Today at the government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, measures to implement the Address of the Head of State to the people of Kazakhstan dated March 16, 2022, were considered. The Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alibek Kuantyrov reported on the implementation of the instructions.

Within the framework of the Address to the people of Kazakhstan "New Kazakhstan: the path of renewal and modernization", the Head of State set specific tasks to change the political system and the administrative-territorial structure of the country. This marks the beginning of a new phase of state building.

As the Minister of National Economy noted, the initiatives of the Head of State represent a well-balanced reform program aimed at forming a new political culture in the country.

In particular, more than 30 amendments and additions to the Constitution of the country will be introduced, and more than 20 laws will be adopted by the end of the year.

A draft National Action Plan for the implementation of the Address of the Head of State to the people of Kazakhstan dated March 16, 2022 has been developed.

In order to implement the instructions of the Head of State, the Ministry of National Economy will work in 3 main areas.

1. Improving the administrative territorial structure of the country;

2. Decentralization of local government;

3. Priority anti-crisis measures.

According to the head of the department, it is planned to create the Abay, Zhetysu and Ulytau regions, as well as, taking into account the opinion of the population, the study of the issue of renaming the city of Kapshagay.

“The Roadmap for the preparation of the Decree of the Head of State and the corresponding Plan of organizational measures for the implementation of the Decree of the Head of State will be developed,” Kuantyrov said.

These documents will take into account all the necessary measures related to administrative and territorial transformations:

– development and adoption of the necessary Decrees of the Head of State and Government decrees on the division (formation) of regions and their borders, including issues of naming (renaming) regions and settlements;

– changes in the staffing of local executive bodies and territorial subdivisions of central state bodies;

– transfer and acceptance of communal property;

– amendments to legislative acts;

– formation of state bodies in newly formed regions.

“The creation of these areas will have a positive impact on the socio-economic development of not only these regions, but the entire economy as a whole,” assured the Minister of National Economy.

As part of the Concept for the Development of Local Self-Government, in 2021 the Ministry began developing drafts of the Law “On Local Self-Government in the Republic of Kazakhstan” and an accompanying bill.

Draft laws provide for norms on delimiting the powers of local government and local self-government (LSG), expanding the property rights of LSG bodies; simplification of public procurement procedures at the LSG level.

As Kuantyrov emphasized, in accordance with the Message, the issue of introducing direct financing of LSG bodies through expanding the functionality of the "Budget of People's Participation" will also be included.

At the same time, in order to expand the powers of maslikhats, the functions of distributing BNU funds will be assigned to them.

“In essence, this is a fund distributed among rural districts for specific projects. These projects will be formed by rural akims on the proposals of the local community,” the minister said.

In addition, in order to stabilize the socio-economic situation against the backdrop of events in Ukraine, the Operational Headquarters for anti-crisis measures has been established with the participation of government agencies, NCE Atameken, business representatives and the expert community.

“It has organized working groups on transport and logistics, infrastructure, trade and financial sustainability. According to a certain algorithm of interaction between working groups, based on daily monitoring of the consequences of events in Ukraine on the external economic situation, scenarios of their impact on the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan are being developed. On the basis of this information, operational response measures are being developed,” Kuantyrov said.

At the same time, in pursuance of the instructions of the Head of State, the Ministry of National Economy launched the implementation of the Anti-Crisis Program. Currently, specific proposals are being worked out with the responsible government agencies.

“The Ministry of National Economy will process every instruction of the Head of State given in the Address to the people of Kazakhstan in a meaningful and efficient manner. For the effective implementation of the Message, the work of the Ministry will be carried out on the principles of de-bureaucratization of processes and focus on results,” summed up Kuantyrov.