BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 4
Trend:
The share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economy of Kazakhstan reached 30.5 percent in the third quarter of 2020, Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Aset Irgaliev said, Trend reports citing the Kazakh media.
“In the third quarter of 2020, the share of SMEs in the country’s economy reached 30.5 percent. In 2020, SMEs produced products worth 32.7 trillion tenge. The number of people employed in SMEs as of January 1 of this year amounted to 3.4 million people,” Irgaliev said at a governmental meeting.
“The work on concessional lending to SMEs continues this year. For the first quarter of this year, more than 16,000 projects worth 663 billion tenge received support within state programs of concessional financing,” the minister noted.
“By the end of 2021, more than 47,000 projects will be provided with preferential financing for a total loan portfolio of 2.5 trillion tenge. Support is provided in the framework of refinancing loans to SMEs in the coronavirus-affected sectors of the economy. From March 15, 2020, to March 15, 2021, subsidies worth 475 billion tenge were provided for refinancing about 9,000 projects,” said Irgaliev.
As earlier reported, more than 60 measures to support SMEs were envisaged as part of the Comprehensive Plan to Restore Economic Growth for 2021.