Companies led by women receive just 4.7% of Kazakhstan’s largest public procurement contracts, despite women heading 48% of all SMEs.
Public procurement is one of the most important channels through which governments allocate public spending. In Kazakhstan, the value of public procurement exceeded KZT 8 trillion in 2025, excluding purchases by the quasi-public sector. That represents more than 5% of GDP, while in most developed economies public procurement typically accounts for 10-20% of GDP.
Kazakhstan’s public procurement portal includes around 18,000 contracting authorities and more than 120,000 suppliers, making access to this market an important driver of private-sector resilience and economic activity. Winning government contracts helps businesses expand operations, accumulate capital and create jobs.
Yet one important question remains largely unexplored: Do male- and female-led businesses have equal access to this capital? According to the Bureau of National Statistics, Kazakhstan had 2.2 million registered small and medium-sized enterprises at the beginning of 2025. Of those, 1.09 million were headed by women.
Women are most strongly represented among sole proprietors, where they account for 58% of business heads. However, their share steadily declines as business structures become larger and more complex. Among legal entities, including LLPs, joint-stock companies and farms, women account for only 28% of company heads.
Women-led businesses make a meaningful contribution to Kazakhstan’s economy. However, an analysis of public procurement suggests that their participation in the country’s largest contracts remains highly limited. In 2025, companies headed by women received only around 5% of the value of Kazakhstan’s largest public procurement contracts.
Research on gender representation in public procurement remains scarce, both in Kazakhstan and internationally. Global evidence, however, points to a persistent gender gap in access to public capital. According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), companies led by women receive only around 1% of global government procurement spending each year.
The issue is also reflected in the Asian Development Bank’s Country Partnership Strategy (2023-2027) for Kazakhstan. Based on a comprehensive assessment of the country’s economy, the strategy identifies unequal access to capital as a structural constraint affecting women entrepreneurs. Kazakhstan’s public procurement legislation contains no formal restrictions based on the gender of a company’s chief executive or head. All registered legal entities and sole proprietors have equal legal access to procurement procedures.
Precisely because the legal framework is gender-neutral, the actual distribution of contracts becomes especially revealing. The observed disparities are therefore unlikely to reflect legal discrimination. Instead, they point to broader structural, institutional or behavioural barriers that warrant further research.
This analysis is based on two official registries published on Kazakhstan’s public procurement portal (goszakup.gov.kz) for 2025:
1. Top 100 suppliers ranked by the number of awarded contracts (Registry-N).
2. Top 100 suppliers ranked by the total value of awarded contracts (Registry-V).
The analysis examines:
- the gender composition of suppliers based on the company’s chief executive;
- the share of total contract value and contract count by gender;
- the average contract value per supplier;
- the highest-ranked female-led company;
- the distribution across legal forms, including LLPs, sole proprietors and quasi-public entities.
It should be noted that the registries identify only the head of the company. Publicly available data do not provide information on the gender of company owners or shareholders.
Registry by number of contracts (Registry-N)
Among the Top 100 suppliers ranked by the number of awarded contracts in 2025, 25 companies were headed by women and 75 by men, representing 25% and 75% of the ranking, respectively. Together, these 100 suppliers signed 214,218 contracts worth KZT 373.9 billion.
The financial distribution reveals a much wider imbalance. Companies headed by women secured contracts worth KZT 30.5 billion, or 8.2% of the total. Male-led companies accounted for KZT 343.4 billion, or 91.8%. The average contract value per supplier also differs substantially. Female-led companies averaged KZT 1.22 billionper supplier, compared with KZT 4.58 billion for male-led companies – a gap of 3.8 times. The highest-ranked female-led company appears only in 9th place.
Table 1. Gender Distribution in Registry-N (Top 100 Suppliers by Number of Contracts, 2025)
Indicator Women Men Total Gap (M/W)
Suppliers 25 (25%) 75 (75%) 100 3.0x
Contract value, KZT bn 30.5 (8.2%) 343.4 (91.8%) 373.9 11.3x
Number of contracts 40,861 173,357 214,218 4.2x
Average contract value per supplier, KZT million 1,220 4,579 – 3.8x
Highest position in ranking #9 #1 – –
Source: Author’s calculations based on Kazakhstan’s Public Procurement Portal (goszakup.gov.kz), 2025.
Registry by contract value (Registry-V)
The concentration is even more pronounced in Registry-V, which ranks suppliers by the total value of awarded contracts. Among the Top 100 suppliers, only 9 companies (9%) are headed by women, including two state-owned enterprises. Ninety companies (90%) are headed by men, while the identity of one company’s chief executive is not publicly disclosed. That supplier ranks first in the registry.
