Heads of government agencies and national companies, members of the National Chamber of Commerce and business circles attended the session.
The session touched the topical issues of national business and investment development.
The President of Kazakhstan noted that entrepreneurship is a driving force of the country’s economy.
“Small and medium-sized business is a foundation for strong middle class. We observe positive dynamics in the sector. The number of self-employed increased by 8 per cent and reached 2.6 million last year. The volume of output produced by small and medium-sized business accounted for KZT 9 trillion with the annual growth of 3.3 per cent,” the President told, addressing the meeting of the Council of National Investors.
At the same time, the President pointed out that among the positive trends the negative trends are also observed.
“The share of small and medium-sized business remained at a level of 17 per cent from GDP. Despite the great number of small business entities, 70 per cent of all payments to the national budget are collected from four hundred of taxpayers, that is only 0.2 per cent of all businessmen. The growth rates of domestic private investment in fixed capital lag behind the GDP growth rates. If its share in GDP accounted for 18.4 per cent in pre-crisis period, last year we observed only 13 per cent. FDI net inflow made up US$ 9.7 billion in 2013, US$ 4 billion down against the year of 2012,” the President highlighted.
