ASTANA (TCA) — On November 28, the Government of Kazakhstan approved the country’s Strategic Development Plan until 2025 and submitted it to the President for final approval, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

Presenting the plan, Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov reported that the main goal of the Strategic Plan is to ensure a qualitative and sustainable growth of the economy until 2025, and to achieve a standard of living comparable to that of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. 

According to the plan, economic growth is planned to be at the level of at least 4.5%-5% per year, which will allow Kazakhstan to increase its per capita GDP up to $46,100 by 2025.

Suleimenov said the draft plan had passed four stages of discussion at different levels, including expert assessments of international organizations.

During seven years of the Plan’s implementation, the state’s share in entrepreneurship should decrease almost twofold, Ablay Myrzakhmetov, the chairman of the board of the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan, said during the Plan’s discussion by the expert community on November 27.

Under the Plan, the budget policy will change towards the elimination of inefficient measures, incentives will be given to competitive enterprises. Thanks to large-scale privatization and the transfer of competitive activities of the state to the business environment, the state’s share in the economy will be radically reduced.

Implementation of the Plan will allow increasing the share of small and medium business in the economy of Kazakhstan up to 35%. “This is a serious challenge, but the business is ready for the change,” Myrzakhmetov said.

ASTANA (TCA) — The Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan says it has held talks with Chinese officials regarding “frequent complaints by ethnic Kazakhs about problems they face in the People’s Republic of China,” RFE/RL reports.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — The newly inaugurated President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbai Jeenbekov will make his first foreign visit to Russia today, November 29, at the invitation of the Russian side. He will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Aizada Subakojoeva, head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration, told a briefing on November 28.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Central Asia lies at the crossroads of rail routes connecting China and Europe, and the region is now in the spotlight of rivalry between Moscow and Beijing for the control of transcontinental rail shipments. We are republishing this article by Nurlan Aliyev on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor:

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KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan has to solve the issue of ensuring security in cooperation with neighboring countries and countries of the region which are facing the same challenges and threats, Afghanistan’s former President Hamid Karzai said in an exclusive interview with Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

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ASTANA (TCA) — The time of delivery of Kazakhstan’s grain to China by rail has been reduced fourfold with the launch of a new train service from Atbasar railway station, the press-office of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) said.

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