Category: Author’s post
They established a new special economic zone in Kyzylorda region
As Kazinform News Agency reports, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has signed a resolution to establish a special economic zone in Kyzylorda region.
An area of 550 hectares along the Western Europe – Western China international transport corridor will be occupied by the Qorqyt Ata SEZ.
The aims of the new SEZ are to fast track the development of modern high productive and competitive enterprises, to attract investments, to introduce new technologies in economy, and to raise employment.
They will introduce a special legal regime with the provision of tax and customs preferences in the SEZ.
According to expectations, the total volume of investments in the SEZ will have exceed 150 billion tenge (80 billion tenge with foreign investments) by 2049. There are predictions that the volume of production of goods and services will reach 500 billion tenge, 90% with local content.
The SEZ will create some 3,366 jobs in 39 resident companies within 25 years.
The document gives the status of a port area, as part of creation of multimodal aero-hubs and in line with the customs legislation to the special economic zones Ontustik, Astana-Technopolis, Saryarqa, Alatau and Aktobe.
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Read moreA new employment strategy is being created in Ukraine
The process of creating a new employment strategy is taking place in Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Economy, its main goal is to give the chance to work to citizens who are struggling to find employment, particularly veterans, individuals with disabilities, women, older adults, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and Ukrainians living abroad. Around 4.65 million IDPs are registered in Ukraine currently, and nearly two million of them are of working age. Moreover, over 6.9 million citizens live abroad. As the Ministry of Economy says, the aim of this new strategy is making inclusion essential for sustainable economic growth, not optional.
They are proposing various solutions: enhancing career counseling, adopting internship programs, promoting professional retraining, implementing retraining initiatives for veterans, and endorsing integration programs, among others. As a result, as the State Employment Service has reported, there was an increase in job vacancies that offer housing benefits in response to the personnel shortage in Ukraine.
The Unified Vacancy Portal currently shows over 230,000 job postings available daily, including more than 2,000 job openings with housing provision listed since the start of the year. The increase compared to the same period last year attains 30%. Employees found 3,500 vacancies including those offering housing benefits over the past year, especially in Kyiv and the surrounding areas.
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Read moreProcessing industry offers a quarter of jobs on Ukrainian labor market
The study of the labor market for 2024-2025 by the State Employment Service (SES) reports 116,000 job offers on the Ukrainian labor market with 22% of them in processing industry enterprises.
Other sectors offering a significant share of vacancies are healthcare (13.6%), transport and warehouse management (9.4%), water supply and sewage (7.6%), electricity, gas and steam supply (6.3%) and education (slightly more than 5%).
Opposingly, the share of open vacancies in the service sectors, hotel and restaurant business, real estate and IT is less than 1%.
Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions form the greatest demand for workers (13.0% and 11.5%).
Notably, enterprises in the water supply, public administration and healthcare sectors offered the largest share of open vacancies at the time of the survey (over 40%). In contrast, enterprises in the information, real estate, trade, and hotel and restaurant sectors offered the smallest share of open vacancies.
Mykolaiv (34.2%), Rivne (34.1%) and Volyn (34.1%) regions have the largest shares of enterprises with open vacancies.
Simultaneously, Kyiv (10.4%), Zaporizhia (16.9%), Vinnytsia (18.9%) and Odesa (19.9%) regions have the smallest shares of enterprises with open vacancies. This fact is due to a traditionally high concentration of qualified personnel in the capital, which reduces the need for open vacancies. Particularly, remote work at many enterprises has reduced the need for active recruitment. As researchers say, vacancies were rapidly filled because of high competition in the labor market.
As for problems creating the lack of the workforce, it is possible to cite the emigration of the working-age population and the lack of significant investments in development.
Despite the opportunities of the trade and transport sectors to fill vacancies more quickly, economic activity is gradually declining in Vinnytsia and Odessa regions.
From the point of the employment structure, the age group of 25-60 years had the main share of employees in 2024 (80.5%). Only 6.4% of workers were youth under 25 years old. The water supply, education and medicine sectors had the largest number of older employees.
