Regional entrepreneurship: Shymkent

We continue to report on the level of entrepreneurship in the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Today we will cover the topic about the southernmost city of the country - Shymkent, which received the status of a city of republican significance in 2018.

Unlike the business and financial capital, currently, the city "status" has no particular impact on the indicators demonstrating the level of entrepreneurship development.

Thus, as of August 1, 2023, about 141.3 thousand SMEs were registered in the city, and slightly more than 91% operate, where about 213.7 thousand people are employed in total. Indicators for the number of SMEs are inferior to 4 administrative units, and even to 5 in terms of the number of employees.

Shymkent business has no significant contribution to the economy; the city takes the seventh place among the regions of the country. As of January 1, 2023, the share of SMEs in GDP was 1.3%, which is inferior to Almaty (by 9.4 percentage points), Astana (by 5.8 percentage points), Atyrau region (by 1.8 percentage points), Almaty region (by 0.4 percentage points), West Kazakhstan Region and Karaganda region (by 0.1 percentage points).

Labor productivity per 1 employee is also noted at an average level. According to the results of the first quarter of 2023, 1 employed in SMEs produced products worth KZT 2.4 million.

In total, business entities for this period produced products worth KZT 517.8 billion, of which medium-sized businesses produced products worth KZT 97 billion or 18.7%, small businesses – KZT 420.8 billion or 81.3%. The total share of Shymkent business output in relation to the republican one is 3.8%.
In the sectoral context, the majority of entrepreneurs are engaged in wholesale and retail trade (45.9 thousand units or 41.6%), manufacturing (8.1 thousand units or 7.3%) and real estate transactions (4.3 thousand units or 3.9%).
Priority employment in the manufacturing industry causes positive emotions, since the improvement of its competitiveness corresponds to the current development plan of Shymkent for 2021-2025.

The spheres of public administration and defense (10 units), financial and insurance activities (415 units) and art, entertainment and recreation (684 units) are of least interest to the business of Shymkent. They account for only 1% of business entities.
In general, we consider Shymkent as a potentially favorable territory for business development, taking into account the prospects of the city, the growth of business environment level due to its "status", the presence of a rich mineral resource base for the development of manufacturing industries.