Baiterek Holding to support over 19 thousand SME projects

Economy • 18 March, 2020

Baiterek Holding to support over 19 thousand SME projects

Measures to support entrepreneurship and domestic production were considered, primeminister.kz reports.

Chair of the Board of the Baiterek National Management Holding Aidar Arifkhanov reported on new mechanisms for providing state support to entrepreneurs through development institutions of Baiterek.

“Baiterek Holding is a key operator of the Government to promote and develop business in the country and is ready to support the initiatives of the Ministry of National Economy,” Arifkhanov said.

To implement the proposals of the Ministry of National Economy, the holding’s subsidiary, the Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund, has all the necessary infrastructure.

Thus, the Damu Fund has a branch network of 22 branches and regional centers in all regions of the country. The Fund has fully integrated the acceptance of subsidy and guarantee applications through the Egov portal. In 2019, the Fund launched the Online Damu portal to translate all support measures provided in digital format.

In 2020, the product line for the guarantee instrument will be expanded, providing for the guarantee of the Damu Fund for factoring, leasing operations, bank guarantees, etc.

It is also planned to improve the subsidy and guarantee instrument by including MFIs as a participant in the State Program Business Roadmap-2025 along with banks, which will significantly increase the coverage of micro and small entrepreneurs.

In order to stimulate lending to projects in agriculture, it is proposed to provide subsidized interest rates on loans (leasing) in the agricultural sector. The mechanism of subsidizing interest rates on loans (leasing) in the agro-industrial complex is supposed to be implemented by analogy with the current mechanism within the framework of the State Program Business Roadmap-2025.

Due to previously allocated and own funds of the Damu Fund, in 2020 it was planned to support 11.7 thousand SME projects.

Due to the allocation of additional funds by the Government, the Damu Fund will support an additional 7.7 thousand SME projects, including 5.8 thousand projects through conditional allocation mechanisms, 1.5 thousand projects through subsidizing tools, and through guarantee instruments 0.4 thousand projects.

To work in these areas, additional capitalization of the Damu Fund will be required, necessary measures will be taken in accordance with budget legislation.

“Thus, the allocation of additional funds and the implementation of the envisaged measures to support entrepreneurship is an urgent measure that should contribute to the growth of the share of SMEs in the coming years,” Arifkhanov concluded.

Chair of Atameken NCE Board Ablay Myrzakhmetov, in turn, said that more than 4 thousand requests from business were received at the operational headquarters under the Atameken NCE. 15% of them relate to the tourism sector, which in particular needs state support. Myrzakhmetov noted that measures of business support from the Government will be a significant help in real conditions.