In general, the survey results showed a 1.1% decrease in the number of employees during 2024.
Almost 55,000 employers were surveyed by the State Employment Service during the employer survey that lasted from December 17, 2024 to January 31, 2025. They selected economically active enterprises with an average number of employees of ten or more people without relation to the defense complex.
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Read moreKazakhstan’s sectoral gaps persist despite young workforce growth
Kazakhstan’s youth labor market is a crutial issue for the country’s ongoing economic transformation. Analysts from Finprom.kz report approximately 1.8 million young people aged 15 to 28 employed across the country in 2024 (0.6% increase compared to the previous year).
Almaty has the highest concentration of young workers (243,200 employed young people, 5% up from 2023). Turkestan region follows it. Opposingly, the lowest rate of youth employment is in the Ulytau, North Kazakhstan, and Zhetysu regions.
77.7% of the total number of employed youth (1.4 million) are salaried employees. Also, there are 331,900 young individual entrepreneurs, 58,300 self-employed workers, 2,700 founders or participants in economic partnerships, joint-stock companies, or cooperatives, and 2,400 engaged in private practice.
The number of professionals among employed young people is 424,400 (a 1.3% decrease from the previous year). Then follow service and sales workers (291,700), unskilled laborers (281,700), technical and support staff (195,100), and industrial, construction, and transport workers (142,600).
In industry sectors, youth primarily work in wholesale and retail trade, automotive repair, education, and agriculture, including forestry and fishing. Utilities (water and electricity supply) and real estate have the lowest rate of youth employment.
The number of unemployed individuals aged 15 to 28 decreased to 62,000 (by 6.7% from 2023) in 2024, with the unemployment rate at 3.7% among 16 to 24-year-olds and 3% among those aged 25 to 28 (the overall unemployment rate for the working-age population in Kazakhstan is 4.7%).
The highest number of unemployed youth (11,100) is in Almaty, then comes Astana (7,800) and the Almaty region (7,700). The lowest youth unemployment figures were reported in Ulytau, Pavlodar, and North Kazakhstan regions.
According to the report, 18,200 young people spent from one to three months on job hunting in 2024, 16,200 from three to six months, 16,000 less than a month, 7,500 looked for an employment for more than six months, and 4,000 had been looking for work for over a year.
Totally, there were 448,200 unemployed Kazakhstani citizens in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the unemployment rate at 4.2% among men (211,100) and 5.1% among women (237,100). 35 to 54 (256,900 people) and 55 to 64 (69,700) were the most affected age groups.
Family responsibilities (61,400), layoffs or company closures (50,300), and difficulty finding suitable jobs (112,500) were the most frequent reasons of unemployment. Domestic duties (44,200), health issues (17,500), and challenges securing employment post-graduation (16,600) were other contributing factors.
It is important to develop flexible employment policies suitable for the evolving labor market and to enhance conditions for self-employment and youth entrepreneurship to reduce youth unemployment in the long term.
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Read moreEmployers have five new obligations towards employees due to the amended law
Employers in Serbia must fully align their operations with the new provisions of the Law on Occupational Health and Safety by Wednesday, 7 May, focused on enhanced employee protection, the introduction of preventive measures, and more effective control of working conditions. Particularly, remote and home-based work is now clearly regulated by the law. Also, the […]
Read moreTaxes for high earners will increase in Kazakhstan
A second package of amendments to the tax legislation was proposed by the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy on April 25, including a proposition to increase the individual income tax rate for high earners.
The Ministry of National Economy stated that citizens with lower incomes will pay personal income tax at a lower rate than high-paid workers, without specifying the exact income levels that will be subject to the higher rate. However, Minister Serik Zhumangarin proposed to introduce an increased rate of 15% for employees with annual income exceeding 8,500 monthly calculation indices (MCI).
