Kazakhstan

This report presents the governance framework in Kazakhstan for managing disaster risks. A wide range of disaster risks are present throughout the national territory, primarily floods, landslides, avalanches, but also extreme cold and heatwaves. The report reviews how the central government sets up a national strategy to manage these disaster risks, and how a national risk governance framework is formulated and executed. It examines the role of the private sector and other non-governmental actors in contributing to resilience at a national and subnational level.

This report presents the objectives, methodology, procedures and main findings of the OECD project 'Strengthening public finance capacity for green investments in the EECCA countries'. Between 2016-19, the project aimed to help set the partner countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova) on a sustainable path of development by reducing the energy and carbon intensity of their economies. Working with the relevant ministry in each country, the project designed public investment programmes in line with good international practices. These programmes sought to address key objectives of the countries' environmental and climate-related policies. The Clean Public Transport Programmes focus specifically on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the target sector, primarily in large urban areas. They aim to demonstrate how to use scarce public funds to encourage private sector investment in projects that generate significant environmental and socio-economic benefits alike.

Kazakhstan has recorded impressive economic growth rates since its independence, driven mainly by export of commodities and high rate of energy use. These rates are not sustainable and are generating significant air pollution, in particular from industrial stationary sources. This is putting at risk the country’s development ambitions to become one of the top global economies by 2050 and converge towards OECD living standards. Building on OECD previous analysis, this publication shows that Kazakhstan’s environmental payments (environmentally related taxes, non-compliance penalties and compensation for damage regulation) for industrial air pollutants, as currently applied, impede energy efficiency and pollution abatement with heavy-handed non-compliance responses and focus on rising revenues. They also add to the cost of doing businesses in the country with limited environmental benefit. In the spirit of the Polluter-Pays Principle, much more reforms of regulation of environmental payments are needed. This report provides guidelines for reform drawing from air pollution regulations in OECD member countries and the results of the analysis of the system in Kazakhstan carried out by the OECD in close co-operation with the Government of Kazakhstan.

The government of Kazakhstan has set an objective to substantially increase the contribution of SMEs and entrepreneurs to employment and value added in the economy. Although there are large numbers of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the country, achieving this growth will require a step change in the productivity of existing SMEs and the emergence of many more medium-sized and growth-oriented firms. This report shows the important achievements of the government in creating a clear vision and structures for SME and entrepreneurship policy, including major improvements in business regulations and through the introduction of the Business Road Map 2020 programme offering direct supports to SMEs and entrepreneurs in areas such as financing and infrastructure. It also highlights the current challenge of doing more to strengthen management capabilities, skills, and innovation in SMEs and new enterprises, and makes a range of specific recommendations for policy actions including further building the incubator and Entrepreneurship Support Centre infrastructure, introducing dedicated support for high-growth potential enterprises, and stimulating supply chain linkages around foreign director investors.

This report contains the 2018 Peer Review Report on the Exchange of Information on Request of Kazakhstan.