In the Current address to the people, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev highlighted the need for rapid changes in the state's monetary policy, as well as the elimination of other barriers to business development.

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"Business still faces the problem of excessive regulation, when government agencies dictate what an entrepreneur should do for all sorts of reasons," says Kuanysh Zhaikov, partner at the Center for research and consulting. – These are various regulations, requirements for construction and premises, working conditions, products, intervention in pricing, relationships with suppliers and customers, and much more.

In his opinion, a serious barrier to business development is the violation of market competition through state instruments. It can manifest itself directly if a state-owned enterprise decides to produce products or provide services that a private entrepreneur is engaged in. Or maybe indirectly, through selective support of one player in the market to the detriment of another – from subsidies to direct decisions of state bodies.

In his 2020 Address, the Head of state noted that the state's regulatory system is still cumbersome, even punitive, and listed the most corrupt areas-architectural and construction activities, sanitary and epidemiological surveillance, veterinary medicine, and certification.

The President clearly outlined the barriers to business development: anti-competitive manifestations persist everywhere, and at the regional level, the main component of commercial success is the administrative resource.

According to Kuanysh Zhaikov, in order to break the existing system and carry Out reforms, constant public control of the state apparatus is necessary. Only then will it function in the new specified vector. In this regard, the President speaks about civic participation and the need to involve people in the reform process. A similar solution is also relevant for businesses.

Industry is distinguished from other sectors by higher capital intensity, which means large investments. Large investments are big risks, so there are much more sensitive entrepreneurs who are inclined to cooperate. In just 5 years, the number of operating enterprises in the industry has grown by 1.5 times – a critical mass has begun to appear.
Kazakhstan's business class, which produces and exports complex non-primary products, supports the President's reforms, as it is interested in independent political and economic development of its country, Kuanysh Zhaikov is convinced.

Such entrepreneurs are consolidating, and they can already be widely involved, for example, in protecting national interests within the framework of the EAEU and the WTO. Their main feature is the requirement of an "equal field" for competition and uniform rules of the game for everyone, rather than privileges for individual players in the market. This is also an indicator of the maturity of domestic business. If there is no participation of interested parties – private investors and entrepreneurs, there will be no reforms themselves.

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Author: Igor Prokhorov