Timur Kulibayev suggests working out a new agriculture development program

Head of Atameken National Economic Chamber Timur Kulibayev has suggested developing a new agriculture development program, Newskaz.ru reports. “In Kazakhstan there are over 200 000 farms (…) The aim is to help the farmers join the stable middle class (…) Larger farms own property eligible as collateral and may use borrowed funds. How can smaller farms turn to lenders?”, Kulibayev said, adding that respective suggestions could be worked out in partnership with the Association of Financiers and that it would be good to “have domestic banks say on what terms they are willing to provide loans to agriculture small and middle-sized businesses”. Mr. Kulibayev reminded about earlier suggestions of launching an Agro Bank. “In Russia there is such a bank; Kazakhstan is in the same Common Economic Space. And Kazakhstan’s farmers are in a less favorable position than those in Russia”, he said. “We are a nation where half of population live in rural areas and we are still not capable of meeting the internal demand for agricultural produce (…) Atameken will be working on suggestions and will unveil its vision of how to effectively provide support to the national agriculture”, Kulibayev said.