The philosophers of antiquity spoke the actual truth even before our era: the only permanent thing in the world is change. Changes continuously occur in the life of each of us and the country as a whole. Learning to manage them is the most important condition for self-preservation and success.

At the beginning of this year, N. Nazarbayev in his Address to the people and the Program Article "Bolashakka Bagdar – Ruhani Zhangyru" essentially proposed a national plan for change management.

What is a planned change? It occurs when the existing state of affairs does not satisfy us, when we want to achieve a great goal, but are still far from it and we have much to do for this, this is called the planned change.

The President proposed the Third Modernization of the country as a natural process of mobilizing the entire political and economic structure of the state to achieve a new state of the country and society that is adequate to the modern world. This is a meaningful attempt to accelerate the transformations in the economic, technological, political and ideological spheres that will bring our society closer to the vision of Kazakhstan-2050.

In our historical consciousness, freedom and independence, the preservation of our vast territory and its integrity are important attributes of national self-awareness. It is very good. But in the national consciousness it is also important to cultivate the desire to live in a prosperous rich and developed country, so that every Kazakhstani citizen practically participated in the construction of his future, identifying the common movement of the country and himself forward - as a striving for high standards of ‘quality of life’ at the level of OECD countries, developed countries of the world.

The modern concept of ‘quality of life’ today is an important paradigm of the state policy and social programs of OECD countries. This concept, in particular, considers the individual's perception of his own role and place in the context of the cultural and value system of the society in which he lives.

This concept is also supported by its system of metrics and indicators on many criteria that assess the person's satisfaction with life from the quality of healthcare, family relations, education, employment, religious situation, ecology, etc.

A well-known guru of change, American professor John Cotter argued that the very first step to change is to create a sense of urgency and immediacy for people to implement changes in their lives.

So, the President in the program article clearly sums up: “To survive – one must change. Anyone who does not do this will be carried by the heavy sand of history.”

Calculations by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan show that, while maintaining current growth rates, Kazakhstan can roll back among the competitive economies of the world. In order not to leave the trajectory and continue its journey to the pool of thirty developed countries of the world, annually the economy of Kazakhstan should demonstrate GDP growth of 5-6% until 2050.

In other words, the acceleration of the projected rates of the annual real growth of the economy is an important task of the economic policy of our country.

Today, Kazakhstan's economy has faced serious internal and external challenges, including: a decline in world prices for our exports, a technological gap, a decline in investment, a slowdown in labor, a release of jobs in the mining sector, and a slowdown in the growth rates of Kazakhstan's main trading partners.

In terms of international relations, some experts talk about the deceleration of the globalization processes, the growth of protectionism in the economies of the leading countries and the "geopolitical recession" in the world. That is why the President sets the task of economic, technological political and spiritual modernization of the country aimed at creating a qualitatively new model of economic growth, improving human capital, political culture and developing the modernization values ​​of society, which together will allow Kazakhstan to successfully develop in the new global reality.

Each time brings us new challenges, to which we must respond in a new way. "Zamanyn tulki bolsa, tazy bop shal" (If your era has turned into a fox, become a hound dog to catch it up), says an old folk wisdom. We must be able to transform, change, adapt. Awareness of this old truth in today's realities is a qualitative half of success. The thing remains for the second half.

If we turn to the science of change management, it is important for society not only to understand the essence of changes, which in many respects depends on the effective information and communication policy of the state, but it's time to move on to the next strategy, i.e. to the second half - "participation and involvement of citizens in the process of practical implementation of changes", which in turn directly depends on each of us individually and society as a whole.

Gani Nygymetov

 Director of the Institute of Eurasian Integration

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