Protection of the rights of entrepreneurs is one of the priorities of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken". We are talking to the President of the Council of protection of the rights of entrepreneurs under NCE RK "Atameken" Gani Kasymov about consistency of this work, its hidden meaning and the grand purpose of it.

- Gani Esengeldinovich, our readers have become accustomed to the fact that the war for the freedom of entrepreneurship has become the "eternal category of existence". 10 and 20, and 30 years ago, businessmen complained about the obstacles erected by bureaucrats. What has changed since then?

- I think I can say without exaggeration that prior to the transfer of these functions to the Chamber no one was engaged in the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs so deep and on such large scale. Only at NCE RK the protection of the interests of business acquired a systemic character. We started with the fact that we identified indicators of basic phenomena, which do not allow entrepreneurship to develop. In two years, we received more than 9,000 complaints from businessmen: 2600 by the headquarters of NCE, and about 7000 by the Regional Chambers.

The main problem is the administrative and other barriers due to inadequate legislation. When the legislation does not allow to ensure the complete coverage of some activities and to make clear the rules of the game for all participants, the chaos begins. At this level, it is usually manifested in different corruption schemes, extortion and e.t.c., wide range of powers of the various government agencies it enhances it, especially at the level of local authorities.

The main question in this situation: how to find a "golden middle" between the objective necessity of state control and freedom of entrepreneurship? It seems to me that excessive abundance of regulations in certain sectors of economic activity gives rise to bureaucratic lawlessness.

- And in what spheres it is felt most acutely?

- There are a few problematic areas. First of all, these are issues related to land allocation, land surveying and architecture activities, and so on. Today it has become almost impossible to get a land plot for construction of a factory, a restaurant or a newsstand. And this despite the fact that Kazakhstan has vast land resources in cities and villages.

Second, the most sensitive issue is obtaining of construction permits. This entire procedure is utterly bureaucratized. Time spent on gathering of all the documents for the construction of the house is twice longer than the construction itself. And, most importantly, direct contacts with the officials create a ground for corruption.

Another problematic area is the customs clearance. Many entrepreneurs complain about the unwarranted use of different standards by the customs authorities during export-import operations, or obscure methods for determining the value of goods, leading to additional costs. Many entrepreneurs disputes on entry and exit procedures, import and export of goods ... duality of interpretations enables the customs officer to manipulate the entrepreneurs, forcing them to illegal actions. However, I would like to make a comment at this spot. Every year customs authorities direct to the state budget 1 trillion 300 billion tenge, which are fees from export operations, the budget itself is more than 6 trillion tenge. Therefore, raising the issue of the audit of the powers of Customs, it is also necessary to take into account this fact. It is necessary to seek a balance between the interests of business and the interests of the budget.

And finally, the greatest number of complaints comes on illegal actions of local executive bodies. Akimats have various subordinated institutions, which are actually trading all sorts of permits, licenses and other "indulgences".

- These institutions remind a fairy tale: at the spot of one cut off tentacle grow ten instead. Is it possible to fight with all of them or they can be referred to a category "evil"?

- It is possible and necessary to deal with them! And we are fighting. I can say that by the proposal of NCE RK and the regional chambers were initiated 19 criminal cases. 39 officials are involved in administrative and disciplinary proceedings. 8 officials were dismissed from their posts at our request.

In overall, I can say that about 40 percent of all complaints reviewed by NCE were positively resolved. About 10 billion tenge was returned into turnover of businessmen in 2015. I would like to draw your attention to this - it is a direct economic impact of our activities!

Unfortunately, we come to understanding not with all government agencies. Here is an example. The decree of the Minister of National Economy #242 on increase of the rent price for premises at schools, hospitals, clinics, military units. The document, which, incidentally, has not been agreed with NCE RK, suddenly puts entrepreneurs tenants of canteens on the brink of ruin. The rental price was raised from 240 thousand tenge up to 9 million tenge per year by the new decree of the minister! After our intervention rates were recalculated and "reduced" ... to 5 million tenge.

Another example. The customs authorities personally canceled the quota provided by the state for the supply of scarce goods to 40 companies and assessed the arrears for all three years of the quotas. This is despite the axiom of the Kazakhstani law, "the law is not retroactive".

These and other examples of bureaucratic lawlessness were also discussed at the 9th session of the Council on protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, held in conjunction with the Prosecutor General's Office.

