According to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan", the functions of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan include execution, certification, and issuance of certificates of origin of goods, and issuance of an industrial certificate.

Today, the National Chamber issues 8 types of various certificates, including export certificates and CT-KZ certificates. It is worth noting that the issuance of certificates is a system that is strictly regulated at all stages.

Reference: every year the National Chamber of Commerce issues more than 7,000 CT-KZ certificates and more than 50,000 certificates for export.

The issuance of certificates is a function delegated to the Chamber since 2014 by order of the Government of Kazakhstan. Transfer of this function to the Chamber allowed harmonizing the process with international norms and practice of certificate issuance procedures in the EAEU and CIS countries.

 Certificates of origin of goods

This is a common international experience when certificates of origin are issued by chambers of entrepreneurs or, in other words, the largest business association. At the same time, in neighboring countries, such as Russia and Belarus, the time frame for obtaining certificates is longer than in Kazakhstan and many times more expensive.

Issuance of export certificates and CT-KZ is carried out by regional Chambers of Entrepreneurs on the basis of examination certificates of origin of goods provided by applicants. It should be noted that the National Chamber only certifies the information specified in the certificate of expertise.

 In turn, we note that the attestation and expertise is the sphere of state regulation of the  Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology, as well as legal liability for violations of issuing certificates.

Thus, the Chamber is the final link in the system of certificates issuance. This process has been maximally optimized since 2018. So, nowadays the term for certificate issuance is only one day.

In addition, for exporters selling perishable products, it is envisaged to issue certificates not only in the regions but also in the regions where the production is located.

The National Chamber digitized the whole process of issuing certificates, which allowed simplifying and speeding up the certification procedures, reducing the document circulation and reducing the costs and time for preparing documents to obtain the certificate.

Industrial Certificate

The Industrial Certificate was developed at the initiative of Kazakhstani entrepreneurs-producers to confirm the availability of production and production capacity of the enterprise.

In turn, the need to create the tool was a consequence of the increasing number of cases of unfair competition on the part of "false producers", when individual entrepreneurs under the guise of domestic products supplied uncertified cheap imports and, as a rule, won in regulated purchases.

 Atameken has been issuing an Industrial Certificate since April 2019. At the same time, the first 6 months were defined as a pilot period aimed at improving the mechanism for issuing the certificate. As a result of the pilot period, the Chamber conducted a thorough analysis not only of the issuance but also of the application of the Industrial Certificate.

Reference: as of March 4 of this year, more than 250 industrial certificates have been issued, 70% of which belong to the light and furniture industries.

During this period, we were able to establish feedback from all participants: from entrepreneurs and industry associations to government agencies. Having collected the opinions of the parties, the Chamber prepared a package of amendments to the Rules, which were repeatedly submitted for discussion with business and involved government agencies.

It is necessary to note, during discussions by all representatives of the Kazakhstan manufacturers, including organizations for the disabled persons, the unequivocal position on the necessity of the Industrial certificate, as the unique tool of verification and support of valid manufacturers of production, and struggle against false manufacturers was expressed.

On February 20 this year, new Regulations came into force, which regulates:

• mandatory provision of at least one industry expert in each region, cities of national importance and the capital, where the existing enterprises of the industry are located;
• possibility to service out of turn disabled organizations when considering an application for inclusion in the register of the domestic manufacturers and analysis of the state of production;
• full automation of the whole business process of issuing an industrial certificate.

At the same time, it should be emphasized that an Industrial Certificate is a document confirming the availability of equipment, facilities necessary for the production of a group of goods (for example, furniture, cable products, etc.), but it does not determine the technical characteristics of the product. It should be understood that the technical characteristics of goods may vary from many variables, including the raw materials and components used in production, production technology, etc.

Standardization tools, i.e. GOSTs, are used for this purpose.

In general, it should be noted that the adopted changes are aimed at creating equal conditions and fair competition among domestic producers. In addition, the new Rules made it possible to exclude the possibility of applying anti-competitive measures when issuing an industrial certificate.

Unfortunately, today in the Senate the deputies made accusations against the National Chamber on matters of Certification without citing specific facts. The Atameken NCE RK expresses its disagreement with these deductions.

It should be noted that in preparation for the parliamentary hearings 7 working meetings on light industry issues were held at the Senate venue. At the same time, in the course of discussions, where also representatives of business were present, the issue of certification was considered only in a positive way.

At the same time, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs welcomes the initiative and interest of the members of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan in this issue and expresses readiness to present in detail the mechanisms of issuing the Industrial certificate and certificates of origin of goods, with the invitation of representatives of the business community, government agencies and media. We look forward to constructive cooperation in this matter.