The National Development Plan "Kazakhstan-2029" was discussed in KazISS

A regular meeting of the economic club was held at the site of the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, where the draft National Development Plan "Kazakhstan-2029", developed by the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan (ASPIR), was discussed.  The Agency has done a lot of work on the formation of this strategy, however, experts expressed interest in reviewing and finalizing it. The discussion of an important document for the country was attended by Chairman of the Economic club – Head of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan Timur Suleimenov, Chairman of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms Zhandos Shaimardanov, Director of KISI Yerkin Tukumov, Deputy Chairman of ASPIR Olzhas Tuleuov, Managing Director of Jusan Analytics Anuar Kuandykov, deputies of the Mazhilis of Parliament, heads and representatives of analytical and consulting centers, famous economists of the country.

Head of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan Timur Suleimenov noted in his speech that any state should have such an important document as a development plan: "The demand for this from the society and the expert community is quite high. We need a medium-term strategy, the results of which we will specifically feel in the coming years. Such a document was developed by the decision of the Head of State, where ASPIR is the main developer, and a large number of government agencies and expert communities also participated in this. I am sure that many of those present here also took an active part. Nevertheless, the document was published in its entirety relatively recently. There are various reviews and ideas, so today we gathered all interested experts at the KISI site to work out constructive proposals."

KISI Director Yerkin Tukumov noted that this is an important and necessary document, expertise and constructive assessment are needed from economists: – We have proposed the KISI platform for expert discussion of the draft National Development Plan "Kazakhstan-2029". Given that the President has repeatedly spoken about the importance of the expert community's participation in the preparation of strategic documents of the country, including on the new economic policy, it is important for us to understand and finalize this document without delay and explain to citizens in an accessible language how this strategy will serve the interests of the entire population of the country, how our state will develop, which We are building images of the future. What will be the GDP and indicators of the real sector of the economy in its implementation, how will the welfare of citizens improve (an important factor is inclusivity), whether the population will receive equal access to life improvements, education, and medicine. That is, an understanding accessible to the common man of what our country will be like in the near future, how the life of every citizen of Kazakhstan will improve. There is a lot of work to be done on all these and other components, and our balanced opinion is needed.

ASPIR Chairman Zhandos Shaimardanov thanked KISI for a good opportunity to discuss an important document – the draft National Development Plan of the country. – The document has already passed a number of discussions with government agencies, and on February 5 it was published on the portal of open NPAs. We have received a lot of feedback, comments and suggestions from the expert community. When developing the document, we involved not only government agencies, but also Kazakhstani and foreign experts. There is still a discussion going on at various venues. The document is still under development, it is not the final version yet. During the discussion, we are finalizing and plan to launch the third stage of coordination with government agencies in late February – early March," the speaker said.

Deputy Chairman of ASPIR Olzhas Tuleuov noted that the current situation in the global economy poses other tasks in the creation of the draft National Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2029: – The future looks very different now than we imagined it ten years ago. Further strengthening of international economic cooperation, reduction of trade barriers and growth of the global economy were predicted. Today, protectionism is becoming more common in developed countries such as the United States and the EU. The market era of the 90s almost ended with the outbreak of the pandemic and led to a rethink that a period of rebalancing was coming.

Deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament Albert Rau focused on the issue of income of the population: – The main goal set by the President is economic growth and an adequate increase in the welfare of the population. It is necessary to understand how the doubling of GDP will correlate with the growth of household incomes.

The issue of economic inequality of access to infrastructure in the regions was raised by the Deputy of the Mazhilis Nikita Shatalov: – We are focusing attention and giving resources more to the social block. While healthcare and education are the areas that give our people growth, it is a matter of improving professional competencies and developing human capital.

Rakhim Oshakbayev, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the TALAP Center for Applied Research, focused on the need to create favorable conditions for improving the quality of life: – You can take into account the methodology of the index, which measures 37 countries. The main claim is the inclusiveness of economic growth, it is not visible. Doubling of GDP, and where is the person?! 

Managing Director of Visor Holding LLP economist Almas Chukin is confident: it is necessary to increase our own production capacities: – The document should include a list of specific problems by industry, their solutions and understand how much it will cost us. There are two ways – either to increase revenues, or to reduce expenses and see the figure of what the budget will be by 2029.

Murat Temirkhanov, economist, Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Halyk Finance JSC, also supported the idea of building a consolidated budget. In his opinion, it is necessary to describe everything in detail and make an applied analysis of the revenue and expenditure part, build a model on which the budget will depend: – The most important thing is the performance indicators, which have been declining for the last 6-7 years. At the same time, there is a shortage of investments in large projects. There is a shortage of gas for domestic consumption and a lack of investment, because domestic prices are cheaper than export prices. This is where the role of the state should be. But in order to make a leap in the economy, structural changes are needed – the denationalization and construction of the real sector of the market economy.

According to Yerlan Smailov, a member of the Public Chamber under the Mazhilis, it is necessary to include the execution of the national plan in the KPIs of the government and ministries: – If now our priority is to increase the Kazakhstani content, if the indicator of country value is increasing, then it is probably worth setting performance indicators for the government and relevant ministries on key indicators of technological complexity of the economy. 

The issue of investments was supported by comments Marat Kairlenov, Director of the Ulagat Consulting Group consulting company. According to him, the investment policy needs to be reviewed, as the discussion of the list of projects goes on year after year, systemic changes are needed.: – We have a number of proposals to revise the investment policy. The indicators do not reflect the situation in Kazakhstan, as the arrested accounts have increased fivefold, it is necessary to actively create jobs. One of the measures may be the abolition of the recycling fee for motorists.

All suggestions and comments were accepted as a result of the expert discussion.