– “Entrepreneurship is a quarter of the economy of the East Kazakhstan region. The number of active small and medium-sized business entities [SMEs] is presently 67,000. Almost every third employable resident of the region is employed in the SME sector,” Akim (Governor) Berdybek Saparbayev said at a Sept. 26 media briefing.“The production volume of SME entities increased by 2.8 percent, reaching 320 billion tenge [$1.75 billion] over the reporting period,” Saparbayev said. Businesses are also receiving state support through the Business Road Map 2020 programme, he said, and more than 17,000 entrepreneurs received all kinds of state support since the programme’s implementation. This represents about 10 percent of the total number of people employed in the SME sector.
– “The first batch of fuel from Azerbaijan in the amount of 5,000 tonnes is due to go to the Kazakh market in the near future,” said First Deputy Minister of Energy Uzakbai Karabalin on Sept. 26. “We have already agreed with Azerbaijan [that] next week we expect probably about 5,000 tonnes of the first batch. From then on, we will negotiate,” he said. With regard to the supply of Russian petrol, he explained that “the concluded contracts for gasoline on the amount of about 69,000 tonnes from Russia are being confirmed now, and we look forward in the near future to addressing this issue.” Karabalin also noted that restrictions on the import volume of petroleum products from Russia should be withdrawn. According to Karabalin, negotiations on the supply of gasoline can be led by any company but KazMunayGas, because Kazakhstan’s fuel cost is cheaper and it is not profitable to import it.
– “In the the East Kazakhstan region, in small and medium business, 32 percent of the total population is employed,” said Akim (Governor) Berdybek Saparbayev at a Sept. 26 Central Communications Service (CCS) briefing. “The President set the task of having at least 30 percent of employees employed in this sector. To date, the figure is 32 percent. In this industry, currently 260,000 people in the region are employed and they produce about 450 billion tenge [$2.47 billion] of marketable products and generate budget revenues of somewhere around 75-80 billion tenge [$412 million-439 million],” said Saparbayev. The akimat (regional government) credits the Business Road Map 2020 with creating 3,000 new jobs and saving more than 14,000 jobs. In total, 14 projects worth 3 billion tenge ($16.5 million) by supply of the production infrastructure were implemented. In total this year, 2.3 billion tenge ($12.6 million) was allocated for the implementation of the Business Road Map 2020.
– “The pharmaceutical market of Kazakhstan, among the Central Asian countries, wins first place in the categories of accessibility and transparency,” said Vice Minister for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan Yerlan Sagadiyev at a Sept. 25 round table dedicated to investment opportunities in health and medicine. According to him, Kazakhstan’s pharmaceutical market remains the most accessible and transparent in terms of the regulatory environment. “Its main drawback is the high import dependence,” he said. At the round table, the Kaznex Invest national agency and the Ministry of Investment and Development signed a number of memoranda of understanding and cooperation with foreign pharmaceutical companies, including an agreement with BB and Company, Ltd. and the Italian company Promedical to establish a joint production of hemo-containers for storing and cleaning blood. Agreements were also signed between Kaznex Invest and Kazmedpribor Holding, LLP, with the Korean companies Votem for the production of monitors and Micobiomed for the production of glucose monitoring systems and lipids, with Spanish company Osatu for the production of defibrillators and with Plast Europe to create sterile rooms for surgery. In addition, a contract was signed with Italian company Gesan Production Sri to build a plant to produce the automatic biochemical analyser CHEM-200 and medical reagents for diagnostic and laboratory equipment. A memorandum with the Korean Bemems company for the joint production of mammography was also signed.
