ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 12. The volume of state support for business amounted to 7 trillion tenge (about $15.1 billion) for 2015–2021 and exceeded the amount of tax revenue from supported companies (4.5 trillion tenge, or about $9.7 billion) by 1.5 times, said President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at a meeting with representatives of local businesses, Trend reports.
"Particular attention must be paid to the following aspect. In some cases, the purpose of creating a business is the opportunity to receive government support, not the entrepreneurial activity itself. As a result, the economic return from government support measures is disproportionate to the amount of budget resources spent," he said.
Tokayev noted that this practice is repeated from year to year. Previous attempts to change approaches to business incentives have failed.
"Therefore, I instruct the government to ensure a qualitative reboot of the mechanisms of support measures," he added.
In Kazakhstan, there is a state program for business support and development. The program implements government support instruments in the form of subsidizing part of the interest rate on loans and financial leasing agreements and guaranteeing loans.
In addition, the program provides for the issuance of government grants and training for entrepreneurs, aimed at supporting and developing small and medium-sized businesses in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The goals of the program are to ensure sustainable and balanced growth of regional entrepreneurship as well as maintain existing and create new permanent jobs.