BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6. Kazakhstan intends to increase the number of employed people in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to 4.7 million people by 2029, Trend reports via the Office of Kazakhstan's Prime Minister.
The matter was discussed at a meeting of the Republican Headquarters chaired by Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov.
According to First Vice-Minister of the National Economy, Timur Zhaksylykov, the local business demonstrated positive growth dynamics in all key indicators in 2022: the share of SMEs in the economy reached 36 percent, which is 2.5 percent more than in 2021, the number of operating entities reached 1.8 million, an increase of 22 percent year-over-year, and the number of people employed in SMEs reached 4.1 million, which is 16 percent more than in 2021.
In terms of regions, the highest growth in the number of people employed in SMEs was observed in Almaty at 26 percent, Astana at 15 percent, the Turkestan region and Shymkent at 16 percent, and the Kyzylorda region at 14 percent.
Meanwhile, the lowest growth was recorded in the Pavlodar region at 0.3 percent, the North Kazakhstan region at 1 percent, and the Kostanay region at 2.6 percent.
As part of the financial support tools for businesses, 24,500 projects were subsidized last year, with a total loan amount of over 990 billion Kazakh tenge ($2.2 billion), while the amount of subsidies paid exceeded 181 billion Kazakh tenge ($408.3 million).
In addition, 834 grants were provided to small and micro-business entities for the implementation of new business ideas, amounting to over 3 billion Kazakh tenge ($6.7 million). A total of 18.3 billion Kazakh tenge ($41.2 million) were allocated for the development of missing infrastructure for the implementation of 41 projects.
