ASTANA – The Ministry for Investment and Development will concentrate this year on manufacturing, focusing on export-oriented sectors and labour productivity under the Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development programme, said Minister Zhenis Kassymbek during a Feb. 13 weekly government meeting.
Photo credit: primeminister.kz.
“To meet the tasks given by President Nursultan Nazarbayev during the Feb. 9 extended government meeting, we will start working on the industrial projects to back export-oriented sectors and increase labour productivity. This year, we plan to introduce 150 projects worth one trillion tenge (US$3.06 billion) and create 15,000 jobs,” he said.
The next stage of industrial expansion involves transitioning to a new level of technological development with key elements of Industry 4.0. Last year, basic industries were re-equipped in an attempt to create an ecosystem to introduce digital technology under the Digital Kazakhstan state programme.
“Some support measures will be partially revised for a more targeted stimulation of digitisation in terms of determining the types of costs when reimbursing enterprises, providing grants, etc,” he added.
Kassymbek said the ministry will also concentrate on the third five-year industrialisation plan focused on the digital-era industry to fulfil the tasks set by the President in the state-of-the-nation address “New opportunities for development under the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
“In general, the implementation of scheduled activities will increase the value of processed exports by 10.3 percent (compared to the level of 2017), boost labour productivity of the manufacturing industry by 6 percent and attract investment worth one trillion tenge (US$3.06 billion) in fixed assets of the manufacturing industry,” he said.
Within the Nurly Zhol programme, the ministry will strengthen control over the efficient and transparent use of funds allocated for road construction and repair. Mechanisms will be revised to continue executing the Nurly Zher programme.
“We have begun work to improve the national standards in architecture, urban planning and construction,” he added.
This year, commercial banks will grant real estate developers 125 billion tenge (US$382.5 million) in subsidised loans and 105 billion tenge (US$ 321.3 million) in mortgages. The banking sector revival will increase the annual loan volume to 350 billion tenge (US$1.07 billion) and investors’ share of the House Construction Savings Bank to the economically active population up to 12 percent.
“Planned measures are supposed to increase housing construction volume 6-8 percent, or 11.2 million square metres of housing,” said Kassymbek.
