Baku, Azerbaijan, October 18
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved over 20,000 loans within the framework of bank’s Women in Business (WiB) program implemented in Kazakhstan, a source in EBRD told Trend.
According to Kazakh Statistics Committee, as of the beginning of 2019, the number of country’s citizens exceeded 18.395 million people, 8.913 million of them being men and 9.482 million of them being women. Total number of those employed was 8.732 million in 1Q2019, including 4.509 million men and 4.222 million women. In turn, the number of those employed in private entrepreneurship was 812,600 men and 742,300 women.
The WiB program in Kazakhstan was launched in 2015 and since then it has become one of the main tools for support of women of micro, small and medium entrepreneurship.
“As of June 30, 2019, 21,486 WiB loans with a total value of 30.057 billion (approximately $77.132 million) were disbursed to Kazakh women-led enterprises by six EBRD partner banks,” a source in the bank said.
The EBRD assistance does not only consist of providing loans. Since the launch of the program, EBRD has organized 22 special seminars and training events, which were attended by almost 1,100 women entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship development is one of the main targets Kazakhstan’s government. With this in mind, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC has been established. Furthermore, previously this year, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has mandated to temporarily exempt local ventures of micro and small business from paying taxes related to main activities for three years.
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