Almaty, 28 June 2022 – In total 40 businesses across Kazakhstan have been trained to launch their first online trade channels and achieve sustainable sales as a result of the European Union (EU) funded Ready4Trade Central Asia (R4TCA) project that aims to facilitate trade cooperation in the region.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) implementation agency of R4TCA, trained SMEs on the entire

e-commerce process, from identification of markets and customers, developing their value proposition, onboarding on online platforms, connecting with payments and logistics providers, to engaging in customer support and digital marketing.

Youri Skaskevitch, Manager of the Ready4Trade Central Asia programme from the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan: “During a period of 1,5 years the EU-funded project is supporting and enhancing the capacity of the businesses in Kazakhstan with 350 individual coaching sessions from the ITC-trained national advisors. These businesses represent different sectors from textile and garments, food and handicraft. It is worth to note that more than half of the businesses involved in today’s training are women-led”.

As of today, 30 of the participating companies completed the entire cycle of the program and collectively reported online sales for around 500 thousand USD since they joined the program and opened or improved their online channels. Many of these companies are micro-producers, who had limited digital skills and lack of online sales experience when joining the programme.

The initiative is implemented in collaboration with national partner 'QazTrade' Trade Policy Development Center JSC and with support of the Union of Artisans of Kazakhstan.

“The thriving e-commerce ecosystem of Kazakhstan provides many opportunities for national producers with marketplaces like Kaspi, Ozon and Alibaba. Once companies develop their strengths, they are ready to explore global opportunities, which are especially significant for creative sectors and processed food. We will continue to support R4TCA e-commerce component at the next stage of the project by exploring best solutions for international online channels”, shared Ozhet Shegirbayev, Director of the Research and Consulting Department at QazTrade.

Annabel Sykes, International e-commerce expert at the International Trade Centre, oversees the implementation of the e-commerce component of the Ready4Trade Central Asia project:

“There is strong demand for ethically made handicraft products among international customers, given their uniqueness, the story behind their creation and how they support local communities. We worked with artisans in Kazakhstan to train them on how to develop quality content for online channels and to digitize their products. Yet, there are limitations in artisans’ reach of international audiences as not all global platforms dedicated to handicrafts are operational in Central Asia. In the next phase of the R4TCA project we aim to work with international partners to create a Central Asian artisan empowerment hub to better connect artisans to international demand.”

The Ready4Trade Central Asia aims to support the development of intra-regional and international trade in five Central Asian countries. The 4-year initiative is a trade component of a larger EU-funded programme which aims to support Investment, Competitiveness and Trade, thus contributing to sustainable and inclusive economic development in the region. The Ready4Trade Central Asia project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Trade Centre.