Small and medium businesses growing in Kazakhstan

Vice Minister of National Economy Timur Zhaksylykov at a government meeting announced an increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses in the country, Kazpravda.kz correspondent reports.

 “The dynamics of the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan in the period from 2015 to 2021 shows positive results. The share of SMEs in GDP increased by 7.9% and reached 34.7%. Production output almost doubled and reached 29.7 trillion tenge in nominal terms. The total number of those operating in these enterprises increased by 15.2% and reached 1.4 million entities. The total number of people employed in SMEs increased by 10.6% and reached 3.5 million people,” the Vice Minister announced.

According to him, within the framework of the National Project for Development of Entrepreneurship, financial and non-financial measures are provided to support SMEs.

So, in 2021, compared to 2020, the total loan portfolio covered by state support measures increased by 57% and amounted to 3.4 trillion tenge.

In 2021, the Government continued to implement a set of anti-crisis measures initiated during the pandemic, including:

- lending to affected sectors of the economy;

- a three-year moratorium on inspections with visits to small and micro businesses;

- deferral of loans to SMEs in the affected sectors;

- tax incentives.