OREANDA-NEWS. June 06, 2014. The Ministry of Regional Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan jointly with the World Bank carried out a workshop to discuss institutional framework of state policy regulation of entrepreneurial activity.

Since 2011, under the Joint Economic Research Program, the Ministry of Regional Development of Kazakhstan and the World Bank worked together on various aspects of regulatory reform. As a result, with the support of the Bank, best international practices have been studied and applied to Kazakhstan's legislation according to the needs and local reality.

Thus, the new permits system based on applicable international practice laid grounds for development of the Concept of State Regulation of Entrepreneurial Activity 2020. In 2013, with the technical support from the World Bank the Law On Permissions and Notification was developed and further adopted by the Parliament and signed by the Head of the State this year. This law for the first time introduced enforcement of the regulatory permits impact analysis, thus creating a barrier to new unreasonable business permits.

In his speech, the Minister of Regional Development, Bolat Zhamishev, noted the importance of today's event as a beginning of an important new phase of reform of business regulation in Kazakhstan. "Kazakhstani business should really feel the improvement of the business climate. We see a real growth of the private sector as result of our work," said Bolat Zhamishev.

The workshop presented to the major stakeholders -- line ministries, members of Parliament, and business associations -- an analysis of the current regulatory policy in Kazakhstan and shared the lessons learned from the international experience on improving the regulatory policy. In particular, an insight into the specific experiences of the United Kingdom was presented with an emphasis on institutionalization of regulatory reform – establishment of institutions responsible for preparation, consultation, implementation and monitoring of good private sector regulation.

“The World Bank has been a long-standing development partner to the Government of Kazakhstan, and over the past years we have witnessed the important efforts from authorities in improving the investment climate in the country,” said Sebnem Akkaya, World Bank Country Manager for Kazakhstan. “As we continue our successful collaboration on regulatory reform, we believe it is important to focus on strengthening the public sector institutions that will improve the quality of all regulation and consolidate an enabling environment that fosters the attraction and retention of investments in the economy.”