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Participants of the Forum included Jinlin Yang, Head of Kazakhstan representative of Asian Development Bank, Lyazzat Ibragimova, Chairman of the Management Board of “Entrepreneurship development fund “Damu” JSC, Salima Jurunova, Deputy Director of the Almaty branch of the National bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Askar Yelemesov, Chairman of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, representatives of second-tier banks, “National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken", and entrepreneurs. As Grant Thornton representatives Arman Chingilbayev, Partner and Zabish Zhanuzakov, Advisory Director presented the results of the research and gave recomendations.
In order to facilitate access to financing for SME, the experts of Grant Thornton recommended representatives of SME to improve the personnel of the company, to generate new ideas and projects, to build long-term partner relationship with second-tier banks and improve business transparency. According to Grant Thornton specialists, it is possible to increase SME portfolio in banks by diversifying by industry, regions and focusing on fast-growing small companies. Second-tier banks are also encouraged to follow a fair competition with each other in the “fight” for “good” clients and projects.
In turn, the second-tier banks require provision of a high-quality collateral by potential borrowers, clear and transparent data on the company's business, third party guarantees, or state guarantees, clear rationale for the profitability of the project.
The research conducted by Grant Thornton specialists, as well as discussions during the Forum showed that the main problems encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises in Kazakhstan in obtaining affordable financing are high interest rates, requirements of banks to use services of the lending banks and the collateral requirement. In addition, the problems associated with the provision of “long term money” for SME include long process of consideration of applications of potential borrowers, tightening of credit terms offered by government agencies and foreign investors, low level of transparency of SME and poor quality of financial reporting, which makes it difficult to analyze their financial position and operational results.
The recommendations given during the Forum will form the basis for the policy of the Asian Development Bank of Kazakhstan in financing entrepreneurs through second-tier banks of Kazakhstan.
As stated by Arman Chingilbayev, Partner at Grant Thornton “given the loan growth potential in SMEs sector and the high competition on high-quality borrower, banks need to be more flexible and mobile in terms of attracting customers, but not to the detriment of the quality of the loan portfolio”.
More information about the Forum can be found at the following websites:
http://m.zakon.kz/4728931-kazakhstanskie-predprinimateli.html
http://www.damu.kz/19025
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