Domestic furniture manufacturers are willing to participate in the construction of the international exhibition

On the site of NCE RK "Atameken" domestic producers of furniture products discussed with the national company "Astana EXPO - 2017", "Baiterek Development", subcontracted construction companies, the question of increase of procurement of  products for construction of EXPO 2017.

As it was noted by the Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of entrepreneurs Yuliya Yakupbaeva, Chamber together with government agencies and quasi-public enterprises is discussing the matter on the basis of the President's instructions on increasing the share of the Kazakh content in public procurement.

According to the company "Baiterek development", currently in the framework of the project EXPO-2017 in Astana are being built two apartment residential complexes, consisting of 1374 apartments, as well as shopping and entertainment centers with total area of ​​138,000 square meters.

Since the apartments are being built for visitors of the exhibition, it stipulates the presence of furniture. In this regard, the Chamber addressed to the company "Astana EXPO-2017" with the request to maximize the use of the largest orders of domestic furniture enterprises.

According to "Astana EXPO-2017", the budget for 2016 has not yet been approved, now it is under consideration of the Government.

"There is serious work to sequestering of these funds. Therefore, as the "provision of furniture" is provided, the organizer of the procurement activities, and the administrator of this process will be the company "Baiterek development", since it will be the owner of these apartments. In this regard, we are now engaged in a redirection of funds through the "Baiterek development" as the owner of the property", - said Anna Boeva, Director of the Department of Price Marketing , procurement and local content of the national company “Astana EXPO-2017”.

She also noted that the import of goods for the organization of the exhibition “EXPO-2017” is arranged without payment of customs duties and taxes and applying non-tariff and technical regulation. At the same time, such products must be used within the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and solely for the purpose of organizing and conducting exhibitions.

According to representatives of  “Astana EXPO-2017”,  apartments for guests of the exhibition will be built by the end of 2016, tentatively in September. Accordingly, their equipment with furniture should be completed by January 2017, as guest will be checking –in as of February.

The representatives of the Association of Furniture Manufactures offered to companies - potential partners not to lose time, and despite the unresolved issues regarding financing of the exhibition, to consider ways of making deals now.

"Today, the furniture industry, as well as other manufacturing industries, are under great pressure, associated with the ongoing crisis. So for us it is a chance - to take part in EXPO. Our goal is to develop the furniture industry, and we could have in it our own market share greater than 30%. It is sad that at our "kitchen" we have only 30%. It is very important that now local producers are involved in the relevant government projects, so that we can survive in the current circumstances", - said Yerzhan Sadykov, vice president of the Association of Furniture and Woodworking Industry of Kazakhstan.

The representative of the Association of Furniture Manufactures and Woodworking Industry of Kazakhstan, director of  "TornadoPlus" Igor Protsenko, in turn, made a proposal on the participation of the Association of furniture manufacturers in the development of technical specifications and presentation furniture set ups".

Igor Protsenko said that Entrepreneurship Support Fund "Damu" offers "long" cheap money.

“ For example, we can, including construction companies, sign a memorandum of intent to enter into a contract, and within them, use these" long "cheap money, firstly, to fix the selling prices of construction companies, and, secondly, load volumes of our production. Personally, I have now a 70 percent decline in production, there are loans in dollars. However, I try to keep the high skilled specialists at work. The same situation is in the regions. There is one solution, which is to place orders now and the cheap products will be available at today's prices by the completion of construction", - said Igor Protsenko.

As it was noted by Yuliya Yakupbaeva, NCE constantly rises the issue of local content in construction projects in all regions of the country.

"For several months we raise the question of the establishment of the Center of contracting, which would consider all major contracts around the country, so that we can evaluate technical specifications. This will enable manufacturers to realistically assess the needs of the market, that is to know how much and what to produce, what specific nomenclature. And second, our contractors and customers would  know with whom to work, for this purpose we need a unified register of producers, so that customers could see whether there are Kazakh producers in this segment. We are working in this direction", - summed up the deputy chairman of NCE.

Deputy Head of "Atameken" offered to send a letter to the Government with the following recommendations by the results of the meeting:

1) to determine the presence of furniture in the construction of residential complexes, carried out under the EXPO-2017 and rental housing within the program of development of regions up to 2020;

2) to speed up the provision of information to market participants about the technical specifications and expected prices on furniture for the projects of EXPO-2017;

3) to offer the possibility of participation of furniture companies in the development of technical specifications for the facilities, constructed within the frames of EXPO-2017;

4) to provide tax incentives for companies that use products of domestic manufacturers, for the purpose of organizing and carrying out exhibition EXPO-2017;

5) to consider the possibility of signing a memorandum between the Association of furniture manufactures and woodworking industries and companies of Kazakhstan "Astana EXPO-2017" and "Baiterek development";

6) to form a pool of furniture companies that could fulfill orders for the manufacture of furniture for the facilities of EXPO-2017.

In the future, based on the pool will be created a single register of domestic furniture enterprises, indicating the catalog and range of products, information on production facilities, etc. this information will be directed to "Astana EXPO-2017" and "Baiterek development".