Kazakhstan advances steadily to both economic and political modernization, N.Nazarbayev

The people give credence to the Leader of the Nation who offers the country to follow the way of peace and development. Despite the fact that some part of opposition attempted to boycott the elections on April 3, Kazakh people cast their votes for their leader. Above 1,000 foreign observers who monitored the canvassing and voting process highlight high voter turnout, transparency and integrity of the elections held. 95.55% of electors voted for Nursultan Nazarbayev. The voter turnout reached 89.99%.

The choice Kazakhstan people made on April 3 is based on the history of our country as of a sovereign state. Delivering a speech at the solemn meeting dated to the 10^th anniversary of independence in December 16, 2001, Nursultan Nazarbayev said: "10 years ago we got the splinter of the agonizing economy and we had to study and explore even this piece for the country in most cases had never managed its potential. We received railways and highways, energy systems, pipelines that failed to meet the interests of the modern Kazakhstan. We enjoyed extensive agriculture with a great number of adverse villages and rural settlements."

The decade passed, and we can see, the country's economy gained substantial overstability, even the recent worldwide financial and economic meltdown failed to undermine it. Moreover, Kazakhstan came out of the recession with the expanded gold-value reserves and decline in unemployment. In 2010 Kazakhstan launched tens of new industrial enterprises, and embarked upon industrial and innovation modernization of economy. A package of state-run programmes is underway today to support business activity, especially, in the area of agriculture. The five-year forced industrial and innovation development programme will lead the country to a new economic level, raise people's welfare. The post-crisis development plans proposed by the President and Government in 2010 corresponded to the fundamentals of the Kazakhstan 2030 Strategy adopted back to 1997 when the country completed the hardest stage of transitional reforms. Currently, it is interesting to compare some achievements with the goals set in the Strategy. To ensure development of Kazakhstan as an independent sovereign state was one of the long-term priorities Nursultan Nazarbayev pointed out foremost. Today Kazakhstan is a full-fledged member of the world community, a member of influential international organizations. We enjoy good relations with CIS and non-CIS states, world's leading powers, we also tuned strategic partnership. Last year Astana hosted the OSCE Summit as a concluding chord of Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship. From gaining independence Kazakhstan showed the world its striving for peace and good neighborly relations, adherence to democratic transformations under the guidance of Nursultan Nazarbayev, therefore, Kazakhstan was elected OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

The second priority of the strategy is internal political stability and consolidation of the Kazakh society. Over the years we have seen bloody conflicts and state collapse in the countries, which preserved the balance of interests between different ethnic and social groups. In Kazakhstan, due to the balanced national policy, ongoing work with ethnic groups and religious associations, there is no deterioration of relations between ethnic groups and religions. The model of interethnic and inter-confessional accord created in Kazakhstan became a pattern for many other countries.

The third priority is the economic growth based on the open market economy with high level of foreign investments and domestic savings. More than USD 120 billion of direct foreign investments was attracted to Kazakhstan since it gained independence. Kazakhstan's gold and currency reserves, including reserves of the National Fund, as of February 28, 2011 reached USD 66.4 billion, while in early 1998 their volume was USD 2.2 billion. Even in 2009, when deep recession hit the economies of the leading countries, Kazakhstan achieved GDP growth. And in 2010 the country's GDP growth was 7 percent. Kazakhstan annually increases salaries of state employees, pensions, allowances and scholarships. In general, the country is constantly increasing the level of real income.

Significant progress was also reached in other priorities outlined in the Strategy "Kazakhstan-2030". Among them are the support of small and medium businesses through the micro credit funding; computerization of schools; development of housing construction.

To address emerging problems the state has mobilized all the forces and reserves. Amid the global crisis of 2007 Kazakhstan experienced slowdown in housing construction and 62,000 home investors needed the state help. The Government on the instruction of the President took measures to solve those problems. The state allocated KZT 433 billion to finish construction. In the same period, by multibillion-dollar investments, the state saved from bankruptcy four largest banks, thus preventing the collapse of the country's financial system.

The implementation of two programs Road Map 2009 and Road Map 2010 allowed employing hundreds of thousands of the Kazakhstanis and improving the existing infrastructure. It is noteworthy, over the year of independence the country underwent no mass output losses whereas it became natural for some of CIS states.

Our government services have sufficient resources for rendering help in case of emergencies and natural disasters and instantly respond to all problems that arise. In 2003 the devastating earthquake left thousands of people of Zhambyl oblast without a shelter. The state without exterior help in a few months provided the victims with housing.

The April 3 elections held in the year of 20^th anniversary of the country's independence open a new page in the history of sovereign Kazakhstan. Now the Kazakh people feel confidence that the country's socio-economic and political development will continue in line with the adopted programmes based on the keynote of President Nursultan Nazarbayev that is consistent reforms. The main goal of these reforms is prosperity, security and welfare gain of the Kazakh people.

In his 2010 Message Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that Kazakhstan's economy should get prepared for the post-crisis development under the 2020 Strategic Plan. It is crucial to achieve sustainable economic growth through forced industrialization and development of infrastructure, raise competitive capacity of the human capital. Besides, the President charged to provide the people with social, housing and public utilities services, strengthen interethnic consent, enhance national security, and promote international relations. Pursuant to the President's instructions a State Forced Industrial and Innovation Development Programme and a detailed Industrialization Map were elaborated to secure the desired results. The state programme specifies realization of hundreds of projects. It is an unprecedented programme. The results of 2010 indicated that all the tasks set are achievable. New productions were launched last year to contribute to the country's socio-economic development. The country's two-staged industrialization until 2020 is expected to become the nationwide task.