ASTANA (TCA) — The labor productivity index in Kazakhstan increased by 31 percent as of the end of 2016 and the country reached the level of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia in terms of labor productivity in 2016, Minister for Investment and Development Zhenis Kassymbek said at a press conference on March 28, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
Growth has been observed for the last five years. This was directly influenced by the implementation of the Industrial and Innovative Development Program. However, to date, there is still a backlog in the level of labor productivity in comparison with advanced countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The lag was 66% in 2015, but the Ministry of Investment and Development plans to reduce this gap down to 32% by 2025.
“The growth of labor productivity is one of the main tasks of the state program of industrial and innovative development. Our task is to meet the level and requirements for labor productivity of the OECD countries,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, there is a general trend across all European countries: during a difficult time for the world economy in the last 3-4 years, the labor productivity in the dollar equivalent has significantly decreased, the minister said.
“We have also changed, taking into account the (tenge) devaluation, but the past year has shown that there is a stabilization in this direction and we see that the trend will also be positive this year,” Kassymbek said.
