Monday, July 30, 2012 -
Kazakhstan’s national export and investment agency Kaznex Invest said Monday it will subsidize the transportation costs of Kazakh exporters by as much as 30 percent to make their products more competitive abroad.
The government reckons its generous offer will boost exports by 30-50 percent and stimulate the growth of export-oriented industries in Kazakhstan.
The initiative comes within the Exporter–2020 program, established to support and promote exporters of non-primary goods.
“Kazakh goods are not always competitive in foreign markets because of the pricing, which is formed on the basis of transport costs. Because of this, they may lose existing markets," said Kaznex Invest deputy chairman Meyershan Maykenov, according to a government press report on Monday.
Maykenov told the Kazakh premier’s web site that Kazakhstan's exporters often face high transportation costs.
"We have now developed a mechanism of compensation of transportation costs to exporters to the order of 30 percent, due to the state initiative Exporter-2020,” he said.
Exporters already receive generous state discounts in nine areas reducing their costs by as much as 50 percent.
These discounts are applied to product registration, trademarks, and certification fees, advertizing costs, employee training, overseas market research costs among others.