NUR-SULTAN – The Qoldau Center for Entrepreneurship has launched a free online school for beginner entrepreneurs with the support of the Almaty city administration, the Atameken business channel reported.
The training and webinars are aimed to build a sustainable business that can operate in difficult conditions.
“We found many issues that need to be addressed. One of the main problems that we have in Kazakhstan today is that entrepreneurs don’t know how to create a sustainable business in unstable conditions resulting from the pandemic regime,” said Raimbek Batalov, entrepreneur and one of the authors of the educational platform.
The edu.almatybusiness.gov.kz website features video tutorials and educational materials in Russian and Kazakh languages on industry and general topics including finance, taxes and business operations in a pandemic. The courses cover the restaurant and beauty businesses, the food and clothing industry, IT, education, trade and other sectors.
The Atameken regional chamber of entrepreneurs and the Business Council of Almaty also launched a program to provide loans of up to 5 million tenge (US$11,740) at 6 percent per year.
“The courses are necessary to tell business people about these incentives and how to use state support to achieve their goals. Competitiveness is based on knowledge and that is what Kazakh small and micro-businesses need,” Batalov said.
The website also contains information about state programs for business support and how to get preferential state funding.
Recognized market experts, business coaches and entrepreneurs including head of VP Group and KBTU Startup Vladimir Popov, founder of the children’s clothing brand Mimioriki Inna Apenko, director of the Republican Center for Assistance to Entrepreneurs Dmitry Kazantsev and head of the Chamber of Tax Consultants Andrei Khorunzhiy will deliver the training programs.
“Second-tier banks end up providing higher loan rates for micro-companies and small businesses because most new companies do not demonstrate transparency in their business or do not have a clear management approach. Our courses will provide entrepreneurs with all the necessary digital accounting tools,” said Batalov.
