Bakhyt Sultanov held a meeting in Almaty on trade development and price stabilization

On Feb. 16, 2022, in the Akimat of Almaty, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov held a meeting on the issues of trade, price stabilization for socially significant food products and compensating the damage to business incurred during the period of unrest.

At present, Almaty is the largest commercial and cultural center of Kazakhstan. About one third of enterprises registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan are located in this city.

“Trade is the main branch of the Almaty economy. In 2021, the growth of retail trade amounted to 13.5%, the volume was 4 trillion. 212 billion tenge. The share of retail trade in Almaty in the volume of retail trade in Kazakhstan is 31.5%,” said Bakhyt Sultanov.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov, the January events had a negative impact on the work of individual business entities, especially in the trade sector.

To date, the government commission has approved a mechanism for compensation for damage to affected entrepreneurs, in which it is proposed to make a number of changes.

The Regional Commission of Almaty proposed to amend the existing mechanism. According to Almaty Mayor Erbolat Dossaev, it was proposed to compensate for damages according to a simplified calculation with payments of up to 10 million tenge for all categories of damage, as well as to apply a simplified mechanism for the category “equipment” and compensate for lawyers’ fees.

“This will reduce the time for consideration of applications from 1 month to 2 weeks and significantly speed up the procedure for compensating business for damages,” said Almaty Akim Erbolat Dossaev.

The issue of stabilizing prices for socially significant food products was also discussed.

To stabilize prices for socially significant food products, 11 billion tenge was allocated from the local budget to fix prices for vegetables, meat products, eggs and groceries. The allocation of loans to large producers of social bread, dairy products and sunflower oil is also being worked out.

In addition, as the city akimat reported to the Deputy Prime Minister, the akimat is currently considering the possibility of creating mini-hubs by allocating concessional financing and land plots within the city for the construction of easily erectable temporary storage warehouses. This will reduce the dependence of convenience stores on resellers, relieve owners of small retail outlets from the need to purchase on their own in large wholesale markets. In general, this should have a positive impact on the price level in small intra-quarter stores.

Based on the results of the meeting, Bakhyt Sultanov instructed the Almaty Akimat and the Committee of Trade of the MIT RK to continue monitoring and analyzing prices, take measures to increase the turnaround scheme as part of the stabilization of prices for socially significant food products, and intensify the activities of regional commissions to investigate intermediary schemes along the entire food pricing chain , as well as continue work to provide assistance and compensation to affected business entities.

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