In Kazakhstan, foreigners are prohibited from engaging in individual entrepreneurship, even if they permanently reside in Kazakhstan. The same prohibition applies to stateless persons.
This follows from subparagraph 3 of Article 1 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Private Entrepreneurship”, which establishes the concept of an individual entrepreneur, who is a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan or an oralman, who carries out individual entrepreneurship without forming a legal entity and meets the criteria specified in paragraphs 3 and 7 of Article 6 of this Law.
A similar prohibitive provision is enshrined in paragraph 11 of Article 7 of the same Law: “Individuals, with the exception of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan and oralmans, are prohibited from carrying out individual entrepreneurship.”
It should be noted that in the original version of the draft of this Law, such a prohibition did not exist. There was no such provision in the previously effective Law “On Individual Entrepreneurship”, which lost force in connection with the adoption of the Law “On Private Entrepreneurship”.
However, why was it necessary to introduce such a prohibition?
For many years, Kazakhstan’s policy has been actively encouraging the population to engage in entrepreneurial activity, pursuing the goals of developing entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan, creating jobs, increasing the population’s income, increasing the amount of taxes paid by entrepreneurs, etc.
However, along with this, the legislator restricts residents of Kazakhstan (and these are not only citizens of Kazakhstan, but also foreign citizens permanently or temporarily residing in Kazakhstan, and stateless persons) in engaging in individual entrepreneurship, erecting various senseless barriers.
The senselessness of such a ban lies in the fact that a foreign person can engage in entrepreneurial activity through a legal entity established by him, thereby easily circumventing such a ban.
I believe that in modern conditions Kazakhstan needs to reconsider its position on this issue, and in the absence of sufficient grounds for the existence of such a prohibitive norm, grant the right to foreigners and stateless persons to engage in individual entrepreneurship.