WEEKLY REVIEW. Industrialization, cattle breeding and business support remain top priority issues - Prime Minister
Timur Kulibayev became the Head of SamrukKazyna National Welfare Fund. As for the regions, all governors except Almaty oblast's one will stay on their posts. Almaty region is headed now by Anzar Mussakhanov. On Tuesday, April 12, Karim Massimov held the first session of the new Government lineup.
Kazakhstan's Government renders all-round assistance to quake and tsunami hit Japan as well as to Libya which experiences humanitarian crisis today. In the meantime, West Kazakhstan region was unexpectedly hit by floods caused by abundant snowmelt. Four municipalities and regional centre Uralsk are fighting now with the melt-water floods and their consequences.
On April 13 the Ministry of Emergencies informed of evacuation of more than 2, 600 people from the dangerous areas. Minister Vladimir Bozhko took the rescue operations under his personal control. Over 2, 000 people, 300 specialized vehicles, 78 flotation devices, 2 planes of the Emergencies Ministry, Euro-Asia Air helicopter are involved in the rescue operations. The rescue teams are working around the clock.
On the same day Prime Minister Karim Massimov signed a Resolution on allocation of KZT 870 mln from the Governmental reserve to the West Kazakhstan region. In addition, the Prime Minister charged all regional governors and heads of national companies to provide financial support for the region suffering from the flood.
For the first time the residents of South Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions, located along the Syrdarya River, are not afraid of spring due to the construction of Koksarai counter regulator. Since the winter the water reservoir has been operating at full capacity. In previous years the settlements in these regions were repeatedly damaged by floods.
On April 12 Head of the Government Karim Massimov visited Kostanay region. At the meeting with the local authorities K. Massimov charged them to get ready for the spring sowing campaign. He also reminded of the necessity of development of small and medium businesses and animal husbandry sector. As for the industrialization program, the Prime Minister said he was satisfied with the course of its implementation in the region.
On April 13 K. Massimov visited the South Kazakhstan region where he also met with the local executives. The Prime Minister charged the region to continue implementation of the forced industrialization program, maintaining small and medium businesses and development of agro-industrial complex. Besides, K. Massimov highlighted that the programs on education, employment, healthcare and housing-utilities development must be in spotlight of the regional authorities. "Control over the prices for foods, fuel and lubricants, construction materials and medicals are the priority objectives", K. Massimov said.
The same day at a session of Almaty region's maslikhat the Prime Minister set several tasks to the new Governor of the region Anzar Mussakhanov. "The task for you is to develop agriculture, cattle breeding, social programs and industry. Special attention should be paid to development of small and medium businesses and education", he stressed.
E-Government portal has marked its 5th anniversary this week. Creation and development of the web-portal was carried out in three stages: information stage (2005-2006), interactive stage (2006-2007) and transaction stage (2008-2009). 377 information services covering the activity of the ministry of education and science, ministry of healthcare, ministry of labor and social protection, ministry industry and trade, ministry of justice, ministry of finance, ministry of energy and mineral resources, the Public Administration Agency and the National Bank were provided as the portal was launched. Apart from the information services, a number of other projects like "E-mail", "Contacts services", "Scheduling service" and "Subscription service" were implemented. The first e-service was rendered on the portal in 2007. Today the portal is the single point of access to public services through which more than 70 electronic and 2 thousand information services are provided. People can pay taxes, state duties and fines through the portal. Every day the e-government portal is visited by more than 10, 500 people; about 10, 000 electronic inquiries are issued daily. Since the year beginning the number of inquiries issued by the portal has made 1, 079, 000. Besides, as the Ministry of Communications and Information says, the number of electronic signatures is increased day by day, and today their number is 498, 000.
On Friday, April 15, the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies informed of launch of Productivity-2020 state program. The goal of the program is improvement of the management and production technologies applied at enterprises as well as modernization of the functioning ventures and establishment of new competitive productions. According to the Ministry, KZT 19.9 bln has been allocated from the national budget for the implementation of the program.
Productivity-2020 program is a complementing and a final one in a range of the existing state programs, like Business Road Map, the Program of Exporters Support, the Program of Investors Attraction and the Program of post-crisis recovery of the enterprises.
In whole, the Government is ready to provide about 100 tools of business support to date.
As earlier reported, at the 23rd session of the Foreign Investors Council the Head of State charged the Government to launch a special program on modernization of the existing productions.