NEW PLAN FOR ACCELERATED INDUSTRIALIZATION OF KAZAKHSTAN'S ECONOMY

Astana, April 26: For several years now, Kazakhstan has been trying to develop non-oil sectors as it builds a more diversified and stable economy. The recent global financial and economic crisis has only strengthened Astana’s resolve to have a strong and varied economic base, one that would be characterized by new technologies and industries.

Earlier this year, in his state of the nation address, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called for a major industrialization drive up to the year 2020, and the Government has set to work with renewed vigor.

Hence, a State Program for accelerated industrial and innovative development (AIID) for 2010-2014 as the first five-year plan to implement a 10-year development strategy of Kazakhstan developed by the government and approved by a presidential decree on March 19 this year.

In mid-April, the Government approved key mechanisms for implementing the strategy including an action plan, “Scheme of Rational Distribution of Manufacturing Capacities”, “Map of Industrialization” and a “2020 Business Road Map”.

Presenting the document, First Deputy Minister of Industry and New Technologies Albert Rau noted that the draft plan has been worked out and agreed with all concerned government agencies and departments, local governments of the regions (akimats), the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund, and the KazAgro national holding.

The “Map of Industrialization” envisages 101 projects worth 6.8 trillion tenge. Once implemented, they are due to create more than 130,000 temporary and 90,000 permanent jobs.

The main aim of implementation of the “Scheme of Rational Distribution of Manufacturing Capacity” is to identify required parameters for the territorial and sectored development with reference to the Map of Industrialization. Moreover, this program is a guide line for planning investment solutions for business, forecasting basis for developing programs of a regional development, the basis for building up sectored programs for implementing the State Program for AIID.

Under the “2020 Business Road Map”, new investment projects and enterprises, aimed at modernizing and expanding Kazakhstan’s production capacity will get subsidized loans. This year, the Government has provided 30 billion tenge for this program from the state budget. The program will consist of three areas, including the promotion of new business initiatives, improvement of the business sector and support for export-oriented industries.

The Program AIID focuses on three areas: increasing the efficient use of natural resources, improving the efficiency of human resources, and implementation of geopolitical potential. By 2014, the Government plans to achieve significant results. The GDP is to grow by 50% from the level in 2008, labor productivity – by up to 50% in the manufacturing sector and by 100% - in some sectors of the economy, and the proportion of non-oil exports is to grow by up to 40%.

There are 12 priority areas in the new state program, including the development of agriculture, metallurgy, oil refining, energy, chemistry and pharmaceuticals, construction industry, transport, information communications, engineering, uranium industry, space, light industry, and tourism.

The implementation of such a program would help achieving the main goal set by the President, which is to achieve sustainable and balanced development of economy in the next ten years through diversification and enhancing its competitiveness, advancing social effectiveness of priority sectors and implementing investment projects which create an enabling environment for industrialization, building up centers of economic growth on the basis of rational territorial organization of economic potential and ensuring effective interaction between government and business.

“Considering the fact that our main goal is to carry out this very program, a new approach to an action plan has been proposed which uses an analysis of international experience in implementing comprehensive programs as a basis,” Albert Rau stressed.

First, the plan has a number of strategic directions. Second, the implementation of each direction will follow a clear pattern “goals - objects - indicators - timing implementation”. Third, only one government agency or department will be responsible for the implementation of each program, and regular monitoring of the implementation will be in place.

The productivity, the amount of direct investment, increase of non-oil exports and the share of innovation active enterprises, the number of new high-performance jobs will be the main indicators of the success of the program.

“The program will contribute to strengthening the role of small and medium-sized businesses in the process of industrialization, increasing the productivity in the manufacturing industry, and expanding the proportion of non-oil exports,” Minister of Economic Development and Trade Zhanar Aitzhanova underscored.