BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 28. Despite the challenging external environment, the real economic growth of Kazakhstan totaled 3.3 percent, Kazakhstan's Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov said, Trend reports via the press service of the Akimat (administration) of Zhambyl region.
He made the remark at the plenary meeting of the international Zhambyl Economic and Investment Forum – 2023.
"Foreign direct investment of $28 billion has been attracted, which shows an increase of 18 percent. This is the highest figure in the last 10 years," he said.
Furthermore, he touched on the growth in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Kazakhstan. According to him, the number of operating SMEs in the country increased by 27 percent in 2022 and totaled 1.8 million.
"The total number of people employed in this sector increased by 13 percent and amounted to 3.9 million. The number of active SMEs in Zhambyl region increased by 29 percent to 92,600," he said.
Moreover, the minister also said that in the Zhambyl region from January through March of this year, an increase of 31 percent in construction and 4.4 percent in industry was achieved. In terms of attracting investments, the growth was 3.1 percent and amounted to 69 billion Kazakh tenge ($152,173).