ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 25. Over 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses are registered in the Jambyl region of Kazakhstan, which is 36.6 percent more than last year, said the head of the regional executive power, Yerbol Karashukeyev, at a meeting of the regional council of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs, Trend reports.
As he noted, these small and medium-sized businesses employ about 160,000 people.
According to him, within the framework of the National Project for Entrepreneurship Development for 2021–2025, 260 billion tenge (about $545 million) have been allocated for the implementation of more than 10,000 projects.
"Today we can say with confidence that close cooperation has been established between local authorities, the business community, and the regional chamber of entrepreneurs. Relationships between the state and business should be built on mutual trust," he said.
Karashukeyev also touched upon the development of women's entrepreneurship. As he noted, half of the existing business entities are headed by women.
"The number of employees in small and medium-sized businesses headed by women is more than 50,000—30 percent of the total number," he added.
Until June 2023, the number of operating SMEs in Kazakhstan increased by 23.4 percent and amounted to about 2 million enterprises. Total employment in this sector increased by more than 18 percent to 4.1 million people. Thus, about 40 percent of all people employed in the economy work in SMEs.
As a result, the share of SMEs in the economy increased from 33.3 percent to 36.5 percent. The volume of production by SMEs increased by 28 percent and amounted to over 59 trillion tenge (about $123 billion).