GOVERNMENT: Government wants Kazakhstani car producers to be more competitive in EEU market

This week President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev received Internal Affairs Minister Kalmukhanbet Kassymov who reported on the measures taken within the modernization of Kazakhstani law-enforcement system, first set of results of the work done by local police services, fight against the crime and ensuring order in the country. Additionally, Minister Kassymov briefed the President on modernization of the penitentiary infrastructure within development of the public-private partnership and state agencies working on protection of people, prevention and liquidation of the consequences of emergency situations.
In conclusion, the Head of State gave a number of instructions, especially on maintaining the order during the upcoming parliamentary elections to Majilis and maslikhats countrywide.
Also this week the Kazakh Government held a teleconference chaired by Prime Minister Karim Massimov focusing on the progress of property legalization campaign.
Finance Minister Bakhyt Sultanov announced during the teleconference that the amount of claimed property for legalization has hit the KZT 1 trillion mark. According to him, KZT 787 billion have already been legalized, including property located in Kazakhstan worth nearly KZT 500 billion, foreign assets - KZT 1 billion and cash - KZT 287 billion. Minister Sultanov stressed that about KZT 2.5 billion was returned to the citizens. Some 78,000 people have submitted their applications for legalization of their property to authorized bodies within the framework of the campaign.
At the end of the teleconference, Prime Minister Massimov gave an instruction to continue the work done within the campaign.
This week Karim Massimov held a meeting with Rasim Ljajic, Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia in Astana. At the meeting the sides touched upon the issues of commercial and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Serbia, prospects of implementing joint projects in the sphere of transport and transit, construction and agriculture.
First Vice Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev also held a number of meetings in the Kazakh capital this week.
He met with Secretary General of the Turkic-Speaking States Cooperation Council Ramil Gassanov to discuss new areas of multilateral cooperation, including strengthening of cultural exchange, development of ties in the sphere of education and tourism. At the meeting the interlocutors reiterated the importance of further development of transit potential between member countries of the Turkic-Speaking States Cooperation Council through the Trans-Caspian international transport route.
Mr. Sagintayev also met with newly appointed Permanent Representative of the World Bank in Kazakhstan Ato Brown. During the meeting utmost attention was paid to the projects implemented in Kazakhstan with the support of the World Bank and reforms to improve Kazakhstan's position in the Doing Business Ranking. Sagintayev suggested featuring Kazakhstan into the World Bank report "Enabling the Business of Agriculture". Kazakhstan believes that results of this report will help its Government analyze and push aside all the existing administrative barriers for doing business in agriculture, amend the existing agribusiness development programs taking into account the best foreign practices based on independent expert advice, and use budget funds earmarked for the support of agriculture more efficiently.
Vice Minister of Investment and Development Albert Rau declared this week that the share of local content in Kazakhstan's car making industry will reach 50% in 2018. "All domestic car producers must raise the share of local content up to 50% by 2018, otherwise, they won't be able to enter the EEU market and compete with other car manufacturers," Vice Minister Rau said at the KIAE exhibition of spare parts, automotive components and maintenance equipment in Astana.