About 90 enterprises in Almaty city may be privatized

Speaking at the Regional Communications Service she noted that in his address the Head of State set the objective for the Government of Kazakhstan to bring about a maximum release of internal resources in order to provide sustainable economic growth with the help of such effective tools as large-scale privatization and expansion of competition.

Kudaibergenova emphasized that first and foremost it`s necessary for the state to decrease its share in the economy of the country to 15%. The aim of the privatization is to give private business an incentive for further development, additional investments, new technologies and improved quality of services.

According to the deputy head of the finance management, eight sports clubs have already been sold. The total worth of the assets realized amounted to 54.2 billion tenge (KZT).

"We believe that new owners must further develop these sports clubs, as they already have certain achievements. We don`t put them in a free-floating state, we keep government contracts in place and we place them in accordance with general practices , and they may participate in tenders on a competitive basis and maintain the activity profile of these clubs. Under the instruction of the Head of State we have conducted a research - our portfolio consists of 356 of municipal enterprises, 90% of them are welfare facilities," Kudaibergenova said.

During her speech she pointed out that there are 267 private kindergartens and 44 private schools in the city. As she said, "Taking into consideration that 75% of maintenance expenses are covered from the local budget, we believe that we shouldn`t transfer them to individuals. However, there are investors who are ready to take charge of such private kindergartens and are ready to keep the government contracts within the program "Balapan" in place, so we are ready to cooperate and start the transfer in a pilot mode. We believe that business manages in a more effective way than the government."

Currently the possibility of transferring the Schoolchildren`s Palace into the trust management without a purchase option in a pilot mode is being considered. As Kudaibergenova underlines, it doesn`t mean that the state repudiates its obligations.

In her opinion, "The state will keep government contracts in place, but it`s going to have a more targeted approach, and socially vulnerable children are going to receive individual support from the budget. Annually a government contract will be placed, and the state will compensate the expenses of free education for socially vulnerable children. The principle of targeted help will be observed. First and foremost, we must protect the interests of both the state and the investors. In our opinion, during the transfer it`s vital to focus on due drafting of trust management agreements."

Currently, 90 enterprises are considered for the transfer to a competitive environment. By 2020 a clear timeline shall be compiled. It`s all going to be publicized and discussed, large meetings are going to be held in the Government and the Presidential Administration. Nowadays the main task of the finance management is to ensure an open and transparent process of privatization.

Besides, Kudaibergenova spoke about the work of the property legalization commission in Almaty city. The property legalized outside Kazakhstan amounted to 6.7 billion tenge or 74% for the whole of Kazakhstan (across Kazakhstan the amount is 9 billion tenge). 5,9 billion tenge worth of them were legalized in 2016, i.e. an increase by 7.4% compared to year 2015. In total, 1.2 billion tenge worth property was legalized. In Almaty premises worth 327.5 billion tenge were legalized. During 2016 just 6.234 premises were legalized, which is twice less than in the previous year. Currently 1.727 applications worth 40.9 billion tenge are being considered by the commission. 4.022 applications worth 80.7 billion tenge were returned.