Marat Omarov, Chairman of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan, met with a World Bank delegation led by Cecile Tiouero Niang, Regional Practice Manager for Europe and Central Asia.
The parties discussed the practical implementation of a technical assistance project aimed at reforming the governance and ownership of state-owned enterprises.
The programme covers three key areas. The first is the optimization of the state-owned enterprise portfolio, including the classification of enterprises based on the economic rationale for state participation; the establishment of a single official registry of state-owned companies; and the introduction of principles for accounting for and compensating for socially important services.
The second area is strengthening the ownership function, aimed at improving the state system for monitoring performance, introducing consolidated reporting, and selecting board members based on meritocratic principles.
The third area provides for the exchange of experience, development of expert capacity, and transfer of expertise with the support of relevant UK organizations.
The Chairman of the Agency supported the project, noting its important role in strengthening corporate governance, developing a competitive environment, and creating conditions for attracting private investment into Kazakhstan’s economy.
The Agency for Protection and Development of Competition is preparing a comprehensive set of amendments to antitrust legislation, including an extension of investigation periods, the introduction of turnover-based fines, reform of the Leniency Programme, and a reduction in the use of notices for serious violations. Chairman of the Agency Marat Omarov outlined the key areas of the reform at the 16th Kazakhstan Legal Forum (Kazakhstan Legal Forum 2026) in Almaty.
The Second OECD Peer Review of Kazakhstan’s Competition Law and Policy served as the basis for further improvement of competition policy. Following the review, international experts issued 67 recommendations. The Agency supported 23 key recommendations and prepared a package of legislative and institutional amendments.
“Experts concluded that Kazakhstan’s current antitrust regime has developed a certain imbalance towards ‘soft law’, which weakens the deterrent effect of sanctions. In recent years, the Agency has actively developed preventive mechanisms, including notices, warnings and compliance measures. We believed that direct dialogue with businesses would make it possible to restore compliance more quickly without lengthy court proceedings. However, the OECD Review demonstrated the downside of such an approach. The deterrent effect has diminished. Today, a company understands that its first violation will not necessarily result in severe financial penalties, but may instead give it an opportunity to voluntarily and painlessly close the case,” Marat Omarov explained.
Therefore, one of the areas of the ongoing reforms will be the improvement of antitrust investigations. The draft legislation provides for an extension of the basic investigation period from three to nine months, with the possibility of a further three-month extension. This will expand the opportunities for gathering evidence and conducting economic analysis.
Amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses have also been prepared, providing for a transition to turnover-based fines amounting to 0.5% of the offender’s annual revenue. Another change concerns the Leniency Programme. It is proposed to abolish the requirement that the Agency must have no prior information about a cartel before an application is submitted, as well as the requirement for full compensation of all damage in advance. The first participant to voluntarily disclose a cartel and admit the violation would be eligible for full immunity from liability.
The Agency also proposes to narrow the list of violations for which notices are issued and to extend the period for determining repeated violations from one year to two years. A repeated violation during this period would constitute grounds for initiating an investigation. The use of notices would be excluded in highly concentrated markets.
A significant portion of the amendments is incorporated into the Sixth Antitrust Package. The Government’s version of the draft law contains six blocks: investigations; compliance and antitrust audits; economic concentration; commodity market analysis; denationalization; and class actions. Following the constitutional reform, the draft law was submitted to the Kurultai for consideration, where a new working group has been established.
“The logic of the Sixth Package is to shift the focus from ex post punishment to prevention, predictability in law enforcement and, most importantly for consumers, actual compensation for harm caused. We seek to establish transparent rules of the game under which violating the law simply becomes unprofitable,” the Head of the Agency emphasized.
As part of improving investigations, it is proposed to adopt a separate methodology for conducting them, setting out the elements of violations, sources of information and types of evidence. At the same time, an annual review of enforcement practice is envisaged to establish consistent approaches to the application of competition legislation.
