NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh state department and foreign representatives established an open dialogue to improve the investment climate and the ease of doing business during a Sept. 16 forum on tax and customs administration in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial and economic center. The forum is part of the Protecting Business and Investments project, which was launched in 2018, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press service.
Photo credit: Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The forum gathered the heads and representatives of Almaty’s State Revenue Department, Anti-Corruption Agency, the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative office, representatives of the diplomatic corps, international organizations, large economic associations, and foreign companies registered in Almaty.
The forum participants discussed ways to improve taxing, customs legislation, conditions for doing business, as well as to create a bridge that would facilitate interaction between government agencies, businesses, and other important actors.
According to various state body representatives, the governmental strategies and implemented measures have already created a favorable investment climate in the country and they all expressed their readiness to continue improving it.
Almaty, for example, is seeing positive trends in fiscal policy, improved tax and customs administration, as well as in creating new preferential instruments, said Almaty State Revenues Department Head Agzhigit Bekberdiyev.
The city also recently had favorable changes in the law regarding the protection of small and medium-sized businesses from corruption, said Almaty Anti-Corruption Agency Department Head Nygmedzhan Saparov.
The biggest advantages of doing business in Kazakhstan are a favorable investment climate, a simplified visa and legal regime, and Kazakhstan’s unique geographic location, stressed Yerlan Iskakov, the head of the Almaty office of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kazakh Invest Regional Director in Almaty Daniyar Baliyev also explained the qualitatively new algorithms that will be used to attract and patronize investment projects, Kazakhstan’s current investment potential and the new methodology that will be used to assist investors.
The participants plan to form a working group to resolve operational issues concerning the pandemic, and post-quarantine plans.
