Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Kazakhstan: the domestic cement market is closed for counterfeit goods

As part of the regular meetings of the first heads of central government bodies with representatives of the civil sector, on April 28, 2021, the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, B. T. Sultanov, held an industry meeting with representatives of the Association of Cement and Concrete producers "QAZEM".

The meeting was attended by the heads of large cement production plants in Kazakhstan, representatives of the Ministry of Trade and Integration, the Chairman of the Committee on Technical Regulation and Metrology, as well as the heads of QazTrade, KazaStandart RSE and the National Accreditation Center.

During the meeting, they discussed problematic issues and prospects for the development of the cement industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as issues of protecting the cement industry through strengthening the requirements for cement products through the tools of technical regulation of the construction industry. Kazakhstan cement is of high quality and competitive both in the domestic and foreign markets. However, falsification is also found on the market. The implementation of measures to improve the quality of domestic products through technical regulation tools in accordance with the developed Master Plan for specific types of products of domestic producers will become a catalyst for accelerating key processes to solve existing problems and increase export volumes.

During the meeting, the participants discussed the already existing positive results on the implementation of standardization and the development of the laboratory base. The domestic market is practically closed to adulteration and the road to new markets is open for domestic cement, since quality is the main requirement for increasing exports. Taking into account the dynamically developing markets of Central Asia, there is a high demand for cement in this region. The measures taken allow us to increase the export potential of domestic cement.

Further, the participants of the meeting were presented with the full range of opportunities for the cement industry, provided through the development tools KazakhExport and QazTrade. Among the proposed instruments were noted - loan insurance, which allows to solve the problem of lack of collateral in financing for the execution of an export contract; export trade financing as a tool of preferential and long-term financing for the importer; deferred payment insurance; allowing to close the risks of non-payment by a foreign importer and other instruments.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister congratulated the cement quality testing laboratory of Sapa Inter System LLP on successfully passing the accreditation. This laboratory was issued an electronic certificate of accreditation through the information system "E-Accreditation". The "E-Accreditation" system, which was introduced last year, made it possible to automate the interaction between the National Accreditation Center and business. Obtaining a certificate online clearly demonstrated one of the advantages of digitalization of the technical regulation system.

Summing up the meeting, the Minister thanked the business representatives for their participation in supporting and stimulating the industry and for their active civil position, and invited them to further cooperate in the framework of financial support measures, export promotion and trade development.