BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21. The share of small and medium-sized businesses in the Gross Regional Product (GRP) of Nur-Sultan amounted to 74.9 percent in 2021, Head of the regional council of Entrepreneurs Chamber of Nur-Sultan Bulat Omarov said, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.
“The economic development of Nur-Sultan is greatly influenced by the trade and construction sectors, which create a multiplier effect for other areas, 94,000 people are employed in trade and 74,000 people are employed in construction. The volume of GRP amounted to 5.2 billion tenge ($11.7 million) for 9 months of 2021,” Omarov said at reporting meeting of the Regional Council of Nur-Sultan’s Entrepreneurs Chamber in front of the business community of city.
At the same time, according to him, the business has suffered hard shocks: these are the well-known restrictions during the pandemic, sad January events (mass protests), the geopolitical situation in connection with the imposition of sanctions on the Russian Federation and their impact on the economy of Kazakhstan.
“National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Atameken) actively participated in the life of the capital's business in all difficult times, tried to respond as quickly as possible in resolving all the problems that arose in business at the level of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Omarov said.
“Since the announcement of the state of emergency in the country in 2020, Atameken has regularly conducted surveys to identify problems in the activities of business enterprises, made many proposals to remove restrictions and work opportunities,” he noted.
“We were the initiators in considering the possibility of providing financial and other measures to support entrepreneurs. The hotline of the Operational Headquarters worked 24 hours a day, Headquarters monitored food prices (socially significant food products), formed a database of city suppliers, constantly monitored stocks for food and medicine, took part in issuing special passes for the movement of business during a state of emergency, formed a register of entrepreneurs on deferred loans and much more,” speaker listed.
He also said that most of the proposed business measures were supported and included in the Government's anti-crisis measures.
“For example, the term for granting a deferment on existing loans has been extended, rates on taxes, social payments from the wage fund, and property tax have been zeroed for the most affected sectors of the economy. The measures taken made it possible to mitigate the economic consequences of the introduction of restrictive measures, partially compensate for the reduction in the population's income due to the cessation of business activity, and made it possible to slow down the release of labor” Omarov concluded.