On a working trip to the Ulytau region, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov visited a number of industrial facilities, met with miners of the Annensky copper mine, familiarized himself with the progress of the overhaul of the Satpayev Central Hospital and the development of the health system in the region as a whole.

So, the Head of Government got acquainted with the activities of Zhezkazgan copper smelter, the largest city-forming enterprise. Annually, about 200 thousand tons of refined copper is produced here. It employs over 2,000 people. In the period from 2023 to 2026, a new sulfuric acid plant with a design capacity of 350 thousand tons per year will be built at the plant.

Alikhan Smailov said that the government will support in every possible way the further work of the enterprise, which is among the top world leaders in copper production. He stressed the importance of introducing new technologies, especially in the field of environmental protection. In particular, the launch of sulfuric acid plant will allow to reduce harmful emissions of the plant into the atmosphere by at least half.

"It is very important to support investors in the implementation of their projects. We will solve those issues which depend on the Government, but the akimat needs to systematically create conditions for increasing the number of investment projects. We need to fully consider the initiatives of our entrepreneurs, to encourage them to invest in the development of the region's economy," he said.

Further, Prime Minister familiarized himself with the construction of a chemical plant of Kazhimsintez LLP for the production of reagents used in the hydrometallurgical industry. The enterprise production capacity of 12 thousand tons of products per year is expected to start in November this year.

Alikhan Smailov stressed that this plant will make a great contribution to employment, import substitution and diversification of the regional economy. According to him, in case of further development and increase of capacity the plant can not only meet the demand in the domestic market, but also to export products to neighboring countries.

Head of the Government also visited Satpayev Central Hospital, where the measures for the development of health care in the region were discussed. In particular, according to the national project "Modernization of rural health care" within the next two years 17 medical institutions of the region will be brought into line with the standards. Besides, it is planned to build a modern perinatal center, oncological and cardiological centers and other facilities.

Here, Alikhan Smailov held a meeting with employees of the hospital, in which one of the nurses voiced the issue of increasing the salaries of nursing staff. Prime Minister reminded that from 2020 to 2023 all doctors are to receive a 30% annual increase in salary and nurses - by 20%. At the same time it has been additionally decided to annually increase the salaries of other health care workers by 20% from 2022 to 2025. However, as it turned out, in the Ulytau region the increase for nursing staff was only 15%.

"It should not be like this, it was decided to raise annually by 20%, so that in total over four years, the salary has increased by about two times. Let's solve this problem with the akimat," he said.

Head of the Government added that in addition to this, regional authorities are entitled to establish a stimulating increase at the expense of the local budget by applying a correction factor to the official salary.

"This is a separate mechanism, which allows to increase salaries additionally. But basically, the salary itself should increase by 20 percent annually. This task must be accomplished. We will see to it that it is so," Alikhan Smailov stressed.

During his working trip Prime Minister also visited one of the city-forming production facilities of Satpayev - Annenskaya mine, where he held a meeting with miners. There they discussed social security of workers employed in hazardous working conditions, insurance against accidents and a number of other issues.

Alikhan Smailov noted that the issue of introducing changes in the existing system of social security of people working in hazardous conditions, which will allow miners to retire earlier, is currently being studied. The following criteria will be taken into account: the period of mandatory occupational pension contributions and total length of service, including in hazardous working conditions.

In addition, the issue of making insurance payments in case of loss of professional ability to work of citizens who worked at harmful or hazardous production before and after retirement is being considered.

"This is a proposal of the government, which will be discussed by trade unions and submitted to the RK Parliament," he stressed.

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