The combined value of contracts in Registry-V totals KZT 4.84 trillion, representing more than half of Kazakhstan’s total annual public procurement spending.
Companies headed by women secured KZT 229.8 billion, or 4.7% of the registry’s total contract value. Male-led companies received KZT 3.91 trillion, accounting for 80.6%. The average contract value per female-led supplier was KZT 25.5 billion, compared with KZT 43.4 billion for male-led suppliers. The highest-ranked female-led company appears only in 14th place.
Table 2. Gender Distribution in Registry-V (Top 100 Suppliers by Contract Value, 2025)
Indicator Women Men Total Gap (M/W)
Suppliers 9 (9%) 90 (90%) 100 10.0x
Contract value, KZT bn 229.8 (4.7%) 3,905.4 (80.6%) 4,844.6 17.0x
Average contract value per supplier, KZT bn 25.5 43.4 – 1.7x
Highest position in ranking #14 #1 – –
Source: Author’s calculations based on Kazakhstan’s Public Procurement Portal (goszakup.gov.kz), 2025.
Comparing the two registries
A comparison of the two registries reveals a striking finding: they have virtually no overlap. Only one company appears in both rankings. This suggests that the market for high-volume, lower-value contracts and the market for the country’s largest public contracts operate as two distinct segments with different groups of participants.
Women account for 8.2% of total contract value in Registry-N and only 4.7% in Registry-V. Both figures are substantially lower than women’s representation among suppliers themselves, which stands at 25% and 9%, respectively. This indicates that the gender gap is primarily financial rather than numerical. Women are present among suppliers, but they receive a disproportionately small share of public procurement spending.
Table 3. Comparison of the Two Registries, 2025
Indicator Registry-N (Number of Contracts) Registry-V (Contract Value)
Female-led suppliers 25 (25%) 9 (9%)
Women’s share of total contract value 8.2% 4.7%
Total registry value KZT 373.9 bn KZT 4,844.6 bn
Overlap between registries 1 company out of 100 1 company out of 100
Highest-ranked female-led company #9 #14
Source: Author’s calculations based on Kazakhstan’s Public Procurement Portal (goszakup.gov.kz), 2025.
Distribution by legal form
The breakdown by legal form helps explain the underlying drivers of the gender gap. Women are disproportionately represented among sole proprietorships, particularly in Registry-N. However, businesses in this segment receive relatively small contracts, and the entire sole proprietor category accounts for less than 1% of the registry’s total contract value.
By contrast, the quasi-public sector – including joint-stock companies, national companies and state-owned enterprises – accounts for the majority of procurement spending in both registries. This is also where the gender gap is most pronounced. Women are almost entirely absent from senior leadership positions in the largest quasi-public organisations.
The Top 15 suppliers in Registry-V are all headed by men, most of whom lead large joint-stock companies or major limited liability partnerships operating in construction, energy and finance.
Among limited liability partnerships (LLPs), the most common legal form for medium-sized private businesses, the gap in average contract value is noticeably smaller than across the registries as a whole. This suggests that female business leaders are able to compete successfully in the private sector. However, the scale of their companies often limits access to the country’s largest procurement contracts.
The findings therefore suggest that the principal structural barrier is not direct discrimination, but rather the concentration of capital in sectors and organisational structures where women remain underrepresented. These include senior executive positions within large quasi-public organisations and capital-intensive industries.
The results show that, despite formal legal equality, companies headed by women receive a disproportionately small share of Kazakhstan’s public procurement spending. The financial disparities observed across both registries point to a systemic rather than incidental pattern of inequality.
The contrast between the two registries is particularly revealing. Women account for 25% of suppliers in the registry ranked by the number of contracts, yet only 9% in the registry ranked by contract value. Even so, their share of procurement spending remains low in both cases – 8.2% and 4.7%, respectively. This suggests that simply increasing the number of women participating in public procurement is unlikely to close the gap. The greater challenge is ensuring equal access to high-value contracts, where most public spending is concentrated.
As an initial step, Kazakhstan could introduce an additional reporting filter on the public procurement portal. Since goszakup.gov.kz already records the identity of company executives, the necessary technical infrastructure is effectively in place. Adding a filter that classifies suppliers by the gender of their chief executive would require no legislative changes and could be implemented within the existing procurement system.
Extending this approach would also bring Kazakhstan closer to international standards for gender-responsive budgeting.
Altinay Nurkeeva, expert at the Kazakhstan Institute for Public Development, exclusively for www.economyKZ.org
