Businesses can suspend work, but not all will risk to close or to go bankrupt

Such an opinion was expressed by Deputy Secretary of the Committee of development of SME of NCE RK "Atameken" Irina Tyugina.

"In the period of crisis some SMEs may suspend their activities, but the surge of the number of closed or bankrupt enterprises will not be significant for several reasons. In the first place, the procedure of bankruptcy for individual entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan is not stipulated by the law, and so individual entrepreneurs can’t take advantage of it. A procedure of closure today remains unattractive for entrepreneurs because of its complexity", - commented Irina Tyugina.

Let’s change the reference point

According to her, small businesses engaged in trade, in view of their mobility are likely to reorient to cheaper and lower-quality products and will work with the markets of the nearest neighbors (China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, and others.)

"It is not the first time that entrepreneurship face the crisis of the economy. The experience of the crisis in 2008 - 2009, most likely, businesses in the near future will prefer to shift to "standby" mode”, - said the deputy secretary of the Committee of development of SME.

According to Tyugina, NCE RK "Atameken" in this situation is going to support SMEs, which will focus on training to effective business management, namely, cost optimization, higher productivity, the introduction of efficient production, business cooperation, etc. However, she stressed that the state should provide specific support in this direction in the form of allocation of funds for education, training of entrepreneurs.

Any crisis always brings new opportunities

In this respect, according to the representative of NCE, "the business should take advantage of the crisis period for the introduction of effective and innovative industries, to optimize costs in order to increase productivity of the companies".

Good help for entrepreneurs in the new crisis conditions of Kazakhstan's economy is unified program of support and business development "Business Road Map-2020", which includes instruments and non-financial support.

"Despite the crisis, the demand for non-financial support measures with the program increased. For example, 35 thousand SMEs received service support assistance in 2015. Over 200 thousand services were rendered at business support centers for businesses and individuals with an entrepreneurial initiative. over 15 thousand novice businessmen were trained at business schools. In addition to the provision of advisory services, the centers for servicing entrepreneurs and business support centers provide free assistance to entrepreneurs in obtaining funding within the state programs, including the program on support and development of entrepreneurship “Business Road Map 2020", - said the deputy head of the Secretariat.

The demand for domestic products

Speaking about the state of SMEs in Kazakhstan, Irina Tyugina reported that, according to official statistics (as of January 1, 2016), the rate of registered SMEs has decreased in comparison with 2014 by 8.1% (135,775 entities) and amounted to 1,666,116 entities.

In comparison with 2014 year the number of registered legal entities increased by 2.3% to 300,643 units, the number of individual entrepreneurs decreased by 11.8% to 1,040,767 units, peasant farms - 188 931 units, a decline of 1.9 %.

The number of operating SMEs in 2015, compared with the year 2014 decreased by 45,578 units (3.4%) and amounted to 1,289,683 units.

In comparison with the year 2014 the number of active LE increased by 14.3% (178,576 units), the number of individual entrepreneurs decreased by 6.2% (930,077 units), the number of peasant farms fell by 3.3% (181,030 units).

In terms of economic activity in the total number of operating SMEs, the relative share of SMEs is: individual entrepreneurs - 72.1%, peasant farms 14.1%, LE - 13.8%.

At the same time the number of people employed in SMEs on 01.10.2015 totaled 3,214,937 people, compared to the same period of 2014, the growth rate was 10.9% (316 651 people).

In terms of economic activity the share of employment in SMEs is as follows: LE - 45.4%, individual entrepreneurs - 45.6%, peasant farms - 9.0%.

In addition, the rate of production by October 1, 2015 increased by 2.7% (426,337 people), compared with the October 1, 2014, and amounted to 10,558,763 mln.

In terms of economic activity the share of SMEs in output was: LE - 84%, individual entrepreneurs - 10.7%, peasant farms - 5.3%.

"Thus, though the number of active companies reduced in 2015, employment in SMEs and output have increased. This indicates an increase in demand for domestic products due to the fact that the imported products are expensive and become less competitive", - summed up Deputy Secretary of the Committee of NCE RK Irina Tyugina.