NUR-SULTAN – Construction, IT and electronic materials for government use will only be available after a pre-selection stage, said First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alikhan Smailov on Sept. 23. The changes are designed to ensure procurement sustainability and give an edge to Kazakh domestic businesses.
Alikhan Smailov.
The amendment regarding construction materials became active Sept. 1. The main condition for pre-selection is the financial stability of procurement candidates.
“In this case, the criterion is an indicator of financial stability. Given that this indicator is formed according to the information of state revenue bodies and only for Kazakhstan taxpayers, this norm will also support domestic business,” he said.
The IT and electronics amendments will become effective Jan. 1. The changes relate to the way products will be registered and will only be available to domestic developers.
“The main criterion for entering the preliminary qualification selection is the presence in the register of trusted products, which includes only domestic developers,” said Smailov.
Similar measures will be applied to quasigovernmental procurement procedures.
“Since we are coordinating Samruk Kazyna’s procurement rules, we will initiate the establishment of the same measures there,” he added.
As a part of executing the head of state’s order next year, centralising public procurement has been introduced in pilot mode, which provides for transferring all public procurement to single organisers at appropriate levels.
“After testing and editing inaccuracies, this model will be distributed throughout the republic. The number of (procurement) organisers will significantly decrease. Administrative work will be simplified and this will effectively regulate domestic products in public procurement,” said Smailov.
He noted the new bill includes a proposal to raise the threshold for public procurement to 5 million tenge (US$12,889) where trademarks are permitted. This norm will allow customers to indicate Made in Kazakhstan brands and products.
