Nov. 29, 2018, Astana hosted the forum "Future of Labor Market: New Opportunities." This is the first thematic platform to discuss the prospects for the development of employment and the social sphere in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market under the Fourth Industrial Revolution. During the plenary session, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev addressed the participants.

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

I am glad to welcome you to our forum dedicated to the ongoing transformation of the labor market and the related challenges and opportunities. It is one of the most pressing issues today. Starting with the 2017 Address of the Head of State “Third Modernization of Kazakhstan: Global Competitiveness,” we have been very actively working on these issues. All these questions were raised at the intermediate session of foreign investors. We are very grateful to our expert guests who came to us and are ready today to share the suggestions that they have.

The world is undergoing profound technological, economic and social changes. They go fast and change the whole way of life.

We are closely following the analytics on the labor market’s future, and are familiar with the reports of the World Bank, the OECD, the World Economic Forum and the Asian Development Bank.

Indeed, the global technological transition places new demands on the quality of human capital, skills and competence of the workforce, transforming labor markets.

Kazakhstan is also building an open society and an open economy. Our development strategy is aimed at integrating the country into the top 30 most successful countries in the world. And we, of course, are faced with new global trends and challenges for the global labor market.

First, the rapid digitalization and development such technologies as Industry 4.0, big data, artificial intelligence and robotics, are changing the structure of jobs.

According to experts, about 4% or 140 million jobs may disappear until 2025. At the same time, 80-90% or about 3 billion jobs will become more complicated. The disappearance of the old and the complication of new professions puts on the agenda of national governments issues of compensating for the loss of jobs as a result of automation, ensuring the flexibility to acquire new skills in their countries' labor resources.

Second, technology and innovation lead to the emergence of new professions and new industries, which means the creation of new jobs.

According to the forecasts, about 10% (or 350 million) of jobs in the global labor market will be new professions. They will appear at the junction of traditional industries and innovations (for example, in medicine – “operator of medical robots” or in aviation – “controller of unmanned navigation”).

Third, globalization and technological progress lead to the development of a gig economy, which already requires more flexible forms of employment, self-employment and the maximum involvement of vulnerable groups in the labor market.

The labor market is transforming. The number of so-called freelancers is increasing. New formats are being expanded: part-time or flexible employment, collaboration, homework, annual hours. The inclusiveness of the labor force is increasing. The economic activity of women and persons with disabilities is growing.

All these new challenges are not just a theory. The world is already facing them.

Therefore, I hope that today's Forum will become an important platform for dialogue between experts, major employers and government agencies to discuss the future labor market; understand calls and find answers to them; effectively use new opportunities for building an economically strong and socially responsible state.

Kazakhstan is actively shaping its policy to manage the changes and is trying to work ahead of the curve. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has already given strategic answers to global challenges.

Institutional reforms of the “Nation’s Plan: 100 Concrete Steps” are being systematically implemented. To get closer to the best international practices, OECD standards are being introduced. In early 2017, the course of the Third Modernization of Kazakhstan was announced, aimed at creating a new model of economic growth based on technology and a new quality of human capital.

The government has developed a special Strategic Development Plan until 2025, designed to ensure the growth of Kazakhstan’s economy at a rate higher than the growth of the world economy. At the same time it is planned to increase labor productivity by 50%; growth in non-primary exports to $41 billion and expand the share of small and medium-sized businesses in GDP to 35%.

Of course, the solution of such tasks will require a very high level of professional training and motivation of people, building up the human capital of the nation. Therefore, the President of the country put forward the Five Social Initiatives and recently made a special addressed to the people of Kazakhstan, designed to provide new inclusive opportunities for citizens to improve their well-being and quality of life.

The government of Kazakhstan has clear plans for the implementation of social tasks set by the Head of State. We expect that in the next 7 years, about 2 million graduates of colleges and universities will enter the national labor market, and all of them need to be provided with high-quality jobs.

Therefore, first, we are working to create about a million jobs by 2025. For this purpose, project management has been introduced, jobs are being created not only in the basic industries, but also at the intersection of automation and digitalization of production, the implementation Industry 4.0 elements, the creation of new promising production areas and a service economy.

Second, the Government has implemented the National Labor Forecasting System. Its main task is to proactively assess the demand and supply of labor, determine the need for personnel and create a system for their training and retraining.

Now we are actively implementing the recommendations of the OECD for improving the National Qualifications System. By 2020, we will approve about 550 professional standards in all key sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan.

Third, in order to provide employment, we have introduced mechanisms for managing the overflow of labor resources released as a result of technological modernization. In all regions, work is carried out with large enterprises.

In addition, to increase the flexibility of the labor market, the Electronic Labor Exchange was launched Jan. 1, 2018: the first digital platform in the country, and the largest bank of vacancies and resumes in the country. All 200 state and 48 private employment agencies are connected to it, as well as a number of media outlets and online sites.

Fourth, in order to provide employment and create jobs, the Government is implementing a program for developing large-scale entrepreneurship. From the early 2017, 190 billion tenge was allocated for these purposes. This made it possible to cover more than 1 million people with employment promotion measures, including 430 thousand this year. This work will continue.

The Government of Kazakhstan expresses gratitude to the country's largest employers for the high degree of involvement in the implementation of state policy and support for government programs in the field of employment and labor market modernization.

The largest investors and enterprises of the country are already implementing more than a hundred specific projects on technological modernization. Thus, the Eurasian Group and Kazakhmys are introducing technologies of “smart quarries” in a number of fields. The Digital Plant standard is implemented by Eurasian Foods companies in food production, Khimfram in pharmaceutical production, Kazmerells in the mining and metallurgical complex. Companies in the construction sector, such as the BI Group, are building housing according to the “smart home” standard.

We also see that business is increasingly investing in retraining its staff. On the basis of the Polymetal company, a training Center for Mining Information Technologies was created, where Kazakh and foreign specialists are trained online. In Western Kazakhstan, oil companies have successfully established and operate training centers for personnel training.

Today, in preparation for the 32nd Plenary Meeting of the Foreign Investors Council, we, with foreign investors, held an interim meeting on the development of human capital.

We are launching a joint Roadmap for the development of vocational education. Together with such major enterprises as KNAUF, ERG, CLAAS, ArcelorMittal, Polymetal, Rusal, in each region of the country, competence centers will be created in the construction, mining and metallurgical, agricultural and other spheres on the basis of exemplary colleges. In the West of the country, the oil companies Karachaganak Petroleum Operating, Agip, CTR, Tengizchevroil, NCOC, Exxonmobil and Kazmunaygas have already successfully established training centers for personnel. We are also grateful to the international companies PwC, EY for their expert support in developing the best solutions for training competitive personnel.

Such a partnership with business will give impetus to the development of human capital in the conditions of technological modernization and will increase the flexibility of the labor market. We call on all investors and employers to join this work!

Dear participants! I hope our dialogue will allow us to exchange a vision on the most pressing issues of modernizing the labor market.

We are interested in the opinions of experts and practitioners on how the personnel training system in Industry 4.0 should be transformed in Kazakhstan, how to integrate new forms of employment, adapt social protection systems and ensure inclusivity in the labor market.

I wish productive work, success in professional and personal life to all the participants of the forum.

Thank you for attention.