Kazakhstan plans to rise in competitiveness rating

Kazakhstan expects to rise by 12 positions in the World Bank's Global Competitiveness Index this year. Read more about this in the material of the "Strategy2050.kz" Information Agency.

To begin with, the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) is defined by the World Economic Forum. It is a set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country, conditions of public institutions and technical conditions. The rating uses public accessible (statistic) datas (WB, IMF, etc.) and results of findings made by World Economic Forum. These findings are made annually with the support of partner institutions (research institutions and business centers). The research has been conducted since 2004 and currently represents the most comprehensive set of competitiveness indicators in various countries of the world.

As a result of the 2017 assessment, Kazakhstan ranked the 57th position among 137 countries. During a briefing for the diplomatic corps and foreign business associations Vice Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Madina Zhunusbekova noted that raising the country's rating in the GCI is one of the priorities of the economic policy of the Government of Kazakhstan.

"To improve the competitiveness rating, the Government together with the business community is doing a lot of work. This year we expect that Kazakhstan will occupy the 45th position in this index. We want to climb 12 positions higher", M. Zhunusbekova said.

The Vice-Minister added that the principles of corporate governance in the private sector will be introduced and corporate governance ratings will be developed with reference to the risk management system of regulatory bodies.

"In recent years, we have carried out a large-scale audit of the control and supervisory functions of the state bodies, during which the number of administrative barriers and regulatory burden on business have been significantly reduced, digitalization of the state services provided has been carried out", the speaker said.

At the same time, she said, this year it is planned to cover reconstruction of 4,2 thousand kilometers and repair of 2 thousand kilometers of highways of national importance. In the future, it is planned to shift the emphasis to local roads and bring the annual coverage by repair to 5 thousand kilometers.

"All government services necessary for doing business are provided on a "single window" basis. A new Tax Code was adopted, the purpose of which was to simplify tax administration procedures. In 2017, the macroeconomic situation improved. The average annual inflation was reduced from 14.6% to 7.1%. The budget deficit decreased from 5.3% in 2015 to 4.4% in 2016. International rating agencies Standard&Poors, Moody's and Fitch assigned Kazakhstan a "stable" rating", the Vice Minister summed up.

Saltanat Suraganova