In recent years situation with the charity in Kazakhstan started to improve. National companies, large, medium and small businesses, and ordinary citizens began to actively engage in charity. This is a direct financial assistance to the needy, social business, and volunteering. Today I talk with the chairman of the board of directors of “Kaspi Bank” Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Kim.
What types of charity do you consider as the most and least effective?
In my opinion the most effective help - this is concrete help from hand to hand, or partnerships with specialized philanthropic foundations that have an impeccable reputation, name and experience. As a businessman I understand that to achieve any concrete results you have to focus on a few things, then the funds that are trying to save everyone sometime later disappear. Remain those who choose a definite direction, and all of their time, energy devotes to particular direction. That is why for example we have actively collaborated with the “AYALA” foundation. Through our partnership all the maternity hospitals of Almaty were equipped with modern medical devices that are made to save premature babies. This project which aims to increase the fertility rate in Kazakhstan and we understand that a project in which we participate – is a nationwide project. And the most joy - is to see the result. With help of new equipment the survival rate in preterm infants has increased 5 times!
Some companies choose their wards such as orphanage or boarding school and they provide assistance only to this institutions. Others choose the path of individual assistance to one or more children in boarding and transfer money to them. This funds in the future may help children to get an education, or rent a house. Do you practice something like that?
In general in the issue of charity we hold several directions. First it is work with the specialized funds. Secondly we have certain traditional events. For example this financial support to all our customers - World War 2 veterans. Each year the bank gives to the hands of each veteran 5 thousand tenge and it is important to us.
Third, there are events that affect the lives of our citizens, And to which we can not remain indifferent. They can not be foreseen and budgeted. It is like in the case of the recent floods in Uralsk. We decided to allocate 10 million tenge, but funds were not just transferred somewhere, we decided to go to the place, talk with people to understand what must be done. It is very important to be sure that help was important, up to date, reached real people.
How do you feel about the current existing legislation which restricts the three percent (3%) tax-share profit, which can be transferred to the charity? And whether you want to change the legislation to increase this share?
Involvement in charity nobody forces and if the person or company does not want to do this then would not even do it at 0% taxation.
Our bank – is a business that operates in Kazakhstan and is aimed at to improve the quality of life here, that is why we provide support to socially disadvantaged groups. And there are many such companies in the country. I think that in principle the state has created all conditions to the charity. Who wants is doing it for a long time and who is not - will find a hundred reasons not to do it.
Tell us about plans of “Kaspi Bank” in the field of philanthropy?
As a minimum we will continue to do what we did in the past few years. As for plans, in our bank we have a principle: “First we do, and then we say”.
