State to Support Selected Companies
State to Support Selected Companies
Kazakstan’s government wants to support 30 of the country’s largest companies to help overcome the economy’s petrodollar dependency and strengthen its competitiveness on world markets, but NBCentralAsia observers say the idea smacks of previous failed initiatives.
Last week, the State Committee for Economic Modernisation, which was recently set up by President Nursultan Nazarbaev, presented its plan to select and support “30 corporate leaders”. With state backing, the selected companies will promote their products on the world market to stimulate sectors of the Kazak economy other than mineral resources.
The Kazak government has set itself the task of turning the country into one of the top 50 most competitive economies in the world.
According to Gulnur Rahmatullina, head of economics at the president’s Kazak Institute for Strategic Studies, the programme to strengthen with ties with the country’s largest corporations will help the government take effective measures to diversify the economy.
“Only by getting the authorities and businessmen to sit down at the same table will we able to address the obstacles to competitiveness,” she said.
It is also hoped that the scheme will prepare Kazakstan for entry to the World Trade Organisation, which is expected to happen next year, enabling it to compete with foreign producers.
Petr Svoik, head of the Almaty Public Anti-Monopoly Commission, a non-government body, also believes the scheme will bring the country closer to establishing a globally competitive economy if it is properly implemented. But he points out that the government’s plans are similar to a “cluster-based” economic development plan proposed several years ago, which has fallen well short of expectations.
Svoik is concerned that the present government might repeat the mistake made by its predecessor of trying to foster the emergence of large corporations within one economic sector or “cluster”.
“Danial Ahmetov [the former prime minister] started to work with those clusters, but if we go back to speeches the president made several years ago, we see that the same idea has been repeatedly voiced under different names, but nothing was ever done.”
Another risk is that the state will show favouritism towards certain companies, and then the plan to support leading firms will be reduced to “lobbying for, selecting and protecting [favoured] companies”, said Svoik.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
Last week, the State Committee for Economic Modernisation, which was recently set up by President Nursultan Nazarbaev, presented its plan to select and support “30 corporate leaders”. With state backing, the selected companies will promote their products on the world market to stimulate sectors of the Kazak economy other than mineral resources.
The Kazak government has set itself the task of turning the country into one of the top 50 most competitive economies in the world.
According to Gulnur Rahmatullina, head of economics at the president’s Kazak Institute for Strategic Studies, the programme to strengthen with ties with the country’s largest corporations will help the government take effective measures to diversify the economy.
“Only by getting the authorities and businessmen to sit down at the same table will we able to address the obstacles to competitiveness,” she said.
It is also hoped that the scheme will prepare Kazakstan for entry to the World Trade Organisation, which is expected to happen next year, enabling it to compete with foreign producers.
Petr Svoik, head of the Almaty Public Anti-Monopoly Commission, a non-government body, also believes the scheme will bring the country closer to establishing a globally competitive economy if it is properly implemented. But he points out that the government’s plans are similar to a “cluster-based” economic development plan proposed several years ago, which has fallen well short of expectations.
Svoik is concerned that the present government might repeat the mistake made by its predecessor of trying to foster the emergence of large corporations within one economic sector or “cluster”.
“Danial Ahmetov [the former prime minister] started to work with those clusters, but if we go back to speeches the president made several years ago, we see that the same idea has been repeatedly voiced under different names, but nothing was ever done.”
Another risk is that the state will show favouritism towards certain companies, and then the plan to support leading firms will be reduced to “lobbying for, selecting and protecting [favoured] companies”, said Svoik.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
