The development of small and midsize businesses in the capital was discussed at one of the autumn sessions of the Astana Maslikhat

The head of the Capital Investment and Entrepreneurship Development Department, Khalel Akimzhanov, emphasized that in recent years Astana has been transforming not only into an administrative center but also into a city of entrepreneurs. Currently, Astana has 237,500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Growth compared to the same period in 2023 reached 4.9%, or 11,000 businesses. SMEs employ 512,000 people, which is 74% of the economically active population of the city.

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for about two-thirds (78.3%) of the capital’s economy. In the first quarter of 2024, SMEs produced goods and provided services worth 3,321.8 billion tenge.

In the first quarter of 2024, tax and other payments to the city budget amounted to 1,235.2 billion tenge, of which 718 billion were received from SME entities (71.8%).