ASTANA (TCA) — Speaking at a joint session of the Chambers of Parliament on September 1, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered to intensify work on reduction of the national economy’s dependence on raw materials and prioritized state support to enterprises producing non-raw materials and working for export, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan reported.
The President said that the world’s economic and political situation “remains difficult”. “The difficulties are faced by many, even developed countries, not speaking about developing ones. Falling prices, volatility in global markets, weakened international trade. The volume of investment flows between countries has reduced, turnover, exports, imports have fallen — all these factors have a negative effect on the situation, of course it affects Kazakhstan, because we are part of the global economy,” he said.
Nazarbayev reminded that in these circumstances, “we were forced to introduce austerity measures in all sectors; we have reduced investment in the economy”. However, the Government will continue to implement the anti-crisis action plan.
Nazarbayev said that in the first week of this month, “we will hold an expanded Government meeting, at which I will propose new measures to support employment and incomes of our population. That is, new means to let the economy breathe and grow, to make our banks work and start lending.”
The President emphasized that “our priority is provision of state support to enterprises producing non- raw materials, working for export”.
To this end, Kazakhstan intends to study the experience of Poland, to which Nazarbayev has recently paid an official visit. “They have done great work in this respect. The whole state aims to export any product. They succeeded in local governance, it is very interesting in the development of SMEs, which account for 67% of their economy and in the processing of agricultural production,” the President said.
In this regard, by the order of the Head of State, a group of Kazakh experts will travel to Poland to learn from Polish economic achievements.