To strengthen preventive mechanisms, the introduction of antitrust audits is proposed. Businesses would be able to engage external experts to independently identify indications of violations, remedy them and notify the Agency without the risk of being held liable. For companies that have already committed a violation, mandatory antitrust compliance would be introduced.
The sixth block of the draft law provides for the introduction of class actions in the field of competition protection. The basis for such an action would be a decision of the Agency or a court judgment that has entered into legal force in an antitrust case. Financial services and the securities market would be excluded from the scope of the mechanism. Court costs would be borne by the initiator of the action, while compensation to affected parties would be paid by the defendant based on supporting documents.
At the same time, the Agency is developing approaches to regulating new digital markets. The proposals include special criteria for determining a dom
During the period when the Agency participated in the regulation of prices for medicines and medical devices, pricing approaches were revised, trade mark-ups and administrative barriers were reduced, and a significant share of medicines was brought into a competitive environment.
Systematic work was carried out over six years. At the end of 2020, pursuant to an instruction from the Head of State, the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan was included as a co-regulator in the price-setting system for medicines and medical devices. The main objective of the joint work with the Ministry of Healthcare was to ensure balanced price regulation aimed at preventing unjustified increases in medicine prices and anti-competitive practices by market participants.
Between 2020 and 2026, the Agency approved 38 draft orders on maximum prices for medicines and medical devices. Following their review, the Agency submitted recommendations to the Ministry of Healthcare to eliminate factors contributing to unjustified price increases, reduce administrative barriers and improve the pricing mechanism.
At the initial stage, during the pandemic, the Agency took prompt measures to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis. A special procedure for setting prices for COVID-19 medicines was introduced, and unjustified trade mark-ups were revised. As a result, the prices of COVID-19 medicines decreased by 30–40%, the prices of medical masks fell by more than three times, and the prices of PCR tests decreased twofold. Subsequently, the Agency shifted its focus towards systematically reforming the regulatory mechanism and creating conditions for the development of competition in the pharmaceutical market.
In 2022, amendments were made to the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On People’s Health and the Healthcare System”, and a Roadmap for the Development of Competition in Healthcare was approved. The Roadmap provides for reducing excessive price regulation, increasing transparency in price formation, and expanding market participants’ access to public procurement of medicines under the Guaranteed Volume of Free Medical Care (GVFMC) and the Mandatory Social Health Insurance (MSHI) system.
In the course of its work, the Agency identified a number of factors that created conditions for unjustified increases in the prices of medicines and medical devices. In particular, marketing, transportation and customs costs, as well as quality assessment costs, were taken into account when setting prices, while significant trade mark-ups were also applied. At the same time, the mechanism did not take into account the actual prices charged by manufacturers or the cost of imports.
To address the identified issues, the Agency, jointly with the Ministry of Healthcare, revised the pricing approaches. The key change was the transition to reference pricing, with greater reliance on the actual cost of medicines, including mandatory confirmation through contracts with manufacturers and invoices for import prices.
To improve the objectivity and transparency of reference pricing, external and internal referencing mechanisms were introduced, and the list of information sources was expanded. These included NALVIN information resources on medicine prices recommended by the World Health Organization. The composition of costs taken into account when setting prices was also revised. Since 2025, quality assessment, customs and transportation costs have been fully excluded from the calculations. Marketing costs have also been excluded when procuring medicines under the GVFMC and MSHI systems.
Trade mark-ups were also reduced. In the retail segment, the mark-up was gradually reduced from 55% in 2022 to 30% in 2026, while under the special procedure it was reduced from 27.5% to 15%. In the wholesale segment, the mark-up under the special procedure was reduced from 10.5% to 10%.
In addition, differentiated pricing for medicines was introduced: the price of a generic medicine must be 30% lower than the price of the original medicine, while the price of a biosimilar must be 10% lower than that of the reference biological medicine. The relevant amendments were established in December 2024 in the rules for setting maximum prices and mark-ups for medicines. Following the revision of the pricing mechanism, maximum prices were reduced by an average of 26.5% for 76% of all medicines. For individual products, the reduction ranged from 10% to more than 90%.
