USAID Kazakhstan Small Business Development Project (KSBD)

Background
During October 2006, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Kazakhstan Small Business Development Project (KSBD) for the country of Kazakhstan. This four-year $8.9 million jointly-funded USAID and Government of Kazakhstan initiative aims to provide direct consultation and capacity development to design, and implement SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) development programs through and with Kazakh counterpart institutions in order to promote sound economic development for the country of Kazakhstan.

Project Goals
Through this program, KSBD will work to: a) Increase the Government of Kazakhstan’s knowledge of international best practices and lessons learned in implementing SME support programs, b) Transfer capacity to the Government of Kazakhstan and indigenous institutions, both public and private sector, to manage and evaluate entrepreneurship development programs, and c) Promote a sound development of a network of small business service providers to foster growth of SMEs. The Kazakhstan Small Business Development Project operates under USAID/CAR’s Strategic Objective for an improved environment for the growth of small and medium enterprises and in particular in the promotion of SMEs and entrepreneurs and their acquiring increased opportunity to business information, knowledge and skills.

Structure and Results
The KSBD Project will have two components: 1) Transfer capacity to the Government of Kazakhstan and indigenous institutions to design and implement programs that are public good in nature to support small and medium enterprise development, and 2) Increase opportunities for Kazakhstani business managers and entrepreneurs to access business information and training on a sustainable basis. The KSBD Project is structured along the following components, results and objectives:

Examples of Activities
The KSBD Project will work directly with the Government of Kazakhstan, oblast and city administrations, SME departmental offices, private sector businesses, universities, NGOs and associations to, for example, (i) design and implement SME development programs in order to stimulate access to business information and knowledge and improve economic growth for Kazakhstan, (ii) transfer best SME practices and lessons-learned into key stakeholders of Kazakhstan, (iii) provide short and long term technical assistance to counterparts responsible for managing SME development programs in Kazakhstan, (iv) encourage the expansion of private sector business advisory services to increase capability of consultants as well as universities, (v) foster linkages between SME programs and entities that support economic growth and development, just to give a few examples of our work.

This includes, but is not limited to, direct technical assistance in the following areas:

Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (GEM) studies to track and improve SME data
SME Study Tours and Trade Missions to best reinforce best practices
Public - Private Sector Partnerships for SME development
NGO and university strengthening in support of SME development
Business Support Provider consulting to SMEs
SME statistics support to entities tracking and reporting this data
Forums, Working Groups and Conferences building capacity for SME Programming
Training Programs to support SMEs and a capacity to implement SME Programs

KSBD Office Locations
The Kazakhstan Small Business Development Project has two office locations in Kazakhstan , and will be supported and work through a network of partner associations and business groups.

For more information on the KSBD Project please contact one of the Project offices listed below.

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