Member of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Member of the Committee on Economic Reform and Regional Development of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Rakhimzhanov Amerkhan also took part.
The parties considered issues of state support measures for small and medium-sized businesses after the pandemic in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
According to Kairat Torebayev, Kazakhstan's foreign trade in 2021 increased by 3.8% ($101.5 billion) compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
“We are actively cooperating with the countries of the Council of Turkic-Speaking States (CCTS) and there is a positive trend in the growth of trade. For the first quarter of this year, trade turnover increased by 53.3% and amounted to $2.8 billion (3 months of 2021 - $1.8 billion), Kairat Torebaev said.
It is noted that Kazakhstan is ready to increase the volume of supplies of export goods to the CCTS countries for 130 commodity items in the amount of $588.1 million.
“We have the opportunity to increase the supply of products from the metallurgical), petrochemical, food, chemical, machine-building, construction goods, light industry, pharmaceutical, and transport industries,” the Vice Minister said.
At the same time, Torebaev Kairat spoke about the current measures of state support for SMEs.
Thus, within the framework of the acceleration program (“QazTrade Accelerator”), the number of participants will increase from 101 to 190 enterprises, the number of gold accounts will also be increased to 70 companies. As part of promoting the export of domestic processed products, in 2021 and 2022. organized a number of events aimed at increasing trade with the Turkic countries. Since the beginning of 2022, 2 trade and economic missions have been organized in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
As noted by the Kazakh side, SMEs are planning to participate in more than 12 trade and economic missions, 4 international exhibitions in the format of a national stand, in 10 specialized exhibitions, as well as in major exhibitions Prodexpo and the International Exhibition of Imported Goods in Shanghai.
“On an ongoing basis, work is being carried out to simplify the rules for reimbursement of part of the costs of exporters. For example, the latest amendments have reduced the volume of required documents by 40%. An innovation of this year was the reimbursement of part of the costs for exporters of IT services. Thus, it is planned to increase the volume of non-commodity exports only through non-financial measures by $1.1 billion,” said Kairat Torebaev.
Moreover, in order to strengthen state support measures, a tool has been developed to subsidize the interest rate on loans issued and leasing transactions made by second-tier banks, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, and other legal entities. This mechanism will reduce the trade finance rate.
Also, in order to enter new markets, changes have been made to the Rules for reimbursement of part of the costs of exporters when moving to foreign markets, which are being agreed upon by state bodies.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed to exchange experience in supporting the development of SMEs in the countries, as well as to develop trade and economic cooperation.
