The forum participants are the Presidential National Commission for Women Affairs, Family and Demographic Policy, the Parliament deputies, heads of state bodies, national companies, ambassadors of foreign countries, representatives of international organizations, NGOs, Kazakh and foreign experts and media.
In her speech, the Secretary of State stressed that the President of Kazakhstan in his Address "Third Modernization of Kazakhstan: Global Competitiveness" pointed out the country's entry into a new era of development. The Secretary of State placed greater focus on the need for making women more active in actualization of the 2nd priority in the Address, i.e. massive improvement and business environment expansion.
- Many things depend on women, who are at the head of small and medium-sized businesses. Participation of women leaders in social processes has a positive impact on the quality of administrative procedures and competitive growth. Moreover, the activities of women should intensify concerning the creation of innovative start-ups, as one of the knowledge-based economic life’s drivers, G.Abdykalikova said.
To date, 44% of the country’s active SMEs are headed by women (more than 570 000 entities). They provide 31% of all jobs in Kazakhstan’s SME sector. The development of women's business in the country is carried out through national programs, agreements between the Government and international development institutions: EBRD, UNDP, World Bank, UN-Women and others. In addition, "KazAgro" Holding provides support to women entrepreneurs in rural areas. So, over the past three years 32% of loan recipients have been women. Effective measures taking has allowed Kazakhstan to improve "economic participation and opportunities for women” indicator of the World Economic Forum rankings and occupy the 31st place.
The Secretary of State noted that currently there are more than 4 million families in Kazakhstan. The country has conducted systematic work on creating the necessary conditions to strengthen a family. The Presidential Decree approved the Concept of Family and Gender Policy in Kazakhstan till 2030. The Concept is aimed at raising the level of gender equality, responsibility, parity and efficiency of family members’ fulfilment their household, economic, moral, educational, protective and other important functions.
In conclusion, the Secretary of State outlined the priorities for the further development of small and medium-sized enterprises with women’s participation, increasing their capacity in the corporate sector for actualizing the tasks set in the Head of State’s Address made in 2017.