Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin met with UN Deputy Secretary-General and UNDP Deputy Administrator Haoliang Xu on the sidelines of the Regional Environmental Summit.

Serik Zhumangarin noted that UNDP remains one of Kazakhstan’s key partners in promoting sustainable development, institutional reforms, and regional policy.

“We have jointly implemented the UNDP Country Programme for 2021–2025, which focuses on regional development, green transformation, and improving the efficiency of public administration,” he emphasized.

As part of the programme, the project “Sustainable Development: Addressing Inequality at the Local Level in New Regions” is being implemented, covering regional development programmes in Abay and Ulytau regions and providing institutional support for the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Cooperation with UNDP is an important tool for implementing our national priorities — economic diversification, regional development, and improving the quality of life of the population. We expect the new programme to be result-oriented with measurable outcomes and maximum impact on the regions,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

To enhance the practical focus of UN projects, the Kazakh side proposed expanding the component on mobilizing external financing for regional projects, scaling up successful practices across the country, and intensifying interaction with local executive bodies at the regional level.

In turn, Haoliang Xu congratulated Kazakhstan on the adoption of the new Constitution. He highlighted successful cooperation in several areas, including the development of the Digital Family Map, improving approaches to environmental resource assessment, and reforming the pharmaceutical procurement system. The Digital Family Map is being implemented with UNDP support in partnership with Kazakh state bodies and is one of the flagship projects of digital transformation in social policy.

“Through cooperation with SK-Pharmacy LLP, out of 2,400 drug names, we participated in the procurement of 20 unique ones and achieved an average 50% reduction in their cost. Since 2018, this has resulted in savings of approximately $43 million,” he reported.

Special attention was paid to the digitalization of public administration. According to Haoliang Xu, a key task is the integration of disparate information systems into a single decision-support platform.

“There is a lot of data, but combining it into a unified analytical platform will significantly improve the quality of management decisions. If the pilot project is successfully implemented, this approach can be scaled up,” he noted.

The UN Deputy Secretary-General emphasized UNDP’s readiness to further jointly develop initiatives: “These are your initiatives — we are ready to jointly create solutions and continue our cooperation.”

During the meeting, the Kazakhstan side also outlined priorities in regional policy. In particular, it was noted that the new budget model based on the Regional Standards System is aimed at reducing imbalances in the development of social and transport infrastructure within regions. The key goal is to equalize living conditions in settlements, increase employment (especially in rural areas), and improve the quality of life of the population.

#Ecology #International Cooperation #Investments #Regional policy #Serik Zhumangarin

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