Ex-president of Poland: 5 social initiatives – timely response to structural problems (REVIEW)
On the 5th of March, 2018, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the “Five social initiatives” aimed at improving people's lives. These initiatives are discussed and commented not only by domestic experts but foreign political analyst and scientists. So, former President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski expressed his opinion concerning the five presidential initiatives.
“The “Five social initiatives” of President Nazarbayev will put Kazakhstan into the forefront of Asian countries that adopt progressive social measures, aimed at improving living conditions of the general population, at the same time creating new foundations for economic growth”, A. Kwasniewski said.
Speaking about the first initiative “New opportunities of house-buying for each family”, the former President of Poland stated that many countries struggle today with rapidly increasing population growth and Kazakhstan is no exception.
“The country’s population will grow by 20% in the coming twenty-five years. Thus the initiative of “making housing more affordable to families” is a timely response to this challenge. It has a chance to achieve many goals simultaneously. First, raise the quality of life of families. Second, create incentive for economic growth in local construction sector. Third, improve infrastructure and energy savings, as new houses will be more energy-efficient and clean environmentally. Fourth, increase urbanization of Kazakhstan, providing better education, healthcare and jobs for young Kazakhs”, A. Kwasniewski said.
According to the speaker, one of the causes of the rising economic inequalities is the widening gap between incomes of low-paid workers and other employees working in administration or business.
“President’s Nazarbayev “Second Initiative on Tax Reform” will lower these income inequalities and make the Kazakh society more socially just. Even more important is the President’s declaration of introduction of a progressive tax system”, the former President of Poland expressed his opinion on the second initiative “Tax burden reduction for wage increase of low-paid workers”.
In his words, reducing ten-fold taxes for lowest paid jobs - as declared in President’s Nazarbayev second initiative - is clearly a ground-breaking move for the labour market. Paradoxically, it can have also a positive tax effect, as it will make tax avoidance senseless. The economy’s “grey zone” will definitely shrink, improving tax collection rates and lowering corruption.
Education has become one of the key new-age resources needed to compete on the global level. A. Kwasniewski thinks that Kazakhstan’s support for technical education and improving living conditions for students, as envisaged in President’s Nazarbayev third social initiative “Increasing the accessibility and quality of higher education and improving the living conditions of student youth”, has to be praised.
“It is necessary to provide young Kazakhs with good places to study in the country, not abroad. President’s Nazarbayev third social initiative on improving accessibility and quality of higher education is a timely and much needed response to these trends", he said.
According to A. Kwasniewski, at the same time, the third initiative can strengthen the role of Kazakhstan as a regional educational center, attracting students not only from the former Soviet Union states, but also China.
Kazakhstan is trying to improve for many years the structure of its economy – enlarge the share of the private sector and the role of services.
“The President’s initiative for the “Expansion of Loans for Small Businesses” will accelerate this process. It should be supported with training programs for small and young entrepreneurs, as to effectively use the funds available”, the former President of Poland thought.
The fourth initiative “Expansion of microcredit” can use the experiences of EU Structural Funds and the EU Social Fund, which have similar objectives. They functioned really well in Poland and other new EU states, giving new prospects and improving living conditions of inhabitants of least developed regions. That’s a step in the right direction, A. Kwasniewski continued.
As for the last fifth initiative “Gasification of the country”, he noted that President’s initiative to build new gas-pipeline to Astana is a long-term strategic decision that may help to address problems that other metropolises are suffering from – smog and widespread pollution.
“Gas is by far the most ecological among the traditional energy resources, so using it for replacing coal in Astana will improve health and quality of life for the rapidly growing city of Astana”, the speaker summed up.
Saltanat Suraganova
Photo from the open resources
