05/02/2024
- Who We Are
The head of state, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, delivered an annual Address to the people of Kazakhstan on September 1, in which he paid special attention to supporting business and reforming the quasi-public sector.
According to the President, the new economic course of Kazakhstan should be based on seven basic principles:
Equitable distribution of benefits and responsibilities.
The leading role of private enterprise.
Fair competition, opening markets for a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Increased productivity, increased complexity and technological effectiveness of the economy.
Development of human capital, investment in a new type of education.
"Greening" the economy, environmental protection.
Adoption of well-grounded decisions by the state and responsibility for them before society.
It should be noted that some of the principles proposed by the Head of State are the tasks set for the Baiterek holding.
The head of state noted that the Government will have to determine strategically important production facilities, key export priorities, and significantly expand the toolkit of support measures.
- For strategic projects, package provision of in-kind grants, concessional financing, partial guarantees, and export support mechanisms should be envisaged. Some of the capital expenditures of investors can be recovered by offset against tax liabilities. It is important to provide for guaranteed procurement from the state, quasi-state sectors and subsoil users, - said Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.
It should be noted that the export support of enterprises is one of the strategic directions of the Baiterek holding. Such support is provided through subsidiaries of the Holding - the Export Insurance Company KazakhExport and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan. So, for six months of 2020, 49 exporters received insurance support from KazakhExport in the amount of 26.4 billion tenge, and trade and pre-export financing was carried out for 18.5 billion tenge. This year, nine projects worth 40.3 billion tenge received pre-export financing through DBK.
Small and Medium Business Support
The Head of State paid special attention to small and medium-sized businesses, which today are going through difficult times, in fact, having taken the brunt of the pandemic. To overcome the negative economic consequences, tax breaks were provided to more than 700 thousand entrepreneurs. Deferred payments, given the opportunity to refinance loans on favorable terms.
- However, the situation is still difficult. As an additional aid to small and medium-sized businesses, I am instructing to provide state subsidies for interest rates of up to 6% per annum on all existing loans to SMEs in the affected sectors of the economy. The subsidies will cover the period of 12 months, starting from the moment of the announcement of the state of emergency, that is, from March 16 of this year, - noted Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.
Also, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered to suspend until the end of the year the calculation of rent for SMEs on real estate objects owned by government agencies and the quasi-public sector. Support for entrepreneurship, the President believes, also means special attention to medium-sized business, which contains the key components of market success.
- Such companies should be focused not only on the domestic but also on foreign markets. Their export support should be strengthened. I instruct the Government to launch an export acceleration program aimed at medium-sized non-resource enterprises in order to provide targeted support from idea to result, '' Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized.
The main result of the work on the development of SMEs should be an increase by 2025 of its share in GDP to 35%, and the number of employees - to 4 million people.
It should be noted that the Baiterek holding, one might say, has become one of the main financial operators of the Government in the big task of supporting small and medium-sized businesses. The conductor of the relevant ideas is the subsidiary company of the holding - the Entrepreneurship Development Fund "Damu", which supported 6.8 thousand projects for 239.2 billion tenge in the first half of this year.
Ensuring financial affordability of housing
It should be noted that the social well-being of citizens is inextricably linked, first of all, with the housing issue. According to Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, effective social support will be provided to citizens with incomes insufficient to independently resolve housing issues.
- This year the program "5-10-25" began to work. 390 billion tenge were allocated. The implementation of this program must be constantly monitored by the Government, the Head of State noted.
The President emphasized that the housing problems of the waiting list should be solved more quickly. Now the akimats independently build rental housing for them. Due to budgetary and procurement procedures, this takes a long time.
- The time has come to make changes to this scheme. Funds should be directed not only to construction, but also to subsidize rent. In the first year, the coverage of this measure will increase 10 times, more than one hundred thousand families will receive specific assistance. I instructed Otbasy Bank to streamline this work, which is being created on the basis of Zhilstroysberbank. The bank's management is personally responsible for this issue, the Head of State said.
It is worth noting that the subsidiary company Zhilstroisberbank JSC ranks first in long-term tenge deposits of the population, the total amount of which has reached more than 876 billion tenge today, 172.3 billion tenge Zhilstroisberbank issued in the first half of this year.
Reform of quasi-state companies
The head of state dwelled on the role of the Baiterek and KazAgro holdings. According to the President, these companies have made a tangible contribution to the industrialization industry and the development of the agro-industrial complex and put in order the work of institutions in these industries.
- Now we are in different conditions. Changing the institutional formation is a requirement of the times. Therefore, these two holdings should be merged, - said Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev.
He noted that in this way it will be possible to create a new development institution with broader financial capabilities. At the same time, the number of portfolio companies and staff should be cut in half.
We emphasize that the Baiterek holding is currently, on behalf of the President, working to optimize the housing block by merging three subsidiaries (Baiterek Development, Kazakhstan Mortgage Company and the Housing Construction Guarantee Fund) and creating a Single Operator for Housing Construction. Optimization of the housing block will reduce administrative costs by more than 40%. The staffing of subsidiaries will also be optimized, including the management staff by almost 3 times.
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