The regular meeting of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov with representatives of medium-sized businesses was held in Ukimet Uyi. Entrepreneurs from Karaganda and East Kazakhstan regions, as well as Abay and Ulytau regions took part in it on this occasion.

The Minister of Industry and Infrastructural Development Marat Karabayev reported that Kazakhstan's enterprises have the opportunity to increase the supply of manufacturing products to the domestic market by more than $46 billion. In particular, there is a strong demand for oil and gas engineering products (valves, pumps, equipment), construction materials (wallpaper, linoleum, laminate, ceramics), clothing and footwear, fertilizers, etc. 

To support and stimulate entrepreneurs, the Government is taking measures to develop infrastructure, provide preferential financing and conclude offtake contracts, under which domestic producers can receive tax benefits, subsidies and other types of support.

During the meeting, representatives of medium-sized businesses talked about their activities and raised a number of problematic issues. Thus, they presented projects on construction of a hot-dip galvanizing plant for metal products with a capacity of more than 40 thousand tons of products per year; creation of a livestock breeding complex for 10 thousand cattle with a slaughterhouse, refrigerated warehouses, further processing of meat and sale of sausages; construction of a training center for alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding with artificial snowing, as well as a number of others.

At the same time, the issues of preferential lending and subsidies, fodder harvesting, construction of roads, wholesale and distribution centers and vegetable storage facilities were discussed. In addition, the issues of development of resort areas of lakes Alakol and Balkhash were discussed in detail.

In particular, the Alakol Kazakhstan LLP director Yelena Assylbekova spoke about the need to ensure stable power supply to tourist facilities, central water supply and sewerage, expansion of air service, as well as improving the quality of communication and Internet in recreation areas. 

Sheep breeding development was another topical topic. Yerlan Mukashev, Head of Eurasia Agro Semey LLP, noted the high potential for increasing the number of sheep to 50-100 million heads with the parallel development of raw material processing. According to him, it can move Kazakhstan into the category of the largest exporters of sheep, lamb meat and mutton. The entrepreneur also voiced the idea of creating a national brand of Kazakhstani lamb and mutton, asking for comprehensive support of the relevant business initiative through key authorized government agencies. 

Prime Minister emphasized that Karaganda region, East Kazakhstan region, Abay and Ulytau regions have a huge potential for the development of medium-sized businesses. In general, over 17 thousand projects have been covered by various measures of state support in these regions over the past three years.

"In terms of entrepreneurship, we have good dynamics. The share of SMEs in the economy has grown to 36.5%, and the number of people employed in this sphere has increased by 18%. We must support this trend through the solution of specific pressing problems that business raises," Alikhan Smailov said. 

Head of the Government added that at present the excessive regulatory requirements for business are being reduced in the republic, as well as the automation of state control and supervision, which will make it possible to appoint inspections without human participation based on risk management systems as early as next year. This will reduce the number of inspections and increase their effectiveness in general. 

In conclusion, Prime Minister instructed the authorized government agencies to carefully study the proposals voiced by entrepreneurs and to work out a solution to the problematic issues raised during the meeting.

#Alikhan Smailov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #SME