One of the key outcomes of the Agency’s work was the gradual reduction of the scope of state price regulation. In August 2022, maximum prices were set for 7,537 trade names of medicines. As a result of the gradual revision of the list and the transfer of medicines into a competitive environment, prices for 4,994 medicines are currently regulated. In total, 4,918 medicines have been removed from price regulation.
In 2023, 302 over-the-counter medicines were removed from regulation, followed by 952 medicines in 2024. In 2025, the removal of over-the-counter medicines from price regulation was completed, with 1,868 positions excluded from regulation. Since May 2026, an additional 3,050 prescription medicines priced below 1 MCI have been removed from regulation. Full completion of price regulation in the commercial segment is planned for 2027. State price regulation will remain in place only for medicines procured under the GVFMC and MSHI systems.
Following the removal of certain medicines from state price regulation, actual price dynamics were monitored based on data from the medicine labeling system. The Committee for Medical and Pharmaceutical Control compared the selling prices of 2,635 medicines as of 8 August 2025 and July 2026.
Prices for 698 medicines decreased by an average of 26.2%: by up to 20% for 456 positions and by more than 20% for 242 positions. Prices for 1,142 medicines remained unchanged. Price increases were recorded for 795 medicines, averaging 29.9%, including increases of up to 20% for 646 positions and of more than 20% for 149 positions.
Overall, the monitoring results show that prices did not increase significantly following the removal of regulation and confirm the possibility of independent price formation under competitive market conditions. At the same time, price dynamics vary across the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Improvements to the pricing mechanism were accompanied by the reduction of administrative barriers related to bringing medicines and medical devices to the market and by the digitalization of procedures.
Within the framework of the Head of State’s Decree “On Measures for Liberalizing the Economy”, the “Single Window” project is being implemented. It provides for the automation of a number of public services, including price registration, amendments to registration dossiers, expert assessments and the inclusion of medicines in the national drug formulary. The introduction of digital solutions is expected to reduce the time required to bring medicines to the market from several years to 100 business days.
In September 2026, amendments to the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On People’s Health and the Healthcare System” providing for the Ministry of Healthcare to independently approve maximum prices for medicines will enter into force. Thus, the Agency’s participation as a co-regulator in the pricing of medicines and medical devices will come to an end.
This approach is consistent with OECD recommendations on separating the functions of competition authorities and sectoral regulators and is intended to allow the Agency to focus its efforts on ensuring and developing competition.
The Agency will continue monitoring the state of competition in the pharmaceutical market. The use of data from the medicine labeling system will make it possible to monitor price dynamics and the behaviour of market participants, identify signs of unjustified price increases and, where appropriate, take enforcement measures provided for by law.
The Department of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Zhambyl Region reviewed the activities of “Aulie-Ata” International Airport JSC regarding pricing in the sale of aviation fuel.
Based on the analysis of the state of competition and price dynamics conducted by the Department, the antimonopoly authority completed an investigation into the Airport. The investigation established violations of antimonopoly legislation related to the setting of a monopolistically high price for aviation fuel.
The Airport, disagreeing with the results of the investigation, challenged them before the courts of first and second instance. By a ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Administrative Cases of the Zhambyl Regional Court, the results of the investigation were recognized as lawful and justified. During the hearing at the Specialized Court for Administrative Offenses of the city of Taraz, the Airport admitted its guilt.
The company was held administratively liable under Part 3 of Article 159 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses. An administrative fine of KZT 3.2 million was imposed, and monopolistic income in the amount of KZT 25.2 million obtained as a result of monopolistic activity was confiscated.
In addition, the antimonopoly authority issued an order to the Airport to cease violations of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of competition protection. The order requires the Airport to establish an economically justified price.
The Department of the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan (AZRK) in Almaty issued a notification regarding signs of abuse of a dominant position by Chimbulak Development LLP.
An inspection conducted by the APDC found that the company, as the operator of the paid parking facility at the Medeu high-altitude skating rink, had set a fixed parking fee of 500 tenge per hour, regardless of the duration of stay, without providing a guaranteed free parking period.
