ASTANA – The government presented its report, “New Industrialisation of Kazakhstan: Results of Half Year of 2014,” to President Nursultan Nazarbayev at a July 2 event.
Before the meeting, the head of state visited the exhibition of the same name located in the newly built Norman Foster-designed futuristic Nazarbayev Centre which hosts the Library of the First President and the Foundation of the First President.
Nazarbayev was also briefed on a number of new projects in the manufacturing industry where foreign investors will be involved in the implementation. These include major companies, such as IVECO (Italy), Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Japan), Emirates Future (Jordan), LG Electronics (Korea), Byelkamit (Italy-U.S.), Isoplus (Germany) and others.
In his welcoming speech, Nazarbayev noted that it was the first event on Kazakh industrialisation and innovation in the building housing the presidential library, which will be the new centre for the development of science, Kazakh history and other topics. He also mentioned the opening of another building, the National Museum of Kazakhstan, the same day.
The President emphasised that to ensure Kazakhstan’s entry into the 30 most-developed countries of the world, change is needed in the raw materials orientation of the economy. Manufacturing is also very important for the sustainability of the economy against a background of worsening global market conditions for all raw materials.
In his speech, the President also noted that the Eurasian integration process has had a positive impact on the Kazakh economy in diversifying and increasing the share of processed products in the export structure. Compared with 2009, output of all kinds of vehicles in the past year has increased 24 times. The volume of export of agricultural products in 2010 amounted to $150 million and in 2013 had already reached $534 million.
Over the first five years of implementing the State Programme for Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development (SPAIID), a total of 672 facilities were put into operation.
In the first six months of this year, new production operations were launched in all regions of the country. Major enterprises were launched by the President during the televised event streamed live via a satellite link. These included the launch of the construction of a so called dry port in the Khorgos-East Gate Free Economic Zone on the border with China and the North-East-South power lines in Semey, including installation of the first support of the Semey-Almaty section. In the same mode, new projects including production of drill bits (PDC-bits) in Atyrau, a chemical production plant in Karatau in the Zhambyl region, a fabrication plant of ball and stop valves in the Karaganda region, a cement plant in Shetpe in the Mangistau region, energy boiler equipment production in Petropavlovsk, a house-building plant in Kostanai, construction of a ball-rolling mill in the Pavlodar region and a fodder plant in Kokshetau were commissioned.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev reported that 672 projects were implemented and 69,000 permanent jobs were created in four and a half years of the implementation of SPAIID. In addition, products for 3.2 trillion tenge (US$17.4 billion) were produced, exports amounted to 133 billion tenge (US$724.4 million), the share of finished products in total export volume reached 8 percent and 325 new products were disbursed.
Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev noted that SPAIID has helped maintain the rate of economic growth and production and has provided a level of employment during the global financial crisis, serving as the main tool.
“Given the average annual economic growth of 6.4 percent, real GDP growth of 30 percent was achieved. In nominal terms, during this period there was a doubling of the GDP to 34.1 trillion tenge (US$185.7 billion) in 2013,” Dossayev said.
The head of state also considered the latest data on the development of human capital (health, education, human and scientific support of the SPAIID and employment), as well as measures to implement new technologies, increase the share of local content and expand export potential.
