GOVERNMENT WEEK: 2010 – year of transition from anti-crisis to post-crisis development: K.Massimov
And today when the results of the year were summarized, it's obvious that the work in this direction came to good. As President N.Nazarbayev noted at his recent interview to state mass media, Kazakhstanis didn't experience the impact of the world crisis due to timely measures taken by the Government.
The Kazakh Prime Minister said that the main achievement of the year is preservation of population employment rate and prevention of food prices growth on Tuesday at the briefing.
The Government initiated signing of memos with the biggest companies of the ore mining and processing sectors aimed at prevention of mass layoffs. Transfer of the personnel to shortened working day and reduced workweek were the alternatives for that.
Besides, by the commission of the President, special program - Road Map - was developed by the Government to provide the employment of population in the regions. The program was financed to the amount of KZT 191.5 bln that were spent for creation of additional jobs and conditions for stable post-crisis development. 5221 projects were realized within the Road Map, including 823 projects on the housing and utilities infrastructure, 1119 roads repair projects, 2462 projects on repair of social facilities, 817 projects on creation of living improvement of villages. About 248 thousand people get jobs created within the realization of these projects. Creation of social jobs based on the state co-financing was used in order to protect relevant population. Additionally KZT 7.6 bln were allocated for this purpose. This allowed to employ 1220 thousand people more. 98.5 thousand people were trained and retrained.
By the commission of the President the Road Map will be continued this year as well. However, the Road Map provides creation of better-paying jobs in 2010.
Totally about KZT 900 bln were allocated for implementation of the anti-crisis measures.
The Government is preparing for implementation "New Industrialization" Program now. Necessary documents must be adopted at the first sitting of the Government in new year, the Prime Minister noted at the telephone conference of the Government. Special headquarter will be established to control over the process of realization of the Program. The work will be organized in two dimensions. The first dimension is projects that are planned to be finished in 2010. As First Vice Prime minister Umirzak Shukeyev noted, these are 78 projects. The majority of the projects are scheduled to be launched by July 1, 2010. The second dimension is projects implementation of which is scheduled in 2010. These are 44 projects.
The complicated situation in the financial sector of the country was another biggest problem of 2009. The further development of the country's economy depended on the solution of this problem. As the Prime Minister said at the press conference on December 29, 2009, the Government had to make tough decisions to solve this problem.
"As the result, the banking system was fully stabilized, the foreign banks debts was reduced", the Prime minister noted.
The Government will continue paying special attention to the development of small and medium business this year. Despite USD 1 bln allocated by the Government for financing of this sector, the Government adopted a range of measures on increase of the Kazakh content in procurements of the state bodies, national companies and mineral developers in order to implement the tasks of the President. Preferences for Kazakh companies allowing them to win tenders in equal with foreign companies bid were established. This work will be continued this year as well.
As the Prime minister stressed in one of his speeches, the state will keep on supporting the domestic business by means of the program of increase of the Kazakh content as long as sharpening of competition is expected due to establishment of the Customs Union.
The Prime Minister noted that the Government will continue to control the economy "in manual mode" as long as it's too earlier for full stabilization. In particular, the Government will continue to control over the prices of most popular fuels and lubricants. The Premier stressed that 2010 is the year of transition from anti-crisis to post-crisis development.
The agriculture is one of the sectors of the economy that was supported by the Government. The financing of the agro-industrial complex was not reduced while some sectoral budget programs were cut off.
Due to the state financial support, the spring field works were held in time. The gross agricultural output increased by 11% in 2009 compared to 2008. The gross grain harvest increased 23 mln tons in bunker weight. KZT 120 bln were allocated for forced development of the agro-industrial complex last year. These funds are loaned for establishment of agricultural productions. "KazAgroFinance" set about financing of over 30 of such projects today.