Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Sustainable development of any country is hardly possible without viable small business. The development of small businesses has a number of advantages, which are expressed in the activation of structural adjustment of the economy, providing freedom of market choice and additional jobs, ensuring rapid cost recovery, and rapid response to changes in consumer demand. Small business leads to saturation of the market with goods and services, overcoming industry and territorial monopolies, and increasing the level of competition. In Kazakhstan, state support for small and medium-sized businesses is multi-level in the implementation of measures to reduce the tax burden, implement a set of measures to facilitate access to credit resources, simplify administrative procedures and permits, and organize regional centers to support small and medium-sized businesses in cities and rural areas.

This study consists of two research aspects. First of all, the author analyses the relationship of energy consumption and economic growth in the context of 13 selected countries in the period of year between 1990 and 2010. Secondly, using statistical techniques the paper takes into account cross-sectoral dependence when analyzing the relationship between energy consumption and economic structures of the same countries. Based on the energy consumption, the countries are divided into three groups: low energy consumption group, middle energy consumption group, and high energy consumption one. Statistical methods, including correlation analysis are employed for the estimation of the structural changes of economy and relationship between energy consumption and economic structure in each of the three groups. In general, the results of this study indicate that energy consumption is closely related to all economic activities for all groups of countries; however the case of Lithuania reveals the absence of relationship between energy consumption and industrial sector. Moreover, in the context of comparative analysis, China, as a high energy consumption country, has a completely different picture of economic structure as well as relation between energy consumption and structural changes. Economic sectors, such as industry, services and agriculture depend on energy resources, but in different degree in these three groups of countries.