EXPO-2017 triggers growth of small Kazakh companies
ASTANA. KAZINFORM As per the results of June, there have been 135,000 small active companies recorded in the Business Register of Kazakhstan, i.e. it is 10.5% more than in the same period of the previous year, Kazinform refers to ranking.kz.
The biggest surge in activity has been registered in Astana: up to 16,260 companies, +59.7 percent for the year. Moreover, southern regions with a high proportion of the rural population, Zhambyl (+11.8%, up to 4,310) and South Kazakhstan (+9.4%, up to 11,060) regions, are among the leaders.
One average small active company accrues to nearly KZT22.53 million of loans, or +1.2% for the year. In general, according to the results of May, the amount of loans to small businesses has grown by 12.3pct for the year, up to KZT3tn.
Small business activity and credit support of the sector are stimulated by the State Program for the Development of Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship for 2017-2021, approved early in the year. Therefore, the program participants, implementing or planning to implement business projects in rural settlements, small towns and cities, get microcredits on preferential terms. The unemployed, regardless of registration in employment centers, self-employed entrepreneurs with the potential, and agricultural cooperatives with their members can participate.
In the long-term dynamics, the growth of the credit support was expected to be accompanied by an increase in the activity of small businesses: for instance, small business loans, as well as the number of active small companies, have been growing since 2014 (when the first state programs of preferential lending, such as via the Damu Fund). Previously, the small business segment, as loans to small companies, went negative.
Following the last year results, the growth in the number of small operating enterprises equals 6.8pct, in the loan portfolio of small businesses amounts to 50.7pct at once and in the average credit cheque per one enterprise is 41.2 percent.
According to the results of June 2017, the highest growth rates were registered in the tourism sector: thus, the number of small active companies providing accommodation and food services has increased by 31.1% year over year. In this segment, such large-scale projects as EXPO-2017 had a positive impact on the market.
The information and communication sector companies come second in terms of growth, + 18% for the year, up to 3,300 small enterprises as was expected with Modernization 3.0 held in Kazakhstan.