Small and medium-sized enterprises are an essential element of a modern market economy. They contribute to job creation, stimulate innovation, and ensure the flexibility and adaptability of the economic system. In many countries around the world, SMEs account for a significant share of the gross domestic product and play a crucial role in social stability and regional development. In a rapidly changing economic environment and facing global challenges, supporting and developing small and medium-sized businesses has become increasingly important.

The role of small business in the country's economy is determined by the following factors: the number of small enterprises and individual entrepreneurs in the total number of market economy entities; the contribution of small enterprises to the creation of GDP; the contribution of small business entities to the formation of budgets; the growth of the number of employed working-age population in small enterprises, and the contribution to reducing the number of unemployed; the saturation of the market with consumer goods, and so on. The article discusses the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Kazakhstan.