The working population of Kazakhstan will grow to 9.5 million by 2017, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said in a statement. However, the ministry said the working population of the Akmola, Kostanay, North-Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan regions of the country would fall in the next five years. “The most significant growth in the number of employed people will be seen in Astana where the total is projected to rise by 107,000 by 2017 and the largest decrease will occur in North Kazakhstan where the working population is projected to fall by 2,700 by 2017,” the ministry said. “Economic growth will cause an increase in labour efficiency and the fall of the percentage of self-employed people in the labour force by 2.4 percent,” it said.
Kazakhstan’s educational and science programmes should focus on innovations and ecology. President Nursultan Nazarbayev told Education Minister Bakhytzhan Zhumagulov at a meeting that developing the green economy would require extensive innovations and invention. “If everything is good with the ecology, new technologies will keep developing as well,” the president said. He said innovative technologies would grow in importance as Kazakhstan prepared to host EXPO 2017 on future energy in Astana.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has appointed Rapil Zhoshybayev, executive secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, as commissioner in charge of EXPO 2017.
All incomes and assents must be declared to the government by 2017, Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said, “The individual is the final beneficiary of economic activities. There is an individual behind any capital and any property. We can keep talking about tax administration, but this system will be far from perfect if we cannot monitor the property of final beneficiaries. We are aiming to carry out a gradual transition to comprehensive reporting by 2017,” he said.
The national toguz kumalak championship was held in Pavlodar from Feb. 4 to Feb. 13. The tournament was held in three classes – classic, blitz and rapid – based on the Swiss system. Some 104 players from 13 provinces took part. Toguz kumalak, or nine balls, is a game in the mancala family, which is played throughout the region. It is a national sport in Kazakhstan where there are 10,000 organised players. The game is similar to backgammon.
More than 98,000 traffic violations have been recorded in Almaty over the past two and a half months and 95,000 traffic tickets issued for over 1 billion tenge ($6.7 million), the city’s Road Police Department said. Video surveillance cameras record up to 2,000 traffic rule violations daily. The most frequent one is speeding.
Kazakhstan TV channels will be available in 110 countries, Culture and Information Ministry said. “The country’s Internet media will reach more than 100 countries,” he said.
The application process for this year’s Bolashak international scholarships opened on Feb. 18. The registration period will run from Feb. 18 to Oct. 1, 2013..
An exhibition of the works of contemporary artist Kazakbay Azhibekuly was held in the Presidential Museum in Astana on Feb. 20 Azhibekuly, 46, is a citizen of Astana who was born in 1966 in the village of Bestamak in the Tselinograd region.
A new school has opened in Almaty to prepare brides for their marriages. The school teaches cooking, applying makeup and posture. It also holds classes in family psychology. The school’s directors say they want their students to be self-reliant, educated, modern and well-read, but also familiar with national traditions, habits, culture and cooking. Culinary classes will include the preparation of beshbarmak, or five fingers, the national dish of flat noodles heaped with mounds of meat.