At the same time, an analysis of the operating conditions of other parking facilities located near major points of attraction showed that a common practice has been established in the city of differentiating parking fees depending on the duration of stay, as well as providing a generally accepted 15-minute free parking period. For example, citizens visiting the Medeu and Shymbulak mountain resorts by private vehicle had to pay 6,000 tenge for 12 hours of parking and 12,000 tenge for 24 hours. In addition, the absence of a free waiting period and alternative parking facilities created inconvenience for citizens whose vehicles were waiting for them upon their descent from the resorts.
The actions of Chimbulak Development LLP created an artificial barrier to citizens' access to public facilities and natural and cultural heritage sites.
Currently, as part of the implementation of the notification, the company has eliminated the identified signs of violation. Starting from September 1, a 15-minute free parking period will be introduced for citizens, while the maximum daily parking fee will be capped at 4,500 tenge. This is in line with generally accepted urban standards.
The Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan (APDC) has completed an analysis of the sugar market in Kazakhstan. The results showed that, as of the end of 2025, the share of imported sugar in the domestic market reached 70.4%, while domestic production accounted for only 29.6% of domestic consumption. This indicates that, despite measures being taken to develop domestic production, Kazakhstan’s sugar industry remains import-dependent. The majority of domestic demand is met through the processing of imported raw cane sugar and supplies of finished imported sugar.
A number of target indicators set out in the Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the Sugar Industry for 2022–2026 and the Concept for the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex have not been achieved. In particular, these include indicators for sugar beet acreage, gross harvest, sugar production and the level of self-sufficiency of the domestic market. At the same time, even the record sugar beet harvest in 2024 did not allow processing enterprises to be fully utilized, as the existing capacity structure is largely oriented towards processing imported raw cane sugar. This indicates that the imbalance between the development of the raw material base and processing capacities persists.
The analysis demonstrated the need to improve the efficiency of the existing sugar exchange trading model by strengthening oversight by the Ministry of Trade and Integration over compliance with the legislation on commodity exchanges. It was established that, for certain domestic producers, an increase in production volumes was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in sales through commodity exchanges. There is also a need to ensure uniform conditions for the circulation of domestic and imported sugar. In addition, individual cases of subsequent export of imported sugar to third countries have been identified, requiring further assessment of the impact of commodity flows on the supply of the domestic market.
Following the analysis, APDC issued 9 notices to wholesale sugar market entities on signs of violations of antimonopoly legislation. Proposals were submitted to the relevant government bodies on developing the domestic raw material base and processing capacities, introducing long-term contracts between sugar factories and sugar beet-producing farms, strengthening oversight of exchange trading, monitoring sugar re-exports, and reducing the domestic market’s dependence on imports. It is proposed that the relevant recommendations be incorporated into the Roadmap for the Development of Competition in the Sugar Market, with the responsible government bodies identified.
The Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan has completed an analysis of the state of competition in the wholesale primary coal market in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2024–2025.
The results of the analysis showed that the wholesale primary coal market is characterized by a high level of concentration, with an almost unchanged oligopolistic market structure and the continued dominance of the same market participants.
During the period under review, the following market participants held dominant positions in the wholesale primary coal market:
Coal for municipal and household needs – the ERG group of companies and JSC “Karazhyra”, with a combined market share of more than 65% (74.8% in 2024 and 67.9% in 2025);
Coal for energy-generating organizations – LLP “Bogatyr Komir” and LLP “Kazakhmys Coal”, with a combined market share of more than 80% (84.1% in 2024 and 81.6% in 2025);
Coal for industrial needs – the ERG group of companies, with a market share of more than 60% (62.3% in 2024 and 69.1% in 2025).
Against the backdrop of the oligopolistic market structure, a significant increase in prices has been observed. On average, nationwide prices for municipal and household coal sold through primary wholesale channels increased by approximately 30–35% over the period from 2022 to 2025, while prices for energy coal increased by 45%.
