National news in brief

The government will submit 16 draft laws to Parliament in 2020, according to Primeminister.kz. The draft plan was developed taking into account the strategic objectives of Kazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev and instructions of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The laws are focused on further developing the social sector, physical education and sports, controlling specific goods, relations among special state body employees and military personnel and other issues. “The Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with sectoral state bodies, needs to pay special attention to the proposed laws,” said Prime Minister Askar Mamin at the Nov. 6 government meeting. 

New norms regarding the special tax regime for small and medium-sized businesses will come into force Jan. 1, reported Kazinform. The standards were postponed earlier based on a patent. Taxpayers who apply the regime have limitations on maximum income. The entrepreneurs were unable to attract new employees, as there is a current restriction on the types of activities. Taxpayers who are engaged in subsoil use, producing excisable products, petroleum product sales and a number of other activities are currently not entitled to apply the taxation regime. 

Twenty-four accidents occurred at hazardous production facilities in the first nine months of 2019, said Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Amaniyaz Yerzhanov Nov. 7. Twenty-seven accidents were registered in 2018. Eighteen people were involved in accidents, 10 of whom died. The use of obsolete and worn-out equipment and violations of industrial safety rules are the main causes. The ministry has developed a draft law on industrial safety issues to achieve the main goal in accordance with paragraph 21 of the government’s legislative work plan. The law is aimed at improving industrial safety legislation, increasing the efficiency of state supervision at hazardous facilities, providing emergency rescue services and eliminating legislative gaps and conflicts in the current legislation.

An automatic mudflow warning system project has been launched in Almaty, according to the Department of Emergency Situations. The system is designed to monitor and assess breakthroughs at moraine lakes, monitor hydro-meteorological events and prevent mudflows from areas close to the city. Ten monitoring stations were launched as part of the first stage. The stations will transmit the monitoring parametres from two dangerous lakes, channels and possible foci of mudflows to the Department of Emergency Situations. Water temperature and level, air temperature, rainfall and other parametres, including video and photo, are currently recorded in real time without human intervention. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

Industrial production in the Atyrau Region reached 21.4 trillion tenge (US$54 billion) for the first nine months of 2019, reported the Central Communications Services. The gross regional product was 4.2 trillion tenge (US$10 billion). Thirty-five projects worth three trillion tenge (US$7 billion) and creating 3,889 jobs are being implemented to support entrepreneurship. Eight projects launched as part of the public-private partnership involve street lighting, regional centre gardening and health care. Approximately 39 billion tenge (US$100 million) was allocated to build 165 kilometres of roads in 32 settlements and 432 kilometres of the Aktobe-Atyrau-Astrakhan highway are under reconstruction. Public transport electronic payment with a differentiated tariff was introduced in Atyrau. 

The private Tamos Space School will be built in an area of Nur-Sultan’s National Space Centre. The new school, with an initial enrolment of students in grades 0-4, is scheduled to open Sept. 1. The school will be the third in the country operating under the Tamos brand. Approximately 2,600 students currently study in its two schools in Almaty in areas including physical and mathematical, linguistic and international education accredited by Cambridge Assessment International Education. 


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