Issues of improving the quality of public services were considered in the Government session chaired by Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov.

Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin reported that today about 93% of public services are provided electronically. Compared to last year, the number of services provided via smartphones has increased 6 times.

Along with this, the introduction of proactive services, which do not require citizens to contact government agencies, continues. Currently, their number has reached 40, and more than 2 million services have been provided. Work in this direction continues with the participation of focus groups of citizens.

The Minister added that previously citizens had to provide about 50 million paper certificates annually. However, through modern technologies this process has been digitized. However, today there are still facts of demanding certificates by employers and schools. This issue is planned to be fully resolved in 2024.

It was noted that today Kazakhstanis are increasingly using new digital services. In particular, these are electronic powers of attorney, online purchase and sale of cars, online registration of mortgages, etc. At the same time, next year the process of assigning pensions will be changed, which will be conducted in a completely new format. Projects are also being developed to abolish 12 different types of certificates required for employment, Internet connection, submission of declarations, and queuing for kindergarten.

During the meeting, a platform for online real estate transactions was also presented. Thus, when buying or selling real estate, for example, a house, an apartment or an office, there will be no need to go to a notary or to the Central Office, as before. Such online service will be provided using Blockchain and biometric identification technologies. All actions and videos performed on each property will be stored in the "e-government". Thus, the process that took several days has been reduced to 1 hour.

In addition, another project was presented - I-Qala. Today, a new owner of a house has to go around the utilities to conclude contracts for water, heat, etc. connection. More than 700 thousand people face this difficulty every year, and citizens used to spend up to 30 days to solve it. Currently, the Ministry is introducing an easier format.

Thus, the apartment owner is sent a corresponding SMS and all utility contracts are concluded online. Thanks to this, there is no need to go around the companies-operators in person. Today in the capital more than 80 thousand contracts have been successfully concluded in this way. Now this service is being launched in Almaty. Similar work will be carried out in other regions of the republic.

Chairman of the Board of Government for Citizens State Corporation Arman Kenzhegaliyev also spoke at the meeting.

As noted by the Prime Minister, today most public services are available in electronic format, including through applications on a smartphone.

"Provision of electronic public services is an important component of improving the quality of life of citizens. The digitization of processes has made it possible to significantly reduce appeals to state bodies, the need to obtain paper certificates. This is not only de-bureaucratization, but also saving time of citizens," Alikhan Smailov said.

He emphasized that the measures taken by the state as a whole allowed Kazakhstan to rise to the 8th position in the UN rating on online services.

"This is a great achievement of our country, which is noted by international experts. This work should be actively continued. It is necessary to constantly improve the level of service of the provided services, especially in the centers of public services," Prime Minister pointed out. 

According to him, in the context of automation of services the Government for Citizens State Corporation should become a full-fledged driver of offline services.

"As the Head of State noted, it is necessary to proactively provide services throughout a person's life. For this purpose, reengineering of business processes is being carried out. It is important to move away from the practice of collecting applications and supporting documents when the necessary information is already available in databases," Alikhan Smailov pointed out.

He emphasized that state bodies should implement approaches when services are provided "by default". One such example is the project "Digital Family Map" implemented on the platform "Smart Data Ukimet".

"This approach should be scaled across all life situations," the Prime Minister said. 

At the same time, he noted that 22 types of public services are still unavailable on the "Electronic Government" portal. Among them are such as recognition of education documents, appointment of housing assistance, extension of the lease term of a land plot.

"People also complain about incorrect data. Only for 10 months of this year received more than 56 thousand applications for correction of information. This indicates insufficient quality work in the integration of various databases and digitization of information," Alikhan Smailov pointed out.

He added that visitors of the centers are dissatisfied with long queues and lack of comfortable conditions in the premises. In particular, citizens with special needs can't get to some buildings of the Central Office because of the lack of special ramps and elevators.

"It is extremely difficult to get through to the Single Contact Center. Applying for licenses and permits is so complicated that applicants have to turn to consulting companies and individuals. In general, the above examples reduce the positive effect of the great work being done. Therefore, it is necessary to respond sensitively to complaints and recommendations of citizens, to take prompt action," Head of the Government emphasized. 

In this regard, Prime Minister instructed to automate the remaining types of public services, which were declared as electronic, until the end of March 2024, as well as to expand the list of proactive services on a systematic basis.

"It is necessary to regularly check the actual performance of each public service. Special attention should be paid to the ease of its receipt, correctness of data and their safe storage. And in general, we should optimize the list of documents requested from the population," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to Prime Minister, the main focus should be on quality and timely provision of services to businesses and citizens, including persons with special needs.

#Alikhan Smailov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Digitalization #Government session #Public Services