ASTANA – President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed five legislative acts as part of the implementation of the 100-step Plan of the Nation that is the vehicle for enacting the country’s five institutional reforms programme Nov.12.
Nazarbayev signed the law “On the commercialisation of scientific and (or) research and development activities,” designed to improve the efficiency of the scientific sphere, raise the level of innovation and support the development of high-tech industries in the priority sectors of the economy by stimulating the commercial use of the results of research and development activities, and to attract private enterprise to research projects.
He also signed the law “On amendments to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on the results of commercialisation of scientific and (or) research and development activities,” which will bring the country’s legislation into compliance with the new law.
Next is the law “On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on the activities of local police services.” The law provides for the establishment of local police services and covers preventing violations, protecting public order, preventing and suppressing criminal offences and domestic crime, ensuring road safety and pre-trial investigations, reported Zakon.kz.
According to Zakon.kz, local police services will be created by optimising the structures of bodies within the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). The new service will be incorporated into a unified system of law-enforcement bodies, and its employees will have the same legal status.
Kazakh Minister of Internal Affairs Kulmukhanbet Kassymov said that the National Commission on Modernisation is finishing its review of the establishment of the local police.
“We carefully studied the experience of foreign countries. There are different approaches. Discussion of the proposed reform is almost completed. Now we are working on the details. I believe that we will create our own Kazakh model of a local police force. I would like to note that we are not talking about full decentralisation of our police force. It is essential to maintain the unity and integrity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system,” Kassymov said, as reported by Tengrinews.kz.
Kassymov further noted that over the year, local police will be introduced in several cities as an experiment in order to develop the final model.
Local police chiefs will be appointed by regional akims (governors) on the proposal of the MIA in coordination with maslikhats (regional legislatures).
According to Chairman of the Committee for Administrative Police of the MIA Igor Lepekha, local police in Kazakhstan will start work from Jan. 1, 2016. Nazarbayev also signed the law “On amendments and additions to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on the development of local self-government.” Increasing local self-government is intended to expand citizens’ independent decision-making on local matters and give local residents the opportunity to manage municipal property in the interests of all residents of their territory.
The newly-signed law “On amendments and additions to the Land Code of Kazakhstan” will introduce the possibility of selling state-owned agricultural lands into private hands and simplify procedures for changing land-use designations. The law will introduce a new mechanism for the transfer of agricultural lands to private ownership through first English-style auctions and, if those don’t produce results, through Dutch-style auctions.
In an English-style auction, the winner is the person who offers the highest price. In a Dutch auction, the auctioneer begins with a high asking price, which is then lowered until a participant is willing to accept it.