The high level of market concentration is primarily due to limited access to resources. Currently, all major deposits are allocated among market participants, while long-term contracts valid for 25 years or more are in place, with the possibility of further extension.
Given the unchanged oligopolistic structure of the energy and municipal and household coal markets, measures are required to mitigate the risks of restricting competition in related downstream consumer markets. To address these risks, the Agency has initiated a number of measures, including the introduction of price regulation for energy and municipal and household coal; increasing the share of coal sold through commodity exchanges to 52%; and recognizing off-exchange coal sales volumes as key capacity, followed by transferring such volumes to digital platforms.
The analysis also showed that competition is restricted by differences in contracts with subsoil users regarding the amounts of mandatory payments, as well as by a non-transparent mechanism for granting certain entities exclusive rights to export coal. In addition, market participants have raised concerns regarding the insufficient transparency and predictability of procedures for coordinating transportation plans with JSC “NC “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”, particularly with regard to approval of the transportation of the required volume of goods.
In this regard, the Agency recommended that the authorized bodies establish criteria for inclusion in the list of foreign trade operators granted exclusive rights to export coal, ensure equal conditions for entities operating in the same product market, and increase the transparency of information on the capacity of the railway infrastructure of JSC “NC “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy”.
As part of the analysis, the Agency also identified the following holders of key capacity:
Coal for municipal and household needs – JSC “Shubarkol Komir” and JSC “Karazhyra”;
Coal for energy-generating organizations – LLP “Bogatyr Komir” and LLP “Kazakhmys Coal”;
Coal for industrial needs – JSC “Eurasian Energy Corporation” and JSC “Shubarkol Komir”.
Following the recognition of these entities as holders of key capacity, coal sales will be carried out in accordance with the Rules for Equal Access to Key Capacity.
Against the backdrop of the oligopolistic market structure, a significant increase in prices has been observed. On average, nationwide prices for municipal and household coal sold through primary wholesale channels increased by approximately 30–35% over the period from 2022 to 2025, while prices for energy coal increased by 45%.
Previously, based on the results of the coal wholesale market analysis conducted by the Agency in 2022, signs of abuse of a dominant position by JSC “Karazhyra” were identified. Following the investigation, a violation of antimonopoly legislation was established, and the entity was held administratively liable in the amount of KZT 87.4 million. To date, the court decision has entered into legal force, the fine has been paid voluntarily, and the monopolistic income has been fully confiscated in favor of the state.
If the application of monopoly pricing is identified for a new period, the relevant entities will be subject to antimonopoly enforcement measures.
The Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan has completed an analysis of the state of competition in the road petroleum bitumen market for 2024–2025. One of the key objectives of the analysis was to assess the extent of state participation in the market and the possibility of further reducing it, including through the transfer of certain assets into a competitive environment by means of privatization, without reducing the road sector’s supply of bitumen.
State participation in the market is represented primarily by the group of companies of JSC “NC “KazMunayGas”, as well as by the participation of JSC “Karazhanbasmunay” in the production and distribution chain of products manufactured by LLP “JV “Caspi Bitum”.
A significant role of the state is also evident in production. In 2025, LLP “Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant” and LLP “JV “Caspi Bitum” jointly accounted for approximately 70% of road bitumen production. Taking this structure into account, the Agency assessed opportunities for gradual denationalization, with a mandatory assessment of the impact of such decisions on competition and the stability of supplies to the domestic market.
The analysis also focused on previously identified restrictions. Following the analysis for 2022–2023, the Agency noted the absence, at the legislative level, of a mechanism for administering the allocation of road bitumen volumes and transparent criteria for selecting market participants, which affected the control over the targeted use of bitumen.
In 2026, this gap was addressed. At the legislative level, the authorized body responsible for roads was granted powers, jointly with the national operator, to determine the demand for road bitumen, approve rules for the formation and allocation of volumes, and directly carry out such allocation. The amendments will enter into force in September 2026.
