The Chairman of the Board of Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs told about the new information system called Industry.

The Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs together with the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced the creation of a new information-analytical system of the manufacturing industry.

The Chairman of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs Ablay Myrzakhmetov shared his vision of the need for such a system and plans for its development in an interview with inbusiness.kz.

- Ablay Isabekovich, tell us why we need the Industry information system?

- Each economic decision of the Government is based on data analysis. This could be statistical data, population or business surveys, international best practices, scientific evidence, etc. Therefore, the quality of these data directly affects the correctness and effectiveness of the decisions made.

Industrial policy is not an exception. The state faces the task of diversifying its economy. The share of the manufacturing industry in the GDP structure is growing, but the pace is not fast enough: today it is 11.9%. We must admit that in the digitalization era, we constantly need the most up-to-date and detailed data. We can no longer be satisfied with aggregated data from statistics.

To solve the problematic issues that hinder the development of non-raw materials industries, the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Atameken are constantly working directly with representatives of the business community and accredited industry associations, and based on the results of this analysis we developed the specific measures.

But this work format has several drawbacks.

First of all, the opinions and data of all enterprises are not always taken into account when carrying out the preparatory analytical work, as the accredited associations do not cover 100% of the enterprises in the industry.

Secondly, the input data are often irrelevant or not exhaustive enough to carry out a qualitative analysis. For example, at present, there are little or unavailable data on such indicators as production capacity, actual load, localization level, import of raw materials and components, etc.

Third, the abovementioned format of work implies high time costs both for the state body and business representatives, for example, for meetings, working meetings, telephone consultations, business trips, etc.

There is another example. Today, various measures of state support of business are envisaged for the development of the country's non-raw materials sectors, such as preferential crediting, reimbursement of expenses for productivity increase, export insurance, and many others. In total, there are more than 50 support instruments available to manufacturing enterprises. According to estimates, in 2015-2018, more than 13,000 companies were provided with financial support measures worth over 2 trillion tenge. This is a huge amount, given that we have a total of economically active enterprises of slightly more than 8,000. We have some results in individual sectors, but no one analyzes the effectiveness of these measures of state support in a complex. In turn, this may harm the quality of decisions on the capitalization of certain support instruments.

Therefore, I would like to emphasize once again that a qualitative analytical base is key to making the right decisions.

The MIIR RK and Atameken RK have begun to develop the "Industry" information system.

To this end, the MIIR and Atameken began to develop the Industry information system.

- What are the peculiarities of this system? How will it solve the problem of a lack of data?

- The main feature of the system is that big data will be formed directly from the data of the enterprises themselves. The Industry information system will monitor the state of Kazakhstan's industry at the country, regional and sectoral levels with the possibility of detailing up to the level of each enterprise.

This will give us a complete insight into who manufactures, where, how much and what do the companies manufacture, where we have the greatest potential, in what we are import-dependent, why the sub-sector is underutilized, which companies have received support measures and what effect do we have, etc. In turn, we offer a wide range of information and analytical services for industrial enterprises, which will be expanded and improved gradually.

For example, there is a service on Navigator of state support measures. When the company enters its data in the personal cabinet, based on its indicators, the system will recommend the most appropriate measures of state support for the company with all the necessary information.

Another tool is visualization and analysis of public procurement of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation in the context of customers, methods, goods items, works, and services. Our companies will be able to expand the sales of their products. Also, the culture of public monitoring will increase, when businessmen will be able to personally check the facts of procurement for violations and corruption risks.

Next year, we plan to launch an electronic platform for cooperation and subcontracting based on the system, which will allow us to find contractors in Kazakhstan, the EAEU member-countries - Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Armenia.

- When will the System be ready? What should manufacturing companies do for participation in the System?

- As I said, we have divided the creation and further development of the system into stages. The provisions on the development of the System are laid down in the Concept and draft State Program of Industrial and Innovative Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020-2025.

In April-May, the Ministry's authorized representative and we developed and agreed on the technical task for the first stage of the System development. As of today, according to the work plan, the System is 70% ready. We are practically completing the analytical modules of the system, created personal offices for enterprises and prepared detailed instructions and manuals for filling in the reporting forms. At present, our enterprises have started to fill in these reporting forms to launch the System. We plan to complete this work by the end of November.

At the same time, I would like to emphasize that the data of the enterprises in the System will not be available to third parties. Moreover, a public offer on data confidentiality will be made with each enterprise. It is also worth noting that the reporting forms do not provide for the collection of companies' data for fiscal purposes.

For the convenience of entrepreneurs, the National Chamber has created a single call-center (1432), trained responsible employees of the regional chambers of entrepreneurs to provide advice to manufacturing companies on filling out the forms in the system. It is also planned to hold training webinars on working in the system. All the necessary information on the Industry information system is also available on the Atameken website.

Taking this opportunity, I urge our industrial enterprises to take an active part in the creation of the Industry information system. I am sure that the participation of each of you will bring a significant contribution to the improvement of the industrial policy of Kazakhstan.

Source: inbusiness.kz