Chairman of Atameken Board Ablay Myrzakhmetov spoke about the state of entrepreneurial activity at the meeting of the National Investors Council.

He noted that the main factor of entrepreneurial activity is the supremacy of the law and protection of property rights.

 “Atameken jointly with the Supreme Court analyzed more than two thousand decisions and prepared clear case algorithms. Considering these algorithms, the Supreme Court, despite the absence of case law, will be able to determine a benchmark for all courts in the country. Moreover, our specialists conduct training seminars for judges, they actively increase their competence for further objective and balanced decisions in tax disputes of entrepreneurs,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

The redundancy of legislation remains a problem for business,

The key problem for business is too much new regulatory acts, only last year more than 10 thousand regulatory acts were adopted in Kazakhstan.

 “It is necessary to conduct an audit of the legislation, remove redundant norms and restrict numerous amendments,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

He focused on the digitalization of services for entrepreneurs. Atameken is working on the implementation of the Government for business project to provide all necessary state services to entrepreneurs in e-format via a single window.

 “There are more than 50 state support measures and at the same time there are more than 90 operators of these processes. It is time to create a special service for their optimization and we are ready to act as an operator. In two regions, this work has already been launched and all services can be received online. First of all, it is necessary to transfer services for land acquisition and link to engineering networks into e-format. At the same time, the whole process of service rendering should be automated, there should be no interaction with the state officials,” he said.

Atameken also proposes to conduct a detailed audit of the permitted activities for state-owned companies with the involvement of independent experts.

“The state-owned companies are authorized to be engaged in 347 types of activities. There are about 6.5 thousand quasi-entities - LLPs and JSCs. We believe that the time has come to conduct a full audit of these activities on the principle of yellow pages, to prepare a list of responsibilities: what the state should do and what functions can be effectively transferred to the market,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

One of the key issues is lack of personnel in enterprises. The special emphasis should be placed on the development of mass entrepreneurship, teaching doing business at schools and universities. Since September 1 of this year, at the initiative of Atameken the subject "Basics of Entrepreneurship" will be taught for students of 10-11 grades.

“The entrepreneurs themselves are actively involved in this process. We also proposed to carry out career-oriented work in secondary schools. These offers will allow students and their parents to have an idea about business and make an informed choice of profession. The methodology of vocational guidance is ready for implementation in all schools,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

Almost 500 thousand students study in colleges. Atameken proposes to introduce college rankings based on the actual level of employment of graduates. It should be the basis for the distribution of state orders.  At the same time, a third of the allocated budget for state order should be sent to reimbursement of enterprises for industrial training organization. This will be a direct economic incentive for employers to develop a dual education.

“We need to reanimate the system of professional development and retraining of personnel. Some universities and colleges are engaged in such training, but their programs are not focused on the needs of the market and entrepreneurs, and are mainly aimed at top managers. Therefore, at the first stage, a system of advanced training and retraining is proposed to be organized for working professions on the basis of training centers at advanced enterprises,” he said.

It is also required to continue work on improving business climate at the regional level, the speaker said. This concerns the issues of access to free land plots and obtaining technical conditions.

 “We need to centrally set the requirements for development and execution of urban planning documentation, because the akimats constantly introduce changes into it. Each region has its own specifics, but local executive bodies do not always define free niches that can be used: which facilities and resources to use for business development. If we finish the screening by next year, it will be possible to takeapply it to regional development programs,”Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive and systematic work in two directions to increase the competitiveness of domestic producers. The first one is a reasonable import substitution: assess potential of domestic demand and effective use of measures to protect the domestic market, including the potential of regulated procurement and domestic trade. The second direction is the promotion of export through the integrated support of domestic enterprises in exchange for reciprocal obligations.

 “State support measures, including tax preferences, concessional financing, reimbursement of expenses and others should be provided to business in exchange for counter-obligations to increase production, localization, jobs and export, which are fixed in a special investment contract. The consolidation of requirements in the contract will push enterprises to modernize, improve product quality and management efficiency, which will allow them to export later, thereby creating “national champions,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

He identified the problem of access to funding. According to Atameken, in 2018 corporate lending decreased by 4.6%, and loans to small businesses by 15%.

“More than 80% of individual entrepreneurs do not have access to lending, and therefore a microcredit program needs to be developed. The state has supported this direction and now we need to actively involve private business in the program,” Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.

In conclusion, Ablay Myrzakhmetov focused on the responsibility of business.

“The state has provided and provides great support for various programs, but the responsibility of the business itself is no less important. Entrepreneurs should be responsible for creating jobs and having good faith. The main thing for us is to conduct a practical, rational policy of supporting the domestic industry, domestic business, and business will certainly respond with taxes and jobs, ”Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.