Today, during the expert discussion of the draft Strategic Development Plan of Kazakhstan until 2025, the senior partner of the Center for Strategic Initiatives, Olzhas Khudaibergenov commented on the new document, in particular, the reforms related to the strengthening of regions and the digitization of government agencies.

"In this Strategy, I noted three key points. The first is that massive digitalization of all processes and industries will be carried out. This should save considerable time for decision-making and raise labor productivity," the expert said.

According to Olzhas Khudaibergenov, with today's 40% of labor productivity, which already corresponds to the level of developed countries, the implementation of the Stratplan will improve the indicators by a half or two, or reach 60-70%.

At the same time, the expert noted that the effectiveness of the implementation of state programs and state support measures will increase. For example, reducing the time needed for paper coordination will allow timely issuing subsidies in the AIC sphere.

"The second point is the substantial economic basis of the document, which is reflected through the growth of the share of the budget to GDP from 18 to 25% and the growth of lending in the national currency from 18 to 50%. In previous documents, there were no such indicators. The third point is that the document contains a section that presupposes a balanced development of the regions," O. Khudaibergenov said.

According to Olzhas Khudaibergenov, the draft of the Strategic Plan is almost ready for implementation, if approved by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"The draft document went through 4 stages of discussion: with the expert community, with international organizations, with regions and internal harmonization among state bodies. The document has been under development from June, and every month I saw what changes were going on, especially on sections of reforms and initiatives," O. Khudaibergenov said.

According to the expert, there were about a thousand comments during the discussion.

For reference: The reform "Strong Regions and Urbanization" is aimed at reducing the socio-economic imbalance between the regions. Impulse for regional development will give wide delegation of economic powers to the field and introduction of new mechanisms for attracting investments at the regional level. Urbanization will continue with the application of new approaches. A special emphasis will be placed not only on the development of the agglomeration, but also on the medium-sized cities of Kazakhstan with economic potential. The development of social and transport infrastructure, business support and the dissemination of advanced education practices will ensure the improvement of the quality of life throughout the country.

The reform "Public Sector as a Leader of Change" is aimed at increasing the role of state bodies and organizations as the driving force of the country's modernization. The introduction of the latest management and digitalization technologies will increase the efficiency of the state apparatus. The development of customer orientation and adaptability will be one of the most important tasks of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.