The results of trade development and export support activities for 2022 were summed up at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov.
According to Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin, at the end of 10 months of 2022, the trade turnover increased by 34.1% compared to the same period last year and amounted to $110.6 billion.
Mutual trade with the EAEU countries has reached $23 billion, which exceeds the figures of the previous period of 2021 by 7.5%. During the year, 6 trade barriers were eliminated, which brought Kazakhstan a total income of $500 million.
In order to saturate the market with the necessary food and to curb price growth, customs duties on 1,343 critical import goods have been reset: vegetables, cereals, dairy products, food, spare parts for equipment, raw materials and others.
Over the 10 months of last year, exports of non–primary goods increased significantly – by 34.8% and amounted to $21.7 billion. At the same time, the export of services in January-September 2022 increased by 31% and reached $5.5 billion.
In order to develop free trade and promote exports, the Protocol on the Extension of the Interim Free Trade Agreement with Iran until 2025 has been ratified. The process of concluding a full-scale agreement with Iran is at the final stage. The expected economic effect of increasing exports will be about $250 million. In the future, it is planned to sign similar agreements with Indonesia and the UAE, the estimated potential of which will exceed $1 billion.
In order to implement mutually beneficial cooperation projects and develop transport and logistics routes, work is underway to open a network of border centers for trade, transportation, logistics and industrial cooperation.
«The International Center of Industrial Cooperation “Central Asia” is being created on the border with Uzbekistan. A roadmap is being implemented, the location of the center has been determined and it is planned to develop a feasibility study of the project. As part of the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, special attention is paid to the development of the infrastructure of the eastern branch «North-South» in the direction of Iran. The main priority is to develop the potential of transportation in the direction of India and Pakistan», — Serik Zhumangarin informed.
The Deputy Prime Minister also noted that work continues on the modernization of centers on the external borders with China, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Successful implementation of the project will increase transit cargo traffic by more than 2 times, and trade turnover by an average of 30%.
During his speech, Serik Zhumangarin noted that food inflation at the end of the year amounted to 25.3%. At the same time, the main jump in prices by 13.7% occurred in the period from February to April 2022. Among the main reasons for the current situation, the Deputy Prime Minister called geopolitical changes, the weakening of the national currency and the introduction of sanctions and counter-sanctions against Kazakhstan’s trading partners.
«In this regard, the key components of pricing have been revised and optimized. The work of regional commissions to investigate intermediary chains has been strengthened and working capital has been allocated to processing enterprises. The procedure for the formation of the commodity balance has been approved and the issues of the supply of vegetables in the off-season are being worked out. The approach to setting threshold and marginal retail prices has been revised, taking into account the interests of food producers», — the Deputy Prime Minister said.
To solve key problems in the field of trade, the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan has developed a package of effective measures. Among the main ones are the state stimulation of investments in the trade industry, the study of the issue of issuing land plots by akimats for the construction of retail facilities and the creation of 70 modern vegetable storages. By 2027, the share of modern trade formats is planned to increase from the current 31% to 70%.
In the field of technical regulation, positive results have been achieved in the field of simplification of mandatory requirements for products at the EAEU level to support Kazakhstani business, a unified system of technical regulation e-KTRM has been created and certified. For the first time in Kazakhstan, a certification body for Halal products for export has been accredited, 7 sectors of the economy have been fully standardized, 77 laboratories have been modernized, work has continued on the cancellation of “gray” certificates and other violations in the field of technical regulation.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov set a number of priority tasks for the Ministry of Trade and Integration, paying special attention to the work on restraining prices for socially important food products.
