PM Bektenov orders to introduce National Product Catalogue in all sectors

According to him, the National Product Catalogue is being introduced in the country today which will enable to classify goods at all stages: from production or import to wholesale and retail sales. The integration of the Astana-1 and Electronic Invoices information systems has already been completed. However, he said that the current digital product traceability system covers limited product categories and is based on scattered reference books and data formats. 

He entrusted the ministries of finance and trade, together with other government agencies, stepping up the implementation of the National Product Catalogue in all sectors.

The Prime Minister urged businesses to actively join this work.

"Entrepreneurs complain about lack of transparency of certification procedures and duplication of paper documents.These issues should be addressed by the Technical Regulation Information System (TRIS) in order to modernize the mechanism of certification, accreditation and standardization. The ministries of trade, finance and digitalization must ensure the full integration of the TRIS system with the information systems of related government agencies by the end of this year,” said the Prime Minister.

He also touched upon the issue of product labeling. He emphasized that the Digital Product Labeling project is designed to protect domestic market from counterfeit and low-quality products and increase domestic producers’ competitiveness.

He assigned the Ministry of Trade with a task to raise awareness of the issue among entrepreneurs and to expand the list of goods subject to labeling.

Bektenov emphasized the importance of the initiatives to launch an agricultural marketplace and a traceability system, which will contribute to the growth of economic activity in settlements.

The Ministry of Agriculture was entrusted with developing the mechanisms stimulating agricultural producers’ activity through agricultural market places by the end of the year;

The Ministry of Trade and KazPost were ordered to pilot a B2B electronic commerce platform;

The ministries of finance and trade jointly with relevant government agencies were tasked to complete the distribution of commodity groups in the general classifier of goods, works and services by October 1;

The Ministry of Finance was entrusted with analyzing and updating the regulatory-legal framework to ensure high-quality integration of information systems of agencies with the National Catalogue of Goods;

In order to enhance control over trade increments in essential food items, the Ministry of Trade was tasked to pilot the introduction of digital food vouchers in the cities of Kokshetau and Pavlodar by October 1.

Earlier it was reported that the Ministry of Trade and Integration completed the development of a virtual assistant designed to protect consumer rights.