January 17 was held a meeting chaired by the vice president of “Atameken” Eldos Ramazanov where authorities discussed issues on the regulation of land management. Vice minister of agriculture,  Erlan Nysanbaev, vice-president of the committee on natural resources management of the ministry of agriculture of the republic of Kazakhstan, Gulzhan Bimendina and other industry associations and business community representatives took part in the meeting. 

“Today will be discussed the most urgent business issues in land management field, and we invited the ministry of agriculture’s administration to find the approach to solve them” – said Eldos Ramazanov, opening the meeting.

The first issues on the agenda were entrepreneurs’ problems concerning land management works in a competitive environment, connected with privileged situation of state corporation “Government for citizens”.  According to the report of the constructions department director of national chamber, entrepreneurs are not able to compete with the corporation; they are obliged to negotiate with the corporation all land use designs.

“To provide above-mentioned service to the customer, entrepreneur must get permission from the ministry of agriculture to use the land coordinates and after that he must fix up its borders with the land cadastre database so the corporation won’t request any permissions”- said Aspena Dosmaganova.

According to Gulzhan Bimendina, we must not exclude negotiation process because it may lead to land disputes.

“Relating to coordinate system, I think that only the owners of the land care for them. So let them monitor, analyse and do the math. In general I think that this coordinates issue burdens business, and it must be provided as a state service”- expressed his opinion Seryk Rustambekov, the vice president of the national chamber of projectors.

The vice president of the department for land management and control of the capital administration’s lands, Sultan Bolat added that it is necessary to reconsider the whole procedure.

“We agree upon the situation but we should reconsider not only the time frame but also its functions, engagement acceptance process and all the documents”- said Sultan Bolat.

The ministry expressed its agreement with the suggestions.

“All suggestions and questions are relevant for the business. We absolutely agree with them and ready to reconsider them together. The time frame must be changed, this issue will be discussed along with “Atameken” and other responsible bodies”- underlined Erlan Nysanbaev.

So Atameken’s offer on the land management reduction of term was approved by all members of the meeting, and the ministry was recommended to fix it with the state bodies. Business will be delivered from unnecessary spending.

The second one was a problem of changes in land purposiveness. It is worth saying that “Atameken” tries to achieve a legal opportunity for business actors to pay by instalments for the changes in land purposiveness.

“The legislation allows entrepreneur to buy a land parcel by instalments, for example, for 10 years. So why don’t they give such payment by instalments in case of the land parcel purposiveness change? This would reduce the burden from the entrepreneur and would stimulate business development”- said Aspena Dosmaganova.

Bolat Sultan also commented on the situation. “We have a task to simplify the procedure of land parcel purposiveness change.  This procedure was frequently changed and today it is really complicated. Concerning the payment by instalments, we consider this innovation not helpful and we need to examine this issue thoroughly”.

Eldos Ramazanov added that this procedure must be well-examined. In its turn, the state body supported “Atameken” suggestions.

“Concerning this issue, we will carefully examine all possible risks for entrepreneur and local administration.  We will consider the optimization of land parcels assignment order, excluding unnecessary procedures and documents”- said Erlan Nysanbaev.

During the meeting it was said about the reclaiming of land parcels, that were meant for the construction and the problem of entrepreneur’s expenditures connected with the withdrawal of uncultivated land parcels.

As it was noted in the report of construction expert, Nazira Usenova, nowadays the legislation doesn’t establish criteria on the cultivation of the land parcel, that’s why there is no common legal practice. And as a result, there is a risk of land parcel withdrawal with a huge tax burden and no opportunity to own your land.

“Nowadays this burden existence, registered in justice department, doesn’t allow the owner of the land parcel to cultivate it or to sell it to someone else”- noted Usenova.

Abzal Malahanov, ministry for investments and development of the republic of Kazakhstan committee on construction, housing and utilities services representative, supported “Atameken” suggestion on the withdrawal order and expressed his readiness to issue a full documentation package for the construction and land parcel.

Association of property developers of the republic of Kazakhstan fully supported above –mentioned issues. As the result of the meeting the ministry of agriculture approved the following suggestions from “Atameken”: the assignment of the land parcel for construction purposes with all necessary documentation package, time frame for the rent of the land parcel for the construction at least 3 years, land inspection’s obligation to inform tax body and justice department on tax burden reduction.

“I ask everyone to send their issues to “Atameken” within 3 days for the further consideration by the Ministry of agriculture”- said Eldos Ramazanov.

At the end of the meeting vice-president of the board and vice minister signed the protocol on a jointed cooperation.