Amazon has added traders from Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, to to Approved Selling Countries List. As of May 24, traders and manufacturers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have the opportunity to register directly with Amazon.
Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov said that following talks with Amazon, which began in November 2020, Amazon has added Kazakhstan in its list.
“A pleasant bonus was that we managed to 'drag into the carriage' our neighbors in the Central Asia. We were guided by the desire to help our enterprises, especially SMEs to cooperate not only in production, but also in the joint promotion of the region's products in the future as a single Central Asian brand. And this is in the spirit of the agreements that have been intensively held during these years at the highest level of the leaderships of our countries,” he said.
According to him, the main problem of access to Amazon for Kazakh businesses was the need to become "part" of the permitted countries: that is, to open a legal entity and a bank account in these countries to conduct all transactions on the site.
“But now we have eliminated these barriers. Kazakh businesses can receive payments directly through Kazakh banks and trade under their own flag,” the minister said.
Bakhyt Sultanov noted that Amazon opens the way for small and medium-sized businesses - 60% of all retail sales of the marketplace are made by 1.9 million small and medium-sized enterprises. Last year, the company posted net sales of US$ 386.1 billion.
