The Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan met with businessmen of the country

At the Prosecutor General’s Office, Berik Asylov held an annual meeting of business with the prosecutor’s office, Liter.kz reports.

According to the department’s press service, issues of minimizing state participation in the economy, reducing costs for business, mitigating criminal penalties and tightening the responsibility of officials for interference in business activities were discussed at the platform of the highest supervisory body.

The dialogue was attended by First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Roman Sklyar, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhienbaev, deputies of Parliament, first heads of ministries and departments, business ombudsman, chairman of the presidium of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken” and regional representatives of “NPP ATAMEKEN”, management of NC “KAZAKH” INVEST”, National Wealth Fund “Samruk-Kazyna”, JSC “NMH “Baiterek”, representatives of private business and investors. In addition, regional and district prosecutors, deputy regional akims, heads of entrepreneurship departments and regional representatives of the Atameken NCE are connected online.

Opening the meeting, the Prosecutor General noted that the presidential order “On measures to liberalize the economy” has become a new and decisive measure in expanding the economic potential and improving the country’s investment climate.

The abolition of unnecessary restrictions for business, reduction of the tax burden and bureaucratic barriers will only contribute to the influx of investment and economic development of the country.

These are the tasks set for the entire state apparatus and the quasi-public sector by the Head of State.”

A special feature of the meeting was the presentation of new functions and tools in the field of business protection and investment support. They are assigned to prosecutors by the presidential decree “On measures to liberalize the economy” and will be regulated in laws.

First of all, this is support by prosecutors for significant investment projects from filing an application to the full launch of the project.

Today, prosecutors are paying attention to over 770 such projects worth over 32 trillion tenge, which receive real protection from unlawful actions of officials.

A representative of the Spanish investor Big Farm LLP, who was present at the meeting, said that he was on the verge of leaving the Kazakhstan market. For 3 years, he could not obtain land for the construction of a modern agro-industrial complex with 400 jobs in rural areas.

Only after the project was taken under the supervision of the prosecutor were the necessary agreements reached on the allocation of the site and the project was launched. And there are hundreds of such examples.

Over the course of a year and a half, prosecutors provided protection to 350 investors whose projects were preserved on the Kazakh market. The total value of their investments in the country’s economy is 6.4 trillion tenge.

In the near future, the Prosecutor General’s Office will post on its website a single pool of projects that will be under prosecutorial support.

Another key supervisory tool is the “Prosecutor’s Filter,” which has been allowing investors to freely implement their projects for more than a year.

Within the framework of the “prosecutor’s filter”, all decisions of government agencies and the quasi-public sector of a restrictive nature are made only after approval by the prosecutor.

Without the prosecutor’s “consent,” tax audits are not ordered.

Today, over 2 thousand decisions affecting the interests of investors have passed through the filter, of which 270 were denied approval.

As the economy liberalizes, the boundaries of the filter will be expanded and the consent of the prosecutor will become mandatory when imposing administrative penalties, initiating lawsuits and ordering inspections against investors.

In essence, the “prosecutor’s filter” will become a barrier against unscrupulous decisions of officials and guarantees that every action in the field of investment will be legal.

The “Green Corridor” and “Unified Digital Investment Platform” projects implemented by the government will become important tools for improving the investment climate.

They will provide easier conditions for investors to enter the Kazakhstan market and digitalization of all stages of investment projects.

In case of illegal actions on the part of government agencies, the “smart” system will signal the prosecutor’s office to take action.

To quickly respond to these and other signals, front offices have been opened in each region for investors and businesses, there are 24-hour call centers and mobile teams for rapid response to violations of the rights of entrepreneurs.

All government agencies, the business ombudsman, NCE Atameken and NC KAZAKH INVEST JSC are involved in the work of the front offices, and assistance is provided to entrepreneurs on the “one window” principle.

“Today, a business can contact the prosecutor directly, without an appointment and receive an immediate response,” noted Raimbek Batalov, chairman of the presidium of the Atameken NCE, in his speech.

The head of the country’s largest association of entrepreneurs emphasized that the work carried out by the prosecutor’s office and its role in protecting businesses and investors is colossal.

This is confirmed by over 300 thousand protected rights of entrepreneurs, in respect of which over 2.5 years prosecutors managed to cancel more than 16 thousand illegal inspections, 13 thousand enforcement proceedings, 22 thousand restrictive measures and 12 thousand unjustified administrative fines worth 2.2 billion tenge.

“We understand that this is a huge amount of work that requires consistency and legislative regulation. In this direction, in light of the president’s instructions to liberalize the economy, we have a lot of joint work ahead of us,” concluded Raimbek Batalov.

The Business Ombudsman outlined the importance of consistency and transparency in matters of interaction between the state apparatus and the business community and expressed his readiness to cooperate in matters of protecting business and developing the business environment.

Concluding the meeting, Berik Asylov instructed regional and city prosecutors to hold “Open Doors Days” for the business community and deal with each problematic issue as soon as possible.

“The President assigned a key role to the Prosecutor General’s Office in matters of ensuring legality in the field of entrepreneurship and investment support.

And our common goal is to make the process of doing business and investing in the country as straightforward and transparent as possible, eliminating administrative barriers and corruption,” summed up the head of the highest supervisory body.

As a result of the meeting, a memorandum of mutual cooperation was signed between the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, which outlined clear goals for further joint work.