Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva met with the heads of sewing and knitting enterprises in preparation for the Parliamentary hearings.
In a speech at the meeting, the Director of AGF Group Gaukhar Nassyrova told about the problems of selling clothing products in the domestic market of Kazakhstan and for export.
According to her, there is an acute problem of shortage of retail space, which is why companies have to rent space in shopping and entertainment centers of class “A” and pay disproportionately high rental rates, while experiencing a huge financial burden.
At the same time, the industry needs support from the state when exporting its products. G. Nassyrova gave an example from the practice of the company headed by her, which reached agreements on the supply of products produced in Kazakhstan to world-famous trading companies (H&M, ZARA and INDITEX). However, the EU import duty on products from Kazakhstan is 12%. While for producers in Uzbekistan, the duty is 9.4%, for Turkey and Pakistan – 0%. This dramatically reduces the competitiveness of domestic producers in foreign markets.
Andrey Shmarin, Director of ESCO, also spoke at the meeting. He believes that it is necessary to consider the possibility of making changes to the legislation on public procurement.
Andrey Shmarin drew attention to the article of the Law “Participation in public procurement of certain categories of potential suppliers”. This article defines the preferential right of organizations of people with disabilities in public procurement for certain categories of goods regulated by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The law defines the procurement of goods from public associations of the disabled and (or) organizations created by public associations of the disabled in the amount of at least fifty percent of the total amount of funds. This statement in the Law allows 100% purchase of light industry goods from the society of disabled people without any restrictions, limiting the right to participate in such purchases of other domestic manufacturers. At the same time, customers often arbitrarily refer all light industry products to the “exclusive” right.
In her speech, Chairman of the Senate Dariga Nazarbayeva instructed parliamentarians to study the issue of availability of retail space for domestic producers and the cost of rent: “We need to study the issue of pricing of shopping centers. This problem should be considered comprehensively in the context of the prospective development of domestic production”.
At the same time, Dariga Nazarbayeva considers it necessary to create a system of support for manufacturers of light industry products in the field of marketing in order to promote Kazakhstani brands in the domestic market.
Summing up the meeting, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament instructed the Committee on Economic Policy, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship to study the problematic topics raised by the participants of the meeting and prepare them for discussion at Parliamentary hearings.
