June 17 marked one year since the creation of the Ministry of trade and integration

During the year since its Foundation, MIT has been working to reformat the trade industry: from changing the legislation on public control over the quality of sellers ' work to the strategy for trade development for the next five years.

Central to the changes is the draft State program for trade development for 2021-2025 – this is the main result of the Department's work. An attempt was made to carry out fundamental transformations of the trade industry of Kazakhstan through a single format.
Currently, it is being discussed publicly with representatives of the business community:
https://inbusiness.kz/ru/last/odin-iz-vazhnejshih-voprosov-eksport-bahyt-sultanov
The project provides for the implementation of tasks in 5 areas:
- improving technical regulation;
- development of domestic trade;
- expansion of foreign trade within the framework of global and regional economic integration;
- support and promotion of non-primary export of goods and services;
- improvement of the consumer protection system.
According to the project, by 2025, the success of the trade industry can be measured by the following target indicators:
1) real growth of GVA trade by 6.2 compared to the previous year%;
2) reducing the share of shadow trade to 31%;
3) growth in the number of people employed in trade by 143.1 thousand people. (today, 1.4 million Kazakhstanis are employed in the industry);
4) the trade balance for non-primary goods (export-import) is $1.3 billion.;
6) consumer imports of processed products (without machinery and equipment) $16 billion;
7) growth of the share of e-Commerce from retail turnover to 10%;
8) increasing the level of application of national standards to 75%.

And the main task of the Ministry in terms of promoting Kazakhstan's exports is to increase non-resource exports of goods and services to $41 billion by 2025. (in 2019, this figure was $24.7 billion).
One of the main achievements of the Ministry of trade and integration was the updating of legislation in the field of consumer protection: the amendments were adopted by the Parliament on June 11 this year.:
https://lsm.kz/zashitu-prav-potrebitelej-postavyat-na-novyj-uroven
The initiative to introduce a 3-stage system for handling consumer complaints has been implemented. The emphasis is on pre-trial dispute resolution both between the consumer and the seller, and with the participation of a third party – "defenders" representing the interests of the consumer. It is assumed that the participation of public authorities will be possible at the second stage of dispute resolution - if the consumer does not agree with the seller. Unscrupulous sellers who refuse to voluntarily eliminate violations will be brought to administrative responsibility. Including for refusing to exchange the product or return the money and ignoring the consumer's claims. As part of the pre-trial settlement of a consumer dispute, the priority of the initiative remains with the consumer.
The third stage of consumer-seller dispute resolution will be the court.
It also provides for the responsibility of entrepreneurs for not placing their contacts (address and phone number), the authorized body and subjects of pre-trial regulation in places where goods, works and services are sold.
Work is underway to create a Unified information system for receiving complaints in the field of consumer protection.

MTI RK is working to improve the quality of goods through the system of technical regulation.
In 2019, 1,000 new national standards were developed. In the next 5 years, it is planned to develop 2,500 standards (including replacing outdated ones). The Ministry took part in the development of 48 technical regulations of the EEU, of which 42 have entered into force.
During the year, the number of documents in the Unified state Fund of normative technical documents increased to 72500 units, including national standards, harmonized by 70% with international requirements to 9606 units. In 2025, the level of business application of national standards is expected to increase from the current 41% to 75%.
The draft Law "on technical regulation" in a new version and the accompanying draft law are being finalized. The documents provide comprehensive protection of the domestic market, and unsafe and low-quality products will be blocked:
https://kapital.kz/economic/84590/lovit-opasnyy-tovar-ne-v-magazinakh-a-na-granitse.

In order to improve the quality of domestic products and support export-oriented manufacturers, a national standardization plan is being formed. The work on strengthening the testing and laboratory base has been strengthened.
In the field of state control, records are kept on issued certificates and declarations of compliance. Since then, the certification bodies have withdrawn 64 certificates of conformity and 62 declarations of conformity, 3 certificates of conformity of the management system. Also, the accreditation certificates of 2 certification bodies were revoked for violations in issuing certificates of conformity for cement products and 3 testing laboratories/test centers were invalidated in terms of the scope of accreditation for violations of the requirements of the technical regulations of the Customs Union.
A risk-based approach has been developed within the project office to whiten the market from unscrupulous accreditation subjects.

A lot of work has been done by the Ministry of trade and integration to support and promote Kazakhstan's exports.
Diagnostics of the export potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan was carried out. 16 priority commodity items were identified, with a forecast of an increase in exports of $13.5 billion, and priority services, with a forecast of an increase in exports of $4.4 billion.
For 5 priority export countries-China, UAE, Turkey, Iran
and Germany-prepared country profiles and algorithms to ensure that local products meet all market requirements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7GCax98-Gg&feature=youtu.be
The 2nd set Of rules for reimbursement of part of exporters ' expenses was developed and adopted. Since the document was adopted, 196 exporting companies have received compensation for service costs through QazIndustry:
https://kapital.kz/economic/87883/mintorgovli-eksporteram-vozmestyat-zatraty.html

Through KazakhExport (the only specialized insurance organization for exporters), 76 companies in the amount of 87.8 billion tenge received insurance protection against the risk of non-payment in foreign trade operations and a guarantee of the security of export transactions since July last year:
https://forbes.kz/news/2020/04/13/newsid_223233 
On the basis of the center for trade policy development QazTrade launched "single window" - a portal for Kazakhstani exporters of manufacturing industries and foreign buyers export.gov.kz.

