Kazakhstan to reduce imports of consumer goods by up to 50%

ASTANA (TCA) — At a briefing in Astana, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Zhenis Kassymbek spoke about measures being taken to develop the economy of simple things in Kazakhstan, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

In his recent Address “Growing Welfare of Kazakh Citizens: Increase in Incomes and Quality of Life” the President of Kazakhstan instructed to support enterprises to develop a wide range of consumer goods and promote the so-called “economy of simple things”. This is important not only for realizing the export potential, but also for saturating the domestic market with domestic goods. The government was instructed to allocate an additional 500 billion tenge to support the manufacturing industry and non-primary exports over the next 3 years.

“We have identified 250 such items of goods, which are used daily by the people of Kazakhstan and whose imports today account for more than 80%. We plan that we will be able to reduce the share of imports by up to 50% for these products in the next three years,” said Kassymbek.

In particular, the development of light industry will be stimulated: the production of fabrics, tailoring and footwear, fertilizers, paints and varnishes, the production of windows and doors, furniture, etc.

Kassymbek also said that thanks to the measures taken to promote non-commodity exports in the first 11 months of 2018, Kazakhstan’s exports increased by 24% to $54.7 billion, including the export of processed products that reached $14.3 billion. In 2018, Kazakhstani products were exported to 119 countries.

Sergey Kwan

TCA

Sergey Kwan has worked for The Times of Central Asia as a journalist, translator and editor since its foundation in March 1999. Prior to this, from 1996-1997, he worked as a translator at The Kyrgyzstan Chronicle, and from 1997-1999, as a translator at The Central Asian Post.
divider
Kwan studied at the Bishkek Polytechnic Institute from 1990-1994, before completing his training in print journalism in Denmark.

View more articles fromTCA