At the meeting of the Government chaired by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the issues of ensuring industrial safety were considered.

The Minister for Investments and Development, Zhenis Kassymbek spoke about the implementation of the state policy in the field of industrial safety.

"Analysis of the situation in recent years shows that the accident-free operation of hazardous production facilities has a positive trend. Thus, the number of accidents in 2016 compared to 2008 decreased by 60%, the number of victims as a result of accidents decreased almost fourfold,” Zhenis Kassymbek said.

According to the minister, the main reasons for reducing the number of accidents are related to the introduction of a system for assessing risks in the field of industrial safety, improving the regulatory and legal framework in the field of industrial safety, strengthening the work on prevention and control of accidents through constructive interaction between the authorized body and controlled enterprises.

At the same time, the Minister drew attention to the fact that the high level of deterioration of equipment, buildings and structures, as well as the failure of owners of hazardous industrial facilities to meet industrial safety requirements, adversely affect the state of industrial safety. In this regard, the department is working to stimulate industrial enterprises to modernize and automate production.

"Today, such enterprises as ERG, KazZinc, are working on the introduction of elements of Industry 4.0 — ‘smart career’, mobile personnel management, ‘smart factory’. At the enterprises of KazMinerals (Aktogay and Bozshakol), a system of dispatching and production optimization has been introduced. In Altynau Kokshetau JSC, a system of monitoring of a career in the online mode and industrial Internet has been introduced. At most of the mines of backbone enterprises, systems for positioning and alerting personnel have been implemented. In the manufacturing industry, robotic autonomous complexes are used at some enterprises such as SaryarkaAvtoProm LLP, Zhigermunayservis LLP, Kainar-AKB LLP," the Minister for Investments and Development said.

In addition, in order to improve the regulatory framework in accordance with modern standards and international technological requirements, the concept of the draft law "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Industrial Safety" is at the development stage.

At the same time, in accordance with the instruction of the Head of State to conduct a large-scale audit of state control and supervisory functions, 30% of the functions in the field of industrial safety will be reduced.

In conclusion, the speaker stressed that the implementation of these tasks will reduce the accident rate of hazardous production facilities while preserving the lives and health of Kazakhstanis.