ASTANA – State support will enable entrepreneurial youth to start their own businesses and create new jobs, said Kazakh Ministry of Information and Social Development’s Youth and Family Affairs Committee Chairman Askhat Oralov on initiatives during the Year of Youth in Kazakhstan.
Photo credit: inform.kz.
Six-hundred young entrepreneurs will receive grants over three years under the Business Roadmap 2020 state programme. Every year within a three-year period, 10,000 young entrepreneurs will receive grants and another 15,000 will receive microcredit under the Yenbek state programme.
“In accordance with the Zhas Kasipker project and as part of the Year of Youth Road Map, a set of measures on the development of youth entrepreneurship throughout the country has been developed,” said Oralov on training youth. “Measures include teaching business skills, coaching, providing psychological support and assisting in the implementation of start-up projects.”
During a three-year period, the initiative will train more than 60,000 youth in the basics of entrepreneurship and another 180,000 will be trained within a university or vocational education institution.
One in five Kazakh citizens belongs to the younger generation, with 2.3 million living in cities and 1.7 million in rural areas. The Kazakh youth population aged 16 to 24 will increase 30 percent by 2030 and will require more targeted state support in entering and remaining in employment, education and training.
Equipping youth with the knowledge and skills to compete in the global economy was a policy priority for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as outlined in his Oct. 5 state-of-the-nation address “Growing welfare of Kazakh citizens: increase in income and quality of life.”
“Today, there are about 300 million young people aged 18 to 30 years in the world who do not have a permanent job or are unemployed. Meanwhile, according to scientists’ forecasts, by 2050 approximately half of the current professions will be replaced by artificial intelligence,” said Nazarbayev at the Jan. 23 launch of the Year of Youth in Kazakhstan.
“Demand will remain for complex professions, where artificial intelligence cannot replace people. Scientists, top managers, culture experts, information technology experts and doctors are among them,” he explained.
In the year ahead, the country’s youth policy will prioritise addressing its 3.9 percent youth unemployment rate, along with fostering the young generation’s socialisation, all-rounded development and participation in decision-making processes.
