Domestic trade is one of the most reformed spheres - Bakhyt Sultanov

Source https://www.facebook.com/bakhyt.sultanov 

This area attracts increased attention, because it directly affects the interests of every resident of the country. We all, one way or another, are its participants when we go shopping.

In the past year, this area has become one of the most reformed. The main purpose of the changes is to form a transparent and convenient system that would exclude the possibility of uncontrolled pricing.

A few years ago, MIT set a course to create a National Commodity Distribution System, and this year we have made significant progress in this direction. In the summer, an agreement was signed with a consortium of private investors who started the implementation of the first phase of the NTS project: the terms of the public-private partnership provide for the construction/modernization, transfer and operation of 7 ORTS. We hope that in the near future there will be a private investor for the following objects. In total, according to plans to create a network of 24 ORCS in the country by 2024.

Access to the storage system, pre-sale preparation, logistics and trade services based on the ORC will be provided not only to medium-sized, but also, very importantly, small agricultural producers.

Connecting small farmers and private subsidiary farms to an integrated retail network (and we expect that private wholesale distribution centers will join the NTS over time) will facilitate their access to the domestic market and, importantly, to export. I have said more than once that small-scale production does not allow us to meet the demands of retail chains both ours and foreign. The consolidation of parties based on the ORC will change the situation.

In parallel with the creation of a network of internal ORCS, we are stimulating our business to build similar centers in the nearest neighbors: in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. This will ensure a guaranteed supply of vegetables and fruits from there in our off-season. Such trade links will eventually have to lead to the docking of our national commodity distribution systems.

And this whole chain of pricing and inventory will be digitized. The farmer will have the opportunity to get feedback through a single automated information system on the needs for fruit and vegetable products, volumes, quality, delivery dates. This will allow him to form the cost of his products and offer his wholesale competitive price through an electronic trading platform.

But at the same time, the possibility of excessive margin overestimation by any structures on the way from the field to the counter will be eliminated. Which, in the end, will ensure a reduction in the cost of the goods for the final buyer.

A plus to this will be the system of commodity exchanges updated in the outgoing year. We have divided them into two types (brought them into a separate category selling only non-standardized goods), accordingly changing the requirements for each of them. The law prohibited discrimination on the accreditation of brokers and dealers and simplified the conditions for access of commodity producers to exchanges. Free competition and open struggle will also affect the prices of goods.

Since this year, the Ministry of Trade has become the coordinating state agency for curbing price increases, primarily for socially important goods. We work closely with other agencies - the Ministry of Agriculture, akimats, the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition. In total, 39 measures were applied in the country to stabilize prices: from purchases to stabilization funds and the allocation of preferential loans for forward purchases to monitoring compliance with a 15% trade mark-up for socially significant food products. They brought their results. We managed not only to stop the rise in prices, but also to ensure their reduction in December.

The improvement of the trading system continues. I am glad that our work is supported by business. Moreover, entrepreneurs from various fields are actively involved in this process and most of the decisions we make are based on the recommendations of the business community. I am convinced that the work will be even more active next year.