The head of the Secretariat of the Trade Committee of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" Zhibek Azhibaeva stated about the need to develop a sectoral program for trade, assuming funding or participation of the sector in various state programs.

However, she emphasized that this is not about issuing any grants: financial means of this sector can be granted on return basis.

"Practice shows that the sphere of trade is city-forming. If we want to be one of the most promising and fastest growing sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan, which is successfully developed, then it is necessary to invest in the sphere of commerce, its infrastructure, because the volume of goods that is produced must be promptly and economically sold", - says Zhibek Azhibaeva.

According to her, sales networks, involved in the sale of agricultural products, should be in the general system of state support for the construction and modernization of storage facilities, warehouses, workshops for processing. This will reduce losses, increase the efficiency of sales and maintain the stability of the pricing policy.

The head of the core business unit of NCE RK "Atameken" considers that it is necessary to develop interdepartmental communication to solve the problems of logistics and transport, providing small technology for processing, packaging, packaging and this work should be systematic.

Head of the Secretariat of the Trade Committee of NCE RK believes that the cause of the problems of trade industry is poor work of the Ministry of national economy of Kazakhstan, which should specifically address issues of development. Today, when the countries struggle for markets, there is a war of brands and trade marks, our Government should think about rendering state support to the trade industry. According to Zhibek Azhibaeva, foreign brands by peaceful means through advertising, promotions, promotion through the media affect consumer preferences and "put the national economy on its knees".

"If we give preference to branded goods, we should know that in the fight against domestic goods imported ones win anyway. Therefore, you need to pay serious attention to advertising of domestic goods, to work actively with the commercial networks, and on equal basis, not by intimidation, punishment, pressure, etc. There must be an equal union of producers and retailers, and today we must work together to think joint efforts can attract consumers", - said the representative of NCE RK "Atameken".

According to her, we are lagging behind this issue for 20 years, and today, on the threshold of joining the WTO, we revealed many shortcomings (which were detected earlier by domestic business). And in connection with the entry of Kyrgyzstan to EAEU, the competitive environment gets even tougher. And in this case, according to Zhibek Azhibaeva, business needs to hear a clear, coherent stance of the Ministry of National Economy, because a lot depends on its actions.

"Currently, almost half - 49% - of sales premises of the Republic are bazaars and markets. Lots of fair criticism come from consumers. But the lack of vertical communication of the Ministry of National Economy and local executive authorities did not allow to conduct appropriate checks. In akimats of cities and regions there are no departments or specialist dealing with the development of trade in the region. Meanwhile, this is an area, which provides an employment to the majority of the population", - says Zh. Azhibaeva

The basic format of trade companies in Kazakhstan is traditional, but does not meet the requirements of current reality “shop at the corner”. On average, the share of these stores among commercial enterprises is 41%, and in the general fund of retail space (i.e. including markets) - 21%.

According to Zhibek Azhibaeva, the share of modern trade enterprises in the country is only 17% of the total fund of retail space. The share of consolidarity of retail space, that is, affiliation of retail facilities to retail distribution networks in the country is 10.6%, which, compared with the developed countries of the world, is very small. For example, in Russia the figure is 35%, in Belarus - 30%.

The world leader in the degree of consolidation of retail trade is Norway - 95% of retail space is included networks. In England - 86%, France - 85%, Germany - 84%, Switzerland - 68% in the US - 65%.

"A feature of the sphere of internal trade of developed countries is that retail trade to 80% -85% is controlled by internal networks. In general, the business infrastructure of the Republic of Kazakhstan is characterized by extremely low retail space per 1,000 people - only 412 square meters. m. The deficit of retail space, in turn, leads to a high cost of rent. Tenants are forced to deduct these costs from final consumers, that is from ordinary people due to high retail margins", - said Zhibek Azhibaeva.

The expert believes that the problem of small volumes of construction and, accordingly, offer small amounts of new retail space is connected, first of all, to the high cost of debt financing.

"For retail trade business in Kazakhstan to address infrastructure problems, the average cost of a loan at the rate of 15% -18% a year is excessive. As the bank in 4.5 years obliges to return the loan amount, which is nearly two fold (i.e. 100% growth). Meanwhile, it is known that investing in infrastructural pays off in decades", - commented the representative of NCE. The need to develop efficient and modern retail formats is the fact that they differ in the effectiveness of sales, lower unit costs, lower prices, higher quality of service and quality control of goods.

As noted Zhibek Azhibaeva, NCE proposes to introduce financial measures of state support for retail trade in the years 2015-2019. These include, in particular, interest rate subsidies on loans for the purchase and maintenance of the necessary commercial equipment; partial guarantee (up to 50%) for loans for the construction of new shopping facilities; subsidizing 50% of one-time and recurring payments, aimed at the acquisition and operation of franchise retail chains.

It was also proposed to subsidize 50% of spending, aimed at the development of engineering and logistical infrastructure, shopping facilities, the allocation of land from the state reserve for free use and any long-term lease, etc.

"We must form a new paradigm of relations of local authorities, government agencies and consumers to trade as an equal partner of the industry, giving a high economic effect", - concluded Zhibek Azhibaeva.

Karlygash ZHUSUPBEKOVA