Astana, February 4th: In his annual state-of-the-nation address to the People of Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev spoke of the challenges facing the Central Asian republic: “One of the difficult periods in the development of our country… is coming to an end,” he said. “But the global crisis damaging the world economy still remains…Thanks to our complete readiness, its consequences have not had much impact on our country.”
“In the pre-crisis period” continued the President, “we achieved a high level of development along with China, India and other countries with rapidly developing economies… because we knew the path to take in order to achieve our goals. We have started this new decade with an important mission… to provide for further economic development of the country and open new opportunities.”
President Nazarbayev then spoke in detail of the achievements of the first decade of a programme instigated in 2000 and titled ‘Kazakhstan-2030 Strategy’: “We have successfully realized the first decade of the strategy. Now, the task is to face the next decade… As early as in 2008, we doubled the GDP volume against that of 2000 and effectively fulfilled social commitments… Average monthly salaries increased fivefold, and average pension rates increased threefold. The percentage of citizens with substandard income decreased fourfold (from 50% to 12%)... The health of the population was improved… Life expectancy increased from 65 to 68 years... Maternal mortality decreased twofold, and birthrate increased one and a half times… A total of 652 schools and 463 facilities of healthcare were built in less than a decade. The UN” said the President, “included Kazakhstan in the ranks of countries with a high index of human development in its 2009 report. This is indisputable evidence of our increased welfare! In one decade, 350,000 families… received new housing. A total of 32,000 km of roads were built and repaired – a figure that equals one third of all roads in Kazakhstan.”
PERIODS OF CRISIS – TIME FOR DECISIONS
“The world financial and economic crisis affected our economy’s growth rate, but failed to stop our development... We protected the financial system of the country [and] saved major banks... Gross foreign currency reserves and assets of the National Fund have already exceeded 50 billion dollars, and have increased more than 25 times during the past ten years… The unemployment rate currently stands at 6.3% - which is below the rate noted at the pre-crisis period… More than 400,000 jobs were created throughout the country owing to our effectively implemented Employment Strategy. We have withstood the hardships. We now continue this development strategy until 2020.
DIVERSIFICATION OF ECONOMY = WAY TO SUCCESS
“Sustainable and balanced development during the next decade will be provided by accelerated diversification and raising the competitiveness of the national economy.
Kazakhstan” said the President, “will be a successful industrial power… The main accent should be placed on the growth of productivity. In the agricultural sector, productivity is the lowest economy-wise and comprises annually approximately 3,000 dollars per person engaged in the manufacturing process, while this index reaches 50-70,000 dollars in developed countries… Here lie the perspectives of growth for rural areas. Therefore, our task is to increase the productivity in the agricultural sector by 2014 by at least twofold.”
President Nazarbayev also said that ensuring food security in Kazakhstan was a priority and realizing export potential - primarily in the markets of the member countries of the Customs Union, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East – was key.
“Kazakhstan” he said, “is an active participant of integration processes throughout the CIS. The establishment of the Customs Union with Russia and Belarus which came into force on January 1st 2010 - is a breakthrough for all of Kazakhstan’s integration initiatives… The creation of a Single Economic Space from January 1st, 2012, becomes the next stage of the three countries’ integration… Free movement of capital and manpower will mean an even higher level of integration.”
ATTRACTING INVESTMENT
“It is obvious” continued the President, “that state resources would not be enough for the realization of our diversification plans. Foreign direct investments should become its basic source…Today, all issues of attracting investments from China, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, as well as French, Italian and Russian companies (amounting to 20 billion dollars) are resolved.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP = DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ECONOMY
“We want a powerful entrepreneurial class to emerge in Kazakhstan; a class of people ready to undertake risks, master new markets and introduce innovations... I propose to implement a plan which could be called the ‘2020 Business Road Map’… Support of our exporters from non-extracting industries should become the key direction of industrialization.”
SMB - KEY TO KAZAKHSTAN’S DEVELOPMENT
“I ask the Government to reduce operational business expenses related to registration and business conduction by 30% by 2011 and by another 30% by 2015. By the end of the decade, the share of small and medium businesses in the GDP should increase to 40%. By 2020, Kazakhstan will enter the top 50 countries with the most favorable business climate.”
QUALITY OF LIFE & SOCIAL PROTECTION
“Another major task is to improve quality and standard of living for all citizens of Kazakhstan, strengthen social stability and security... In the next decade, we will continue to improve our political system [and] support the success of our economic plans with consecutive political modernization.”
FOREIGN POLICY
“Kazakhstan will pursue an active, pragmatic and balanced foreign policy aimed at ensuring national interests, increasing the international prestige of our country and strengthening national, regional and global security… Kazakhstan intends to participate in the processes of global decision-making in the formation of a new architecture of international relations [as well as] world trade and financial systems.... Kazakhstan will actively promote regulation of strategic dialogue between all existing systems of collective security… Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the OSCE has as its motto - ‘Trust. Traditions. Transparency. Tolerance’… Many OSCE Participating States support [our] plan to hold an OSCE Summit in Astana this year. I suggest discussing actual problems related to OSCE area security, the situation in Afghanistan and tolerance [on such an occasion]… Our future will be bright – but we must embrace some extra work. Let’s roll-up our sleeves,” concluded the President.
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