The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting with the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Executive Director of UNFPA Natalia Kanem.

The parties discussed the development of the social sphere of Kazakhstan, including education and health, initiatives to support youth, as well as the holding of the UNFPA Global Leaders' Meeting in Almaty. 

The Prime Minister noted that the Government attaches great importance to the comprehensive development of relations with the UN, in particular, with the Population Fund (UNFPA), which implements the best international practices and experience in the social sphere.

"Your contribution to our joint work is invaluable, and we are deeply grateful for the efforts aimed at achieving our common goals," Smailov said. 

He added that the key principles and priorities of cooperation between the UN and Kazakhstan are defined in the Framework Program 2021-2025, the implementation of which has already given Kazakhstan concrete positive results. 

"This is confirmed by the report on the activities of the UN country team in Kazakhstan for 2022, where a high assessment of activities in the field of youth support, gender equality and development of social institutions is given. I would like to note that this is a direct result of our fruitful cooperation," Prime Minister said. 

At the same time the Government continues focused work on the development of the social sphere. So, as of Jan. 1 a digital family card was introduced, which helps to proactively identify the need to provide citizens with state support measures. A complete digitization of the health care system within the unified platform E-Densaulyk is underway. A comprehensive modernization of rural health care has begun, which will improve the quality of medical care for 4 million villagers. In particular, more than 600 outpatient clinics, feldsher-midwife and medical stations will be built, and modernization of 32 inter-district hospitals will start this year.

"We also pay special attention to youth. The Concept of youth policy till 2029 was adopted, which includes measures on increase of income level, providing housing and quality education," Alikhan Smailov emphasized. 

In turn, Natalia Kanem noted the high results of social development achieved by Kazakhstan in recent years, and confirmed the readiness of UNFPA to continue providing assistance and technical support to the Republic in the implementation of new initiatives. 

"We welcome efforts of the Government to create favorable conditions for youth development and specifically youth health centers, which are opened all over the country. This is an excellent achievement, an example of best practice that we will definitely talk about in Almaty, where more than 200 leaders of UNFPA from around the world will gather. In this context, I would also like to mention the importance of the concept of education based on life skills, UNFPA is ready to support this direction," Natalia Kanem said. 

At the end of the meeting, the parties reaffirmed their willingness to expand partnership on a wide range of issues of mutual interest.

#Alikhan Smailov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Bilateral meetings