**6. Conclusions**

The national economy of Kazakhstan is characterized by high energy intensity. The main gross product is created in the sectors of mining, oil and gas production, and metallurgy. Labor productivity in industry remains low, and the state protects domestic producers by various measures. It must be recognized that the domestic market of Kazakhstan is quite limited, which makes it less attractive for international companies with high labor productivity, thus protecting national producers. However, national producers need to increase labor productivity by improving the quality of the workforce. Kazakhstani workers and specialists still do not have the necessary competencies that can generate internal resources for productivity growth and cost reduction. Therefore, rational managemen<sup>t</sup> practices are needed to maintain long-term energy efficiency gains. The GDP of Kazakhstan is produced with unreasonably high energy costs. There are significant and clear opportunities to reduce energy consumption in industry, transport, and utilities. In this context, Kazakhstani business lacks the necessary level of productivity to compete internationally. Therefore, any increase in costs not absorbed by productivity growth puts enterprises at risk and, when significant, has a negative impact on the national economy. In turn, the task of productivity growth lies in the plane of technological restructuring of production. As long as production uses obsolete tangible assets, productivity will be low and costs excessive. Kazakhstani industry needs renovation of fixed assets and the governmen<sup>t</sup> should stimulate introduction of modern energy-saving equipment.

The materials in this article expand the analysis of previously conducted studies that determined that research on production costs should be conducted separately by industry [45]. A significant part of production energy costs is unproductive. Sale of energy on the Kazakhstan market is carried out on a monopoly basis by quasi-public suppliers on an overestimated tariff [48].

The Government of Kazakhstan in the current period sets mutually exclusive tasks: frontal cost reduction and budget replenishment. The need to replenish the budget motivates fiscal authorities to

impose fines, and other penalties in every possible case, and this places an additional burden, especially on small- and medium-sized businesses. It is necessary to revise the regulatory framework and abolish all irrational penalties that impede the development of a business at such a critical time, being not only a financial burden, but also a psychological barrier.

**Author Contributions:** Methodology, Y.P. and I.D.; Project administration, Y.P.; Resources, Y.P.; Supervision, Y.P.; Validation, Y.P.; Writing—original draft, Y.P., G.K. and V.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.
