To take Samruk away from the ministers: what solutions to Kazakhstan's financial problems are offered by economists?

According to legend, the Samruk bird regularly laid golden eggs and thus gave prosperity to all who lived under the canopy of the Baiterek tree. But, contrary to the idea, according to many economists, the national holding Samruk-Kazyna did not become a bird laying golden eggs for the economy of Kazakhstan. Samruk-Kazyna has been transforming for 10 years in a row, but how successful is this process and will it end? And in general, what should be done to ensure that the rich bowels of Kazakhstan become a truly national treasure? The Voice of the People asked both independent experts and the national management holding itself about this.

10 years of transformation: brief results
Founded in 2008, Samruk-Kazyna NUH launched a transformation program in 2014. It was promised that within the framework of this program, among other things, the number of top managers of the group of companies will be halved, and the companies themselves will be 2 times smaller.

Admittedly, Samruk-Kazyna has coped with the latter in 10 years. If in 2014 the Fund had 600 different "daughters" and "granddaughters", then at the end of autumn 2024 it had 326.

But top managers are not being cut at the same brisk pace. In an official response to the editorial board's request, Samruk-Kazyna reported that in 2016 there were 3,373 managers in the group of companies (why the Fund did not provide information for 2014 and 2015, we do not know, in the request we asked to share statistics for those years too – ed.), and in 2024 There were only 694 top managers, or 25% fewer - 2,679.

At the same time, the main goal of the transformation of Samruk-Kazyna was declared to be the transformation of Samruk-Kazyna into an investment company that meets all international criteria.

At the same time, not a single year in recent years has been without criticism of the main holding company of Kazakhstan from the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called Samruk-Kazyna ineffective, instructed to reduce administrative costs, restore order in procurement, learn effective work from Western managers and even offered to close the National Welfare Fund if it could not cope with the problems.

Samruk-Kazyna is not closed yet.

And, as some economists are sure, procrastination on this issue only exacerbates the problems.

Earlier, in the Voice of the People studio, economist Kairbek Arystanbekov raised the issue of budgeting for Samruk-Kazyna. As the expert noted, the amount of money in the Fund even exceeds the annual budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan, but they are distributed without the participation of parliament, which contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The NWF assures that the inspectors somehow control every tenge.

"The funds allocated to the Fund from the Republican budget are subject to mandatory approval at the level of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including both its chambers — the Mazhilis and the Senate. This means that the allocation of budget funds is under the strict control of deputies, who analyze projects and their compliance with the priorities of the state. It is important to note that funding is allocated exclusively for projects that are of strategic importance for the country and have a significant social effect, which further increases the responsibility for their implementation," Saltanat Satzhan, Managing Director for Development and Privatization of JSC NUH NWF Samruk-Kazyna, assured us.

She stressed that the money allocated from the National Fund goes through many approvals with both deputies and other political officials, up to the president of the country.

What, then, is the reason for the constant criticism of the Fund?
What is Samruk doing wrong?

According to Meruert Makhmutova, economist, director of the public foundation "Center for Analysis of Public Problems", the problem is not in the transformation of Samruk-Kazyna and not in some external conditions that interfere with the work of the Fund, the problem is in itself.

"In order to improve our Samruk, foreign transformers, consultants and so on are involved. But in fact, from the very beginning it was a completely unnecessary structure, which was invented primarily to occupy the numerous relatives of high-ranking officials. And those essentially cosmetic measures that are being proposed and implemented will not fundamentally solve the issue. Because it is necessary to change the entire management system of strategic enterprises in Kazakhstan," she is convinced.

As the economist explains, the main complaint of all critics of the Fund is the inefficient management of national companies. She cites the national carrier as an example.

"In the summer, from the speech of the Chairman of the Supreme Audit Chamber Alikhan Smailov, we learned that Kazakhstan Temir Zholy has monstrous debts. But the question is, where was Samruk–Kazyna at that moment, which sits in the management of KTZ and knows perfectly well that the company subsidizes domestic passenger transportation at the expense of international transit, but still got into unaffordable debts that now it simply cannot pay?"  Makhmutova wonders.

In her opinion, it would be much more correct in the current conditions not to transform Samruk-Kazyna, but to liquidate the Fund.

"At one time, when there was no Samruk-Kazyna, national companies were managed by relevant ministries. At the same time, they did not receive salaries for this activity, but in any case they knew what was needed for the supervised branch of the economy. I think we need to return to this tradition," the economist says.

To take away the welfare of ministers
Director of the Talap Center for Applied Research, Economy