BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.6
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The number of operating small and medium business entities (SMEs) increased by 400,000 entities, amounting to 1.3 million as a result of the implementation of the Business Road Map-2020 State Program, Trend reports with reference to the press office of Kazakh prime minister.
As noted by Kazakh Minister of National Economy Ruslan Dalenov, compared to 2015, the number of people employed in SMEs increased by 300,000, and amounted to 3.3 million.
For the program implementation, 282 billion tenge ($724.9 million) were allocated from the budget.
“As a result, more than 16,000 SMEs were funded, more than 100,000 entrepreneurs were trained, products worth 15.5 trillion tenge ($39.8 billion) were produced, taxes worth about one trillion tenge ($2.6 billion) were paid,” Dalenov informed.
This year, the implementation of the Business Roadmap 2020 program is nearing completion, and a new draft program has been prepared.
As the minister of national economy noted, goals and objectives were preserved and support tools were improved, and its effectiveness and accessibility increased. The amount of working capital loans increased from 60 to 360 million tenge ($154,243 to $925,459).
As Dalenov emphasized, 421 billion tenge ($1 billion) were allocated for the next stage of the Program. This is 1.5 times more than the funding during the previous five years.
“The program Business Road Map–2025 set target indicators. They comply with the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Country until 2025. An increase in the share of SMEs in GDP of at least 35 percent is expected, bringing the share of manufacturing in the structure of GDP to at least 13.4 percent,” said the minister.
He added that the ministry’s task is to improve the business climate, which will contribute to economic growth.
“Over a third of the economy will be accounted for SMEs in 2025. And by 2050, SMEs will already be half of GDP,” Dalenov summed up.
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