The qaztrade export accelerator program has started working. The program allows you to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of companies, determine the degree of "export maturity", prepare the product for sale, and conduct a marketing campaign. Participation in the program is guaranteed by an export contract in the shortest possible time:
https://forbes.kz//process/v_kazahstane_poyavilos_edinoe_okno_dlya_eksporterov/? 

In order to develop domestic trade, the Ministry has started work on creating an integrated and effective trade and logistics infrastructure of the country – the national commodity distribution system (NTS):
https://www.kazpravda.kz/interviews/view/iskluchit-kacheli
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1923201591144484&id=100003639848209 
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1944042132393763&id=100003639848209 

 
This system will consist of 24 orcs and will optimize the supply chain of products from the manufacturer to the consumer, create the necessary conditions for storage, efficient distribution and sale of products. In addition, it will serve as an anchor infrastructure for bringing together farmers, buyers, transport operators, intermediaries and retailers.

It will reduce the cost of products for the final buyer due to the electronic trading system: the development of the exchange-traded futures market will provide an opportunity for participants to enter into forward contracts.
In General, the development of the exchange market is one of the priority areas for the development of domestic trade.

In the complex, the functioning of the national commodity distribution system will ensure price stability and eliminate both seasonal price spikes and hype spikes, as it was in March-April this year.

During the state of emergency, in order to prevent food inflation, the Ministry completely switched to manual management to stabilize prices for NWFP: maximum allowable prices for NWFP were set: 174 administrative fines were imposed for exceeding prices and 172 notifications were sent to eliminate signs of collusion between producers and large wholesale suppliers. This allowed us to fix prices at the lowest possible level.

The Ministry of trade and integration is working with Alibaba, Ebay, Amazon and Wildberries to develop e-Commerce and expand the presence of Kazakhstani brands on global e-Commerce platforms. The framework agreement on cooperation with Wildberries allowed to bring 594 types of goods from 21 Kazakhstani companies to the platform. Together with the National chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken", the project "School of Internet exporters"was implemented. As a result of the project, 50 companies were granted gold Alibaba accounts, of which 41 companies have already launched sales on the platform. 

Expanding regional integration is also the focus of MIT and is crucial.

MIT took part in the development of the draft Strategy for the development of the Eurasian economic Union until 2025. Over the course of the year, proposals were developed for the EEC on the use of trade instruments, as well as a negotiating position with Israel, India, Egypt, Singapore and the CIS countries.

The Department's trade diplomats are actively working to counter trade protectionism and protect national interests and domestic business.
Over the past year, 16 barriers to the internal market of the EEU were eliminated, and 15 bans on the import and export of goods were introduced. The United States has not taken measures against Kazakhstani producers (titanium sponge, uranium). Work was carried out to protect Kazakhstani producers (KazAzot JSC and Kazphosphate LLP) in 2 investigations in Ukraine.
As part of the expansion of regional economic integration, inter-regional cooperation forums (Russia, Uzbekistan) were held during the year with the participation of MIT, during which 72 documents and trade deals worth about $472 million were signed. IPCS on trade cooperation with foreign countries were held, where they discussed and resolved topical bilateral issues and problems, promoted potential export products, and removed barriers and restrictions.

Taking into account all these projects, the past year has become a huge leap for Kazakhstan in the development of its own trade and export potential.
The Minister did a great job as a salesman and presented the strengths of the Kazakh product, which has every reason to be present in the demanding markets of Europe and the United States:
https://tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/bahyit-sultanov-predlojil-ssha-kazahstanskie-tovaryi-na-381963/ 
https://www.zakon.kz/4992346-mintorgovli-rk-predlozhilo-v.html 
https://www.lsm.kz/kazahstan-predlozhil-es-i-ssha-postavku-260-vidov-tovarov 
A large-scale work has been done and the trade and export policy has been revised, taking into account the active position of the Republic of Kazakhstan in integration associations and trade confrontations in the world.
All sectors and areas related to trade that affect its growth have been reformed.
For the first time with the advent of the government of the ROK trade Ministry has taken some unprecedented measures, practical significance and usefulness of which Kazakhstan will be able to feel it after a year of work of the Ministry. Since the attempt to "turn over" the consciousness and form a new culture of the Kazakh consumer has already occurred through the modernization of the law on STD.

The next immediate prospects for the transformation will be the latest quality standards, NTS and a strong Kazakh exporter with its state behind it.