Today, during the press conference at the site of the press center of the Government, Vice Minister for Investments and Development Timur Toktabayev and Deputy Chairman of the Board of National Agency for Technological Development JSC, Omirzhan Tashimov told about the development of innovations in the country and summed up the results of the XII Innovative Congress.

One of the tasks of the Ministry for Investments and Development is the formation of a state policy in the sphere of technologies and innovations, the creation of conditions for stimulating innovation activity.

As Timur Toktabayev noted, for this purpose, an innovative Congress with an exhibition of innovative projects is held annually with the participation of the National Agency for Technological Development. This year, the event was held on November 28 in Almaty. Congress 2017 theme is “Development of Technological Entrepreneurship”.

"During the event, more than 600 leading international and national experts discussed issues of technology transfer, business incubation, innovation financing and Blockchain technologies," Toktabayev said.

According to the Vice Minister, the priority direction in the work of the Congress was the development of SMEs. This is due to the fact that this year the approaches to the grant program have been revised, where the main emphasis is on supporting the existing business through technology transfer.

In this regard, the requirements for the applicants have been changed: the ratio of co-financing technology costs between the Agency and the applicant is now 50% by 50% instead of the previously stipulated 20% by 80%. The requirement for three years of commercial experience in the declared industry was introduced. In addition, the aggregate income for three years should cover the cost of the project.

Acceptance of applications for the grant program was carried out from August 2 to October 2, 2017. Despite the fears of various associations and reviewers to reduce market demand for grants due to stricter requirements, the Agency received 206 applications. Among them, according to the types of grants:

● for the commercialization of technologies — 122 applications;

● for technological development of existing enterprises — 65 applications;

● for technological development of industries — 19 applications.

"In general, at the moment, the Commission for grant financing supported 9 applications, work is underway to sign agreements on further cooperation," the Vice Minister of MID RK summed up.

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