- Could you tell us more about the interaction of NCE RK "Atameken" and the General Prosecutor's Office?

- I can put my hand on my heart and say that we established  partnership relations with the Prosecutor's Office, they have helped to make the work of protection of the rights of businessmen systemic. In 2013, NCE RK and the Prosecutor General's Office signed a cooperation memorandum, on the basis of which were developed action plans, including work on the topics I listed above. Only in 2014 we held 8 meetings of the Council on protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, two of which were held at the site of the General Prosecutor's Office in the format of a video conference with participation of RCEs, the regional structures of the Prosecutor General’s Office, and one visiting session at the site of the Headquarters of the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs under the Prosecutor’s Office of Aktobe region

I must say that today most of the work is conducted at the level of regional chambers, the regional prosecutor's offices and its territorial divisions. It gives a completely different, dramatic effect! After all, in addition to the systematization of all appeals, we get feedback from entrepreneurs. And complaints of entrepreneurs get from regional chambers directly to Prosecutor’s Office. It is no coincidence that at a recent meeting of the Council on 9^th of  December 2015 together with the main report, we prepared a short video in which real entrepreneurs from the regions told about their problems. When you see a person, you have a completely different approach to the consideration of a problem. It is not a boring report, it is a human being. In addition, a video is broadcasted nation-wide and, consequently, the regional prosecutor's office can also see it and has to react.

- You are talking about the systematic work with complaints. What do you mean by "systematic"?

- Previously complaints were considered separately. They were considered by various state bodies. I do not want to criticize anyone, but this work was like a burden. Nobody grouped complaints and analyzed them.

We did not understand what processes, occurring in the country at the level of its regions, cause the reaction of entrepreneurs. Since its inception NCE has not just started to record cases of violation of the rights of business, but also to indentify the trend. Today the system of protection of the rights of entrepreneurs allows us to identify gaps in legislation or other reasons, which have made possible the phenomenon, which infringes the freedom of entrepreneurs. This gives us the opportunity to use our lawmaking capacity: to introduce through the Government or the deputies of the Parliament amendments to legislative acts, or to raise the issue of the new laws that affect a particular type of activity. Thus, NCE lays legislative foundation for reduction of the level of crimes in relation to business.

Now, analyzing the accumulated experience, we, I mean NCE RK "Atameken", we come to understand the need for revision of all legislation, including regulations, affecting or concerning entrepreneurship. This work will be conducted on a national scale. We will insist on the fact that a number of legislative acts must be put on the loss as irrelevant to today's realities. There are articles in the legislation, certain provisions of laws, having purely a declarative character, or frankly archaic - a legacy of the 90s of the last century. In addition, there are a number of rules that contradict to each other, not fully covering some relationships that do not meet the market economy and the nature of its structure. We will revise separately the rules on the broad powers of law enforcement authorities in order to bring them into line with the requirements of the civilized world. New economic realities require a new look, new approaches and new assessments. At the same time we understand that for the authorities in question it will be a very painful process. But we are ready for a reasoned debate. We have something to say regarding the system of inspections. In our opinion, today it is necessary to switch to monitoring, track new trends and be proactive rather than apply repressive measures. The emphasis on rigor administrative measures has proved its uselessness.

- What is the ultimate goal of this work?

- We must understand that the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" - is not a lawyer on duty. Our main supergoal is creation of an atmosphere of free entrepreneurship, that is, conditions to ensure economic growth and increase of the number of entrepreneurs at all levels. Let me remind you of the task set before us by the Head of State: increase the share of small and medium enterprises in the formation of GDP from 18-20 to 40-45 per cent. Which means new employment opportunities for our citizens, new jobs, expansion of the tax base. But, more importantly, sustainable development of entrepreneurship and creation of a special social environment. Formation of a broad segment of the population who support themselves and their families, generate new jobs and new industries based on the manufactured products that is the strategic goal of our activity. Involving citizens in the business, enabling them to operate without regard to the state agencies, we are changing the mentality of society, moving away from the paternalistic model.

Today we are on the threshold of a great social change: a new class of wealthy bourgeois appears at the arena of public life, they are independent in decision-making, they are not dependent of financial resources of the state. And we have to give them freedom of entrepreneurial initiative. And we can achieve this only through the creation of a system of protection of the rights of the entrepreneurs.