Round table on problematic issues in business

03.06.2016

On June 03, 2016, the law firm KORGAN, together with the Karaganda city branch of the Nur Otan party, held a round table with the participation of representatives of the Financial Control Inspectorate for the Karaganda region, the Office of the Labor Inspectorate of the Karaganda region, the Department of Justice of the Karaganda region and the Department of Justice of Karaganda, regional chamber of entrepreneurs in the Karaganda region. The round table discussed the problems that arise in the course of entrepreneurial activities: during inspections by representatives of the labor inspectorate, during public procurement. Representatives of the justice authorities explained the innovations in the field of state registration of rights to real estate, clarified the issues of state registration of legal entities in electronic form, and also highlighted the protection of intellectual property rights. The representative of the regional chamber of entrepreneurs in the Karaganda region spoke about non-financial support for entrepreneurs, as well as programs for the development of entrepreneurship in the region.

Currently, the financial control bodies are working on in-house control of ongoing public procurement and control does not involve the punishment of administrative fines for customers represented by state institutions, but involves the use of preventive measures of influence – a warning or an indication of the need to eliminate the violations that have occurred. The types of cameral control, as well as frequently committed violations by Customers during public procurement, were considered. So the most common violation is: the presentation of requirements for the presence of work experience, the limitation of the delivery time of goods, while the legislator has set a minimum delivery time of 15 days, the absence of a technical specification in the tender documentation, as well as ignoring the requirements for the need to purchase goods and services from non-commercial organizations such as the Society for the Disabled, etc.

The norms of the new Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan were clarified, one of the main innovations is the issuance of a certificate of trust to the employer, which is issued for three years during which the subject is not subject to inspection by the labor inspectorate, while one of the important conditions for issuing is the absence of traumatic and accidents at the enterprise, previous issuance of a certificate. Representatives of the labor inspectorate explained that in the event of a complaint from employees of the organization about the delay in the payment of wages, the absence of an employment contract, these applications are accepted for consideration by the labor inspectorate and, if the composition of an administrative offense is established, fines are imposed, for example, in relation to a small business entity, an administrative the fine is 60 monthly calculation indices.

It should be noted that at present the procedure for registering real estate and legal entities has been simplified as much as possible, in connection with the introduction of an electronic registration system. From January 01, 2015, an alternative procedure for registering real estate has been excluded, that is, at present, all real estate transactions made at a notary are automatically registered with the justice authorities, and therefore the term for registering real estate has been reduced from five days to one working day.

In the field of state registration of legal entities, the justice authorities have made great strides, so registration of a legal entity that is a small and medium-sized business requires only one working day instead of seven working days that were required earlier, a notification of the start of activities is sent through the e-government web portal and automatically the company is registered. Currently, there is no need to provide documents confirming the location of the organization, the charter, as well as a document confirming the payment of the state duty, since the payment of the fee for registration of a legal entity that is a small and medium-sized business has been canceled.

According to the results of the global competitiveness rating “Doing Business”, there is a change in Kazakhstan’s position for the better by 8 points. Last year, Kazakhstan ranked 42nd in the ranking. The Global Competitiveness Index was created for the World Economic Forum by Columbia University professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin (Columbia University) and was first published in 2004. The main goal of the Doing Business project is to rank the region in terms of ease of doing business. Implementation of this project in Kazakhstan will assist in the regulation of business activities by comparing business regulation and its compliance in individual regions of Kazakhstan. The project will also promote competition among cities in Kazakhstan and stimulate the dissemination of good practices such as successful reforms. The introduction of a subnational rating in Kazakhstan is a continuation of the systematic work of the Government to improve the business climate in the country.

The DoingBusiness rating consists of 10 indicators, including indicators such as ease of registering a business, obtaining building permits and connecting to electricity networks, obtaining loans, protecting property rights, and so on.

Within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, issues in the field of intellectual property are among the most important in the direction of economic integration.

In order to coordinate the actions of law enforcement agencies of the EAEU countries, on September 8, 2015 in Grodno, an Agreement was signed on the coordination of actions for the protection of intellectual property rights, aimed at ensuring a coordinated policy in the field of protecting intellectual property rights, as well as coordinating the actions of authorized state bodies of the countries -participants. A draft law “On amendments and additions to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the improvement of legislation in the field of intellectual property” has been developed, aimed at continuing the work of bringing national legislation to the standards of international law.

Over the past four years (2012 – 2015), the number of issued titles of protection for industrial property has increased by 40%. Of these, the main share is trademarks (82.7%). At the same time, a greater number of applications for them were received from foreign applicants (in 2015, 8253 or 69.3% of the total number – 11910), which indicates the attractiveness of the Kazakhstani market.

In the field of copyright, there is also a steady increase in applications for registration of rights (2014 – 2328, 2015 – 2484, + 6%).