Almost 90% Of Kazakh Businesses Still Operate Without Innovation

In Kazakhstan, only one in 10 companies is engaged in innovation. The rest continue to operate without new technologies, research and development, or modern solutions, Orda.kz reports.

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, Kazakhstan has 31,533 enterprises, but only 3761 of them were innovation-active. The overall level of innovation activity stood at 11.9%.

Large businesses performed best. Among major companies, 34.2% were engaged in innovation. The figure was 17.7% for medium-sized businesses and only 9.8% for small businesses.

Innovation is most common in manufacturing, where 771 companies were classified as innovation-active. IT, telecommunications, and the scientific and technical sectors were also among the leading fields.

Kazakh businesses spent 1.59 trillion tenge on innovation in one year. But most of this money went not toward their own research and development, but toward the purchase of equipment, machinery, and software. Companies spent 943 billion tenge on these items.

Businesses spent much less on internal research and development — about 309 billion tenge.

Many companies cited a lack of need as the main reason for not innovating. More than 12,000 enterprises said their products were already in demand. Thousands more cited a lack of funds and the high cost of introducing new technologies.

Original author: Alexander Zhdanov

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