– We need to bring economic growth to 6-7 percent. To do this, it is necessary to provide maximum support to the private initiative of the business. Certain measures have been taken in this direction. However, the pace of entrepreneurship development still does not match the existing potential. In short, we need a qualitative breakthrough. First of all, we need to build relations between the state and business on a completely new basis,” the President noted.

The Head of State called for the conclusion of a new “social contract” between the state and entrepreneurs.

– The essence of this agreement can be expressed as follows. The state creates the most favorable conditions for business development and provides full protection of private property. In turn, entrepreneurs faithfully fulfill their obligations to pay taxes and invest in the economy, create jobs and comfortable working conditions for their employees,” Kassym–Jomart Tokayev said.

According to him, relations between the state and business should be based on mutual trust.

– The state apparatus should not see every businessman as a potential violator of the law. This approach generates an inherently repressive nature of administration. The state is obliged to help entrepreneurs. I want to highlight this point in particular: it is to help entrepreneurs. As for entrepreneurs, they should not act as complainants and petitioners, but should become truly equal partners of the state apparatus,” the President noted.

Along with this, the Head of State focused on priority tasks that need to be solved in the very near future. First of all, according to him, it is necessary to ensure the rule of law and the protection of private property.

– It is necessary to fight crimes, including economic ones, exclusively by legal methods. Excesses not only do not correspond to the interests of the state, but also discredit Kazakhstan, undermine people’s trust in my initiatives. We need to create a balanced control mechanism,” Kassym–Jomart Tokayev stressed.

He also drew attention to the fact that there is a need to consult with the legal and business community on the issue of creating an independent cassation instance.

– The judicial corps claims that this step will ensure high-quality protection of citizens’ rights. The Presidential Administration will deal with this issue. If a common opinion is reached on the creation of cassation courts, then we will not allow an increase in the budget of the judicial system,” the Head of State said.

As Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted, over 60% of court decisions are made in defense of citizens and businesses. At the same time, not enough work is being done on the systematic mistakes of the state apparatus, which force businesses to go to court. In this regard, the Government has been instructed, together with the Supreme Court and the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, to conduct a thorough analysis of negative practices in the activities of state agencies and take effective measures to eradicate them.

The next priority was to maintain a balance between the interests of the state and business when returning assets.

– The law on asset recovery was recently adopted, which aims to consolidate measures for asset recovery and, in fact, is an act of public consent. Ultimately, this should improve our economy and prevent social stratification and separation. Bona fide business, foreign and Kazakhstani investors have nothing to fear,” the Head of State said.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on the successful businessmen of the country to take part in the implementation of major projects in metallurgy, chemistry, mechanical engineering and other industries.

– You have finances, experience, established contacts in the world markets. Therefore, you are able to work out the implementation of such projects. Show that you are ready to invest in the development of the country. Honest and patriotic business will always be held in high esteem and protected by the state. Frankly, investments in such productions will be considered as a serious application to prove the legitimacy of the origin of assets. If all the previously acquired capital works not only for the benefit of the owner, but also for the benefit of the national economy, for the prosperity of Kazakhstan, this is a good argument to exclude questions about the source of the origin of money. But the window for such a compromise is rapidly narrowing. This should also be understood,” the President stressed.

Another key task in the speech was to ensure fair taxation that stimulates the economy.

– Fiscal authorities en masse involve entrepreneurs in litigation. In particular, this applies to claims for invalidation of transactions. The burden on the courts has increased significantly – in fact, they have been assigned the function of verifying the correctness of the calculation of taxes. This is unacceptable, measures are required to correct this situation. In general, our tax service works quite efficiently. The Government should provide an effective mechanism for countering tax evasion in the new Tax Code,” the Head of State instructed.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also pointed out significant imbalances in tax revenues and noted the need to improve tax policy.

– 80% of all taxes in the country are paid by only about 260 companies. This is an over-concentration, which must be combated by increasing the volume of revenues from other taxpayers. According to experts, four million people out of the total number of employed people in our country do not pay taxes on their income. Micro and small businesses, even with simplified taxation, hide and underestimate their turnover. Almost 70% of business entities under the simplified declaration show income of less than five million tenge and pay only 6% of the proceeds under this regime. Therefore, one of the main goals of the new tax policy should be to increase the number of active taxpayers through simplification of tax procedures, effective interaction with the population and business. It should be more profitable and easier to pay taxes than to evade them and take risks by negotiating with local regulatory authorities,” the President noted.

The Head of State outlined another important task to ensure real industrialization.

– The basis of a complex and stable economy is the manufacturing industry, which is actively developing the segment of medium and upper processing. At the same time, the presence of many major obstacles in this direction is indicated by the low level of survival of enterprises. Only a quarter of our companies remain on the market for the second year after opening. For comparison: in other countries, this figure is 70-80%. In many ways, this is evidence of the imperfection of the business climate in Kazakhstan,” Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.

According to him, the oilfield services industry should become the engine of growth and diversification of the domestic economy.

– Today, the projects of Tengiz, Kashagan and Karachaganak are being designed in foreign countries. This also applies to the project of the future expansion of the Tengiz field. It is clear that imported materials and equipment are included in the design solutions. This closes the access of domestic producers to the implementation of oil and gas projects. The local content in the goods used in the largest projects (Tengiz, Kashagan, Karachaganak) does not even reach 5%. The Government should seek to move design offices to Kazakhstan with the mandatory involvement of local engineers and companies,” the President said.

The next important task is to accelerate the development of medium–sized businesses. According to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan has created the best conditions for small and large businesses. At the same time, there are no incentives for small businesses to move into the most important – the middle segment of business.

– The average entrepreneur, according to our observations, is less inertial, more mobile and adapts faster to changing market conditions. Yes, over the past 7 years, there has been an increase in the share of small and medium-sized businesses in GDP. But the main engine of this dynamic is small business entities, the number of which has increased by 46%. Against this background, the average business grew by only 0.5%, increasing its share in the economy from 5 to 6.2%. At the same time, in OECD countries, its share is on average 18%, and in some countries it is even higher – up to 26%. We have not yet created any special conditions to support medium–sized businesses, especially in the manufacturing industry,” the President believes.

The Head of State recalled that in his Message he gave a number of instructions aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship. In particular, it is necessary to work out the provision of special measures of state financial support, as well as preferential access to state tenders for businesses that operate in a standard tax regime.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also instructed the Government to ensure a qualitative reset of the mechanisms of support measures.

The President separately focused on the issues of the activities of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, which should become a key channel for effective dialogue between business and the state.

– Further transformation of the Chamber, improvement of the quality of its corporate governance is required. The Chamber should fully express the consolidated opinion of entrepreneurs, become one of the main driving forces of socio-economic reforms,” the Head of State noted.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov, Prosecutor General Berik Asylov, Chairman of the Presidium of NCE “Atameken” Rayymbek Batalov, Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Rustam Zhursunov, founder of Ridder Mining Equipment Plant LLP Andrey Pechenin, CEO of Kayyp-Ata LLP Syrym Yertaev, founder and head of IT holding “Kazdream” Dauren Tulebayev, shareholder of “Orient Finance Group” LLP Ruslan Shaekin, Director of “Experimental farm of oilseeds” LLP Farid Abitayev, Director of the company for the design and construction of railways LLP “Competitor-B” Bakhytbek Kadirov, entrepreneur from the Abai region Elena Asylbekova.

A source: https://e-cis.info/news/567/111989/

Сообщение President of Kazakhstan K.-Zh.Tokayev held a meeting with representatives of domestic business появились сначала на embassylife.ru.