We position ourselves as a country with the market economy, but in reality major companies belong to state. And those majors compete with each other – is it the free market?

Famous political observer Daniyar Ashimbayev highlighted some paradoxes of our market economy in his telegram-channel:

“Our economic system is such, that the government controls three aviation companies

• Air Astana (51% held by Samruk),
• Fly Arystan (subsidiary of above), and
• Qazaq Air (100% held by Samruk,

And three cell telecom operators:

• Kcell (51% held by Kazakhtelecom),
• Altel, and
• Tele2 (100% held by Kazakhtelecom, 45.9% — Samruk and 25.4% — State Property Committee).

At the same time, there are purely private projects in the market.

Competition among state companies is a paradox, in itself – what about quality, prices, tariffs and common sense, after all.