5 social initiatives of President: It’s time to take concrete efforts to strengthen the social unity of our society (REVIEW)

Today at the joint session of the chambers of the Parliament President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has announced 5 new social initiatives that will help improve people’s life.

The President began his welcoming speech with thanks to the people of Kazakhstan.

“I am grateful to our people who always supported me in the crucial moments of Independence. In all presidential elections, the people unanimously supported and elected me. This is the highest reward for me”, N. Nazarbayev stated.

That’s why the Head of State decided to plan the new initiatives for the social welfare of the nation.

“I worked and will work in order to ensure the confident future of our nation. That is why today in the Parliament I address with the new social initiatives. I have been considering this step for a long time. But we needed to accumulate strength and resources. And now the time seems to have come. It is time to make efforts to strengthen the further social unity of our society and to do this through large-scale projects", the President said.

The first initiative: “New opportunities of house-buying for each family”

Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to launch the program "7 - 20 - 25", which will increase the availability of housing loans for the common people.

"11.2 million square meters of housing were commissioned in 2017. This is a record figure. However, this is not enough. Until now, many families do not have their own homes. This is a problem of exceptional social importance", the President emphasized.

In his opinion, thanks to this program every working Kazakhstani will have an opportunity to get a mortgage loan.

The President announced its main parameters.

"The interest rate on the loan will be no more than 7 percent per year but not 14-16 percent as of now. Today banks require the initial contribution up to 30%, and sometimes up to 50%. Under this new program the initial contribution should not exceed 20%. The term of the loan will not be 10-15 years but up to 25 years to reduce the monthly payments", the Head of State explained.

To do this, it is necessary to use the capabilities of the National Bank, second-tier banks and the stock market.

The National Bank must create a special company that will attract at least 1 trillion tenge and send for repayment of new mortgage loans provided by banks on the above terms.

 

The second initiative: “Tax burden reduction for wage increase of low-paid workers”

Nursultan Nazarbayev stated about the planned reduction of the tax burden for raising the salaries of low-paid workers.

"In order to support the working people of Kazakhstan with a relatively low salary, I propose to reduce their tax burden 10 times - up to 1% from January 1, 2019. Reducing the tax burden through individual income tax should be done for those who receive payroll no more than 25 times the minimum calculation index per month", the President noted.

In the opinion of the Head of State, it is necessary that the released funds from such a reduction should be aimed at increasing the payment of their labor.

"As a result, at least one third of the country's wage earners, more than 2 million people, will grow wages without increasing the burden on employers", Nursultan Nazarbayev was sure.

In the future, the Government must explore the possibilities of introducing a progressive scale of income tax, the President of Kazakhstan stressed.

The third initiative: “Increasing the accessibility and quality of higher education and improving the living conditions of student youth”

In order to increase the access and quality of higher education, the President proposed to allocate additional 20,000 grants in 2018-19. Of them, 11 thousand grants will be for training bachelors in technical specialties.

"This will prepare thousands and thousands of specialists who will be in demand in the new economy in the conditions of the fourth industrial revolution. First of all, they are engineers, specialists in the field of information technology, robotics, nanotechnologies", Nursultan Nazarbayev noted.

At the same time, it is necessary to increase the cost of the new grants at all universities in technical and agricultural specialties to the level of grants at the national universities.

"These measures will help increase the enrollment of higher education graduates of secondary schools, which is a worldwide trend", the Head of State said.

At the same time, according to Nursultan Nazarbayev, creating an education system according to the world standards, it is necessary to pay much attention to the conditions of students' education and living.

"Today the issue of providing students of universities and colleges with dormitories is acute. To solve this problem, it is necessary to carry out work on the construction of dormitories by universities, colleges, development companies on the principles of public-private partnership. The state, for its part, through the Ministry of Education and Science will guarantee a gradual reimbursement of part of the investments directed to the construction of dormitories", the President said.

He instructed to ensure the construction of new student dormitories at least 75 thousand seats until the end of 2022.

 

The fourth initiative: “Expansion of microcredit”

As part of this initiative, the Head of State instructed to allocate additional 20 billion tenge in 2018, bringing the total amount of microcredit to 62 billion tenge.

"As a result, the total coverage by microcredit will be more than 14 thousand people, which will double the level of 2017. This work should be actively continued in the following years. The significance of this initiative is that it will allow thousands of people to open their own business. I would like to emphasize that this is especially important for rural areas, for the development of entrepreneurship in the countryside", Nursultan Nazarbayev emphasized.

 

The fifth initiative: “Further gasification of the country”

Over the years of independence, the gas production in the country has increased from 8 to 52 billion cubic meters per year and will grow further.

To date, the level of gasification of the population in the country is almost 50%. Nine regions are gasified. At the same time, the central and northern regions of the country are still without gas.

The President of Kazakhstan announced the decision to build a gas pipeline to Astana from Kyzylorda region.

"We need to implement a project for the construction of a gas pipeline along the route Karaozek (Kyzylorda region) - Zhezkazgan - Karaganda - Temirtau - Astana. To do this, it is required to attract appropriate funds, including from international financial institutions. This will not only provide gas to 2.7 million people but also create the new production of small and medium-sized businesses. The ecology will also improve", the Head of State explained.

The implementation of this project will provide an opportunity to further gasify other regions, said Nursultan Nazarbayev.

It should be noted that the implementation of the Presidential Initiatives will create new jobs and contribute to the further growth of the country's economy.

 

Saltanat Suraganova

Photo by Bauyrzhan Zhuasbayev