Tokayev calls on agricultural minister for specific actions
"Each state program adopted by each new minister is, in fact, a program of good wishes. I'm afraid that in 2020 another program will be born. It will be well promoted, as it happened with the plans to export 60,000 tons of meat. But it's impossible, as we said here in the Senate. They hyped up the target so much and put it into the mouth of the Head of State. You are just letting everyone down. Askar Myrzakhmetov, you are expert in agriculture and relied upon. Moreover, you were given extraordinary powers of Deputy Prime Minister. Make decisions, as you need to move things forward, in the end. We can write a program as well, it is not a problem, is it? You need to take concrete actions," Tokayev said addressing the Minister of Agriculture in a Senate plenary session.
Discussing the Government report on the execution of the 2016 Republican Budget, Senator Serik Bilyalov expressed his opinion that the subsidizing system in agriculture is not focused on the final result since production growth is achieved by increasing the acreage and livestock rather than by implementing effective technologies.
In turn, Myrzakhmetov noted that a new 2017-2021 Agro-Industrial Complex Development Program had been adopted. It contains a project approach and shows development indicators. The new Program revised all types of subsidies. Thus, 11 of 65 types were excluded due to their inefficiency. Altogether, this would save 25 billion tenge every year.