PPP loses momentum as projects saw 7-time fall in last year

As of the beginning of the present year, there have been 590 companies with state participation in the country, 11% down than in last year (663 companies), marking the highest reduction since the past five years. The downward trend in the number of companies with state participation began back in 2015. Since then, their number has reduced by an average of 5.2%.

With 115 enterprises the capital city, Nur-Sultan, has the biggest number of companies with state participation, however there was an annual decrease of 6.5%, alongside with Almaty (64 companies), Karaganda (49 companies), Almaty (45 companies) and Turkestan (39 companies) regions.

The country keeps developing a public-private partnership (PPP), a form of cooperation between the state and a private sector partner. The main goal of PPP is to develop infrastructure in the public interest by combining the resources and experience of the state and business, implementing socially significant projects with the lowest costs and risks, provided that economic entities receive high-quality services.

However, last year saw the decrease both in the number of PPP projects and in the amount of concluded contracts. In general, over the past year, 235 PPP agreements were concluded in the country - 20.3% less than in the previous year (295 agreements). The amount of projects decreased by 7.5 times and amounted to 151 billion tenge, while in 2018 it stood at 1.1 trillion tenge.

The PPP mechanisms are widespread in Kazakhstan and cover all the sectors of the economy, with the exception of facilities, the list of which is determined by the Government of Kazakhstan. In order to develop this area, new measures are being taken - for example, the introduction of a “single window” principle for working with investors on PPP projects. Its task is to interact with investors, provide information and consulting support for PPP projects, as well as clarify the legal norms in the field of PPP and concession.