“Transport currently makes up 15-16 percent of Kazakhstan’s GDP (gross domestic product) and this number will only increase,” member of the Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) Serikbai Nurgissayev said at a March 17 Central Communications Service (CCS) briefing. “Developed transit sectors generally constitute 16-20 percent of a nation’s GDP; currently in Kazakhstan, this indicator is at 15-16 percent. Subsoil development is currently 40-45 percent of the country’s GDP. In the future, the share of the transport sector in GDP will grow,” Nurgissayev said. He also noted that through the development of international and interregional roads in Kazakhstan, manufacturers in China, Iran, Russia, Europe and the rest of Asia will become interested in moving goods through Kazakhstan.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan held an interdepartmental working group meeting on March 20 on developing a national mortgage refinancing programme. Basic refinancing conditions and a refinancing mechanism were defined. The National Bank made it clear that under the refinancing programme, mortgages issued between 2004 and 2009 will see rate decreases. Deputy Head of the National Bank Kuat Kozhakhmetov explained that the refinancing plan will be hallmarked by the issuance of new loans with low interest rates as well as with changes to loan validity dates.
A meeting concerning development in the cities of Zhezkazgan and Satpayev and the Ulytau district of the Karaganda region for 2012-2020 was held in the House of Government on March 18 chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev. The complex plan costs 351.50 billion tenge (US$1.88 billion) of which, 33.4 billion (US$179.58 million) has already been spent. The plan includes 88 projects. Of that number, 13 were implemented between 2012 and 2014. Mining for igneous rocks (building stone) has begun in the Nikolskiy Ulytau District. Zhezkazgan Hospital and the City Polyclinic of Satpayev, both state-owned enterprises, were provided with medical equipment. In 2015, it is expected that 17 projects will begin. Following the meeting, Sagintayev instructed local and executive bodies to implement the plan in a timely manner. The meeting was attended by representatives of central state bodies, various Karaganda executive offices and Kazakhmys Corporation which operates in the localities.
“It has been suggested that tax deductions for business-philanthropists increase from 3 to 10 percent,” Deputy Chairman of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) Nurzhan Altayev said at a March 16 meeting of the Committee for the Social Sphere and Social Partnership of the Atameken NCE. “In the draft law on charitable work, we propose tax incentives and that the amount that can be deducted from taxes for charitable giving be increased from 3 to 10 percent,” Altayev said. As NCE representatives, we plan to introduce appropriate changes to the law “On Charity, Sponsorship and Patronage.” The NCE also made a proposal to establish an endowment fund. These funds are established by stakeholders to obtain investments used to finance beneficiaries. Non-profit organisations engaged in educational, scientific, administrative, social, cultural or other societally beneficial functions are eligible to become beneficiaries of the fund.