Thus, the mechanism for allocating road bitumen volumes has received a direct legal basis. Further attention in this area should focus on establishing clear and transparent conditions for the allocation of bitumen, ensuring equal access for all market participants, and monitoring the targeted use of allocated bitumen volumes.
At the same time, the issue of monitoring mandatory sales of bitumen through commodity exchanges remains unresolved. Since 2021, the minimum share of petroleum bitumen subject to sale through commodity exchanges has been set at 10% of the total annual volume planned for supply to the domestic market. In practice, only some of the obligated entities conduct exchange-based sales. During the period under review, two producers did not sell bitumen through commodity exchanges.
In the Agency’s view, increasing the share of exchange-based trading not only ensures market-based pricing and equal access to the resource, but also reduces the risks of shadow turnover. In this regard, ensuring effective exchange-based monitoring of compliance with the mandatory sales share by all market participants remains a key outstanding task. Strengthening such monitoring will increase market transparency and ensure a level playing field for competition.
The volume of the cinema distribution services market in Kazakhstan within the analyzed geographical boundaries amounted to KZT 76.2 billion for the period from January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2026. The analysis conducted by the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan covered the activities of more than 60 market participants and identified systemic barriers hindering the development of competition.
The results of the analysis showed that the market is characterized by a high level of concentration. The leading position in the market is held by the Kinopark-Kinoplexx Theatres chain, while the second-largest market participant is Chaplin Cinemas. At the same time, in a number of regions, cinema distribution services are provided by only one or two market participants, indicating a limited level of competition.
One of the key issues is the absence of uniform rules governing interaction between cinemas and film distributors. The terms for granting film screening rights directly affect the ability of cinemas to form their repertoires and viewers’ access to film premieres.
In order to establish transparent and non-discriminatory conditions for conducting business in the market, the Agency for Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan proposed developing rules for carrying out cinema distribution activities, approving a standard agreement between distributors and cinemas, and improving market monitoring mechanisms.
The implementation of the proposed measures will ensure equal access of market participants to film content, increase the transparency of interaction between cinemas and distributors, and create conditions for the further development of fair competition in the cinema distribution sector.
Conclusion: https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/zk/documents/details/1052402?lang=ru
The mission of experts from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), dedicated to discussing and verifying the preliminary results of a study of Kazakhstan's regulatory environment using the Product Market Regulation (PMR) methodology, has ended.
The PMR methodology is an internationally recognized analytical tool that makes it possible to assess the level of regulatory barriers to entry into commodity markets and the degree of government influence on the development of competition.
The study was the first comprehensive review of Kazakhstan's regulatory environment since 2018, which covers the institutional reforms carried out during this period.
As part of the mission, the experts held a series of working meetings with representatives of government agencies and organizations. During the consultations, the preliminary findings of the diagnostic report and the approaches used in conducting the PMR assessment were presented.
Special attention was paid to the issues of law enforcement practice in the areas of state ownership, corporate governance, public procurement, licensing and the administrative burden on businesses. In addition, the experts examined in detail regulatory barriers in key sectors of the economy, including the electric power industry, the gas industry, telecommunications, rail, road and aviation transport, as well as digital markets.
"The PMR study is not just statistics, but the basis for further reforms. Our goal is to eliminate hidden barriers, increase regulatory transparency and create truly equal conditions for all market participants," said Rustam Akhmetov, First Deputy Chairman of the APDC.
Preliminary indicators for Kazakhstan have already been formed. During the mission, the experts verified the collected data, as well as clarified certain provisions of regulatory regulation in cooperation with relevant government agencies and organizations. The obtained results will become an analytical basis for further improvement of the state policy in the field of competition development and will allow taking into account the recommendations of international experts in the preparation of subsequent reforms.
The next stage will be the completion of the study. The experts will review the questionnaires based on the information received during the working meetings, which will ensure the most objective assessment of Kazakhstan's regulatory environment in comparison with the OECD countries and other developing economies.
The project is of an interdepartmental nature and is being implemented with the active coordination of the Office of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.