ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 4. In pursuit of further improving the business climate, Kazakhstan is undertaking efforts to implement a new regulatory policy aimed at entrepreneurs, the country's Economy Minister Alibek Kuantyrov said at a government meeting, Trend reports.
In particular, as he said, these steps include the removal of excessive and outdated requirements. Additionally, the economy minister noted that the automation of risk management systems across all areas of government control and supervision is underway. This will enable business inspections to be conducted without human involvement starting from January 1, 2024. It is expected that as a result, the number of planned inspections will be reduced by half.
Furthermore, Kuantyrov added that the number of active small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country increased by 23.4 percent to approximately 2 million enterprises last year. The overall employment in this sector grew by over 18 percent and reached 4.1 million people. Currently, around 40 percent of all employed individuals in the economy work in the SME sector. The volume of production by SMEs also experienced a 28 percent growth, exceeding 59 trillion Kazakh tenge ($132.4 billion).
In turn, Alikhan Smailov, Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, who chaired the meeting, emphasized that the development of entrepreneurship is one of the strategic directions for the country's socio-economic development. By 2030, the share of small and medium-sized businesses in the economy is expected to exceed 40 percent.
According to the prime minister, various measures of financial and other support are provided to businesses. In just five months of the current year, over 6,000 projects have been subsidized, amounting to approximately 440 billion Kazakh tenge ($987 million) in total loans. Additionally, more than 4,000 projects have already been guaranteed, totaling 144 billion Kazakh tenge ($323.2 million).
