In 2021, 47 thousand SME projects will be provided with preferential financing - Ministry of National Economy

Today, at a government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, Minister of National Economy Aset Irgaliyev reported on measures to support small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic.

“For the first quarter of this year, more than 16 thousand SME projects worth 663 billion tenge received support within the framework of government programs of concessional financing. By the end of the current year, more than 47 thousand projects will be covered with concessional financing” Aset Irgaliyev said.

The Minister emphasized that, as part of the instructions of the Head of State, the term for granting preferential refinancing of loans for the affected sectors of the economy has been extended and now is 3 months from April 1 to July 1, 2021.

According to the results of the first quarter of this year, within the framework of the programs "Business Road Map 2025" and "Economy of Simple Things", 5,884 projects were subsidized for a total amount of loans of 232 billion tenge, guarantees were provided for 6,892 projects for the amount of loans of 87 billion tenge. Within the framework of the Agrarian Credit Corporation, 134 projects were supported for the amount of loans of 5.9 billion tenge.

The updated Comprehensive Growth Recovery Plan for the current year includes more than 60 new support measures. This is a decrease in the burden on business, easier access for entrepreneurs to finance, access to demand markets, “Smart” regulation.

“In the new economic conditions, a new regulatory policy is being developed, aimed at creating the most favorable and stimulating conditions for the revitalization of entrepreneurial activity and attracting private capital. It is envisaged to introduce a register of mandatory requirements, introduce an experimental legal regime, introduce new forms of state control, and automate the reporting of business entities, ” concluded Aset Irgaliyev.

According to the Ministry of National Economy, for three quarters of 2020, the share of SMEs in the economy reached 30.5%. In 2020, SME’s produced products worth 32.7 trillion tenge. The number of people employed in SME’s as of January 1 of this year amounted to 3.4 million people.