Currently, they value one MCI in Kazakhstan at 3,932 KZT ($7.64), but there are plans to rise it to 4,129 KZT ($8) by 2026, due to coming into force of the new Tax Code. These figures let calculate the threshold for the increased personal income tax rate starting at 35 million KZT per year (approximately $68,000) or 2.9 million KZT per month ($5,600) in 2026.
Nevertheless, they will tax at the increased 15% rate only the portion exceeding the 2.9 million KZT threshold. The tax rate for the income up to that threshold will remain standard (10%).
With the introduction of a progressive scale, the Ministry of National Economy hopes to increase tax revenues by 70 billion KZT per year (approximately $13.5 million).
Additionally, optimizing deductions for medical, education, and social contributions were also proposed by the ministry. They will introduce a single basic deduction of 30 MCI per month instead of the current deduction of 14 MCI and eliminate all additional deductions in order to simplify accounting procedures and reduce the administrative burden for individuals and employers.
Currently, a portion of employees’ salary equivalent to 14 MCI, or about 55,000 KZT ($106), can be exempted from taxation, upon request. The proposed changes, starting in 2026, will change this amount to 123,800 KZT ($239) per month.
There was also a proposition to strengthen liability for violations related to compulsory social and health insurance and the use of special tax regimes. Totally, 71 amendments to the draft new Tax Code and related legislation have been proposed by the government, along with 67 amendments to the current Tax Code.
According to the previous report of the Times of Central Asia, the Mazhilis (the lower house of the Kazakh parliament) approved the draft of the new Tax Code in its first reading in early April. However, debates about the proposed reforms continue, as well as criticism from deputies, experts, and entrepreneurs.
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Read moreNew amendments to migration law are submitted to parliament by Georgia’s Interior Ministry
A package of legislative amendments related to migration has been submitted to parliament for consideration by Georgia’s Interior Ministry. Foreigners who commit crimes or overstay, as well as the procedure to receive asylum, are the main target of the amendments.
To overview the amendments, the Interior Ministry published a brief statement on Thursday that is going to appear on the parliamentary website. The ministry says that they prepared the amendments to ‘improve the fight against illegal migration and refine regulations related to the granting of asylum’ and to met the directives of the European Parliament and Council.
The introduction of a new type of punishment to the Georgian Criminal Code is the first change listed in Thursday’s official statement. According to it, a foreigner must be expulsed from Georgia without the right of entry into Georgia for a specific period of time. They will also add a new administrative penalty to the Code of Administrative Offences, featuring the same punishment.
Nevertheless, there were no details the kind of crimes these penalties would apply to, nor about the period of the ban of entry duration.
Additionally, the fines for foreigners who violated the rules of staying on Georgian territory would increase, but it will become significantly easier to expel foreigners illegally staying in the country.
Also, the legislative package will include an accelerated system in regards to the asylum procedure, while the time limits for review and appeal will be ‘significantly reduced’. The procedure for submitting decisions will also become easier.
Furthermore, an amendment that would introduce a new mechanism according to which asylum could be considered at the state border, without allowing the asylum seeker to enter Georgian territory if their entry ‘poses a threat to state security’, was also listed by the ministry. There were no details about the basis of decision making, nor about decision makers.
The last amendment that the ministry listed would restrict the issuance of a residence permit to any foreigner who has been investigated with the intention of expulsion, or who already has received an expulsion order.
At present, they allow a visa-free entry to Georgia for a period of one year, which resets every time one leaves the country and reenters, to citizens from over 90 countries. As for activities one can do in Georgia within the one-year period, whether that be traveling, working, or studying, there are also few ostensible restrictions.
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Read moreGeorgia’s Economic Vision presentation during 17th Silk Road Tax Forum
The ‘17th Silk Road Tax Forum’ was held in Tbilisi at the joint initiative of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance and the International Tax and Investment Center on 10-11 April, 2025. During the event, Lasha Khutsishvili, the Georgian Minister of Finance, pointed out the critical role of interactions within taxation for all countries along the historical Silk Road.
