Smailov emphasized.

At the same time, he emphasized that over the past two years, four regions have demonstrated weak growth dynamics in the number of people employed in small and medium-sized businesses. These are Akmola, Kostanay, North Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions. At the same time, their potential allows developing small and medium-sized businesses, increasing the number of people employed in it.

According to him, a number of regions also have a high level of the shadow economy. These are Almaty, Atyrau, Karaganda and East Kazakhstan regions, the cities of Astana and Almaty.

«Getting out of the "shadow" largely depends on the availability, convenience and comfort of doing legitimate business. We need to step up measures to reduce the shadow economy. There is an appropriate Comprehensive Plan, which must be clearly executed. Only then will we be able to see the real results of the work carried out in this direction», — said the Prime Minister.

As Alikhan Smailov noted, today the republic is facing a difficult situation in the global economy, which also affects the domestic market. However, this opens up new opportunities for Kazakhstan.

So, today business is mainly concentrated in large cities, so it is necessary to improve and expand its capabilities in single-industry towns and small settlements.

«For this purpose, support is provided within the framework of the projects "Auyl Amanaty", "Auyl – El besigi", the development of mono- and small towns, "The Economy of Simple Things" and the Business Roadmap 2025. State agencies, together with NCE "Atameken" and the regions, need to ensure their high-quality implementation on the ground», — indicated by the head of Government.

In addition, it is necessary to expand the potential of non-primary industries, including in the manufacturing industry. This concerns the modernization of fixed assets and the introduction of new technologies.

Along with this, it is necessary to accelerate the work on the abolition of excessive regulatory requirements, as well as on the automation of the state control system of business.

«By the end of the year we should see the results for each industry», — Alikhan Smailov emphasized.

He added that according to the analysis, complaints and appeals of businesses mainly relate to the areas of land relations, public procurement, tax administration, architecture and urban planning, infrastructure provision.

«Government agencies, together with the regions, need to consider all incoming requests from businesses in a high-quality and timely manner», — The Prime Minister noted.

In conclusion, he outlined the need for high-quality training of qualified specialists, especially for high-tech industries, as well as taking measures to adapt the system of training and training of personnel to modern requirements.