BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Gross Value Added (GVA) of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Kazakhstan improved from 2017 through 2021 and reached 28.1 trillion Kazakh tenge ($60 billion), Trend reports, citing the 'Asia SME Monitor 2022' by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the report, this constitutes an increase of 21.2 percent from 2020, when the GVA of MSMEs accounted for 23.2 trillion Kazakh tenge ($49.6 billion). Unsurprisingly, COVID-related economic and mobility restrictions negatively impacted the performance of the MSMEs, however, an increase of 5.3 percent was recorded.
"Growth sharply decelerated by 5.3 percent in 2020 from 25.4 percent in 2019, seriously affected by the pandemic restrictions, and then increased in 2021. MSME productivity remains small. Their contribution to total GVA was 33.5 percent in 2021, though it has been growing gradually since 2016 (26.8 percent)," the ADB said.
The most significant regional contributor was Astana with 59 percent of total GVA, followed by Almaty city (47.5 percent), and Shymkent city (40.5 percent), the report said.
Meanwhile, labor productivity, which is calculated as the ratio of output, work performed and services rendered to the number of employees, in Kazakhstan fluctuated over the decade, with sharp declines in 2015 (-12.6 percent) and 2021 (-20.4 percent) associated with the sharp fall in oil prices in 2015 and the effects of the pandemic in 2021. Labor productivity of MMSP in 2021 amounted to 5.3 million Kazakh tenge ($11,291).