He also stressed the need of institutional reforms for development of a dynamic economy and improved investor relations for stricter fiscal discipline. According to Khutsishvili, the same Georgian tax system with its low taxes, provides modern methods of taxation along with customs administration.
They also discussed investments in strategic infrastructure projects such as roads, ports, energy transmission lines, digital connectivity and the importance of increasing the efficiency of tax administration and sharing international experience in this regard.
As Minister Lasha Khutsishvili stated, the Ministry of Finance approved the country’s first medium-term revenue strategy (2025–2030) at the end of last year, and the Georgian Revenue Service has updated and published a strategy for 2025-2030. Notably, Georgia is a candidate for EU membership and a full member of the European Union tax program (FISCALIS) program. It was one of the first nations to adopt base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).
Additionally, Georgia takes part in several forums such as the Global Forum of the Organization for European Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Intra-European Organization of European Tax Administrations (IOTA), and Union of Tax Administrations of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRITACOM).
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Read moreThere are more unemployed in Kazakhstan than in Russia
According to data from the Eurasian Economic Commission, there are more than 330,000 unemployed people in Kazakhstan (3.5% of the total workforce), the only country in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) where the number of unemployed people has increased over the year. The increase over the year was 3.2% (27,000 people).
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people has been decreasing in other EEU countries. Only 0.4% of the total workforce are officially unemployed in Russia (283,000 people), and their number decreased by 0.1% over a year.
The number of unemployed in Kyrgyzstan decreased from 65,100 to 48,400 people over the year (2.4% versus 1.7%) and by 8,600 people in Armenia (from 45,700 to 37,100, or 3.4% versus 2.8%).
The smallest number of unemployed people is in Belarus— 3,300 or 0.1% of the total labor force. 1,000 people found a job in the country over the year.
Totally, 704,900 or 0.8% of people were unemployed in the EEU member states at the end of February (a 14.8% downfall compared to the same date in 2024).
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Read moreEmployment tax incentives valid until the end of 2025
There have been various tax and social relief measures for employers hiring specific categories of workers in Serbia for several years now.
In general, the Personal Income Tax Act, the Social Security Contributions Act, and other by-laws define the conditions and procedures for claiming one of these seven tax relief measures. They extend two of them on a yearly basis, one is valid until the end of 2025, while four are unlimited.
Notably, an individual with whom an employer has signed an employment contract and who is registered for mandatory social security in the CROSO system is called a “newly employed person”. Nevertheless, if an employer affiliated with the current employer previously employed the person or the person is working for a currently existing affiliated entity, such employee is not a newly employed person.
According to tax advisor Svetlana Serafijanović, it is possible to use only one of the available tax incentives at a time throughout the entire duration of the measure.
Particularly, they apply tax incentives for hiring individuals from the National Employment Service (NES) to employers hiring individuals who were previously unemployed and registered with the NES.
Then, founders of companies engaged in innovation who employ themselves within their own enterprise can use tax incentives for hiring founders of innovation companies. The founders’ own company must employ them, and they must hold at least a five percent ownership stake. Moreover, legal entities must not have been affiliated by the employer or they must not generate more than 30 percent of their revenue.
This incentive fully exempts the employer from payroll tax and social security contributions for 36 months from the date of company establishment, with a maximum gross salary exemption of 150,000 dinars per month.
To use incentives for employees engaged in research and development (R&D), the employee must directly conduct research and development activities, excluding administrative or supervisory roles.
As tax advisor Serafijanović explains, the employer who is a legal entity conducting research and development within its operations for its own needs gets a 70 percent exemption from payroll tax and a full exemption from pension and disability insurance contributions till the end of the research project.
Next, highly qualified professionals relocating to Serbia for employment who have not predominantly resided in the country in the past two years and have a monthly gross salary exceeding 393,855 dinars can use incentives for newly relocated employees.
Finally, employees under the age of 40 returning to Serbia after studying abroad with the minimum gross monthly salary of 262,570 dinars get a 70 percent reduction in the tax and social security contribution base for five years from the date of signing the employment contract.
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