ASTANA. February 2. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has defined the task of ensuring Kazakhstanis' health as one of the strategic priorities of development till 2020, Minister of Tourism and Sport Temirkhan Dosmukhanbetov said.

Commenting the President's Message to the Nation, the Minister noted an important quote from N.Nazarbayev's address: "A healthy lifestyle and concept of responsibility of a man for his health should become a major aspect of the state policy in the field of healthcare and daily life of the population".

According to Minister Dosmukhanbetov, the Head of the State set specific tasks to the Ministry of Tourism and Sport and akims of all levels - to define joint activities directed to development of popular sports and physical culture. This task should be solved together, so we could have healthy nation.

Today 2.5 mln people are engaged in physical culture and sports. A number of children's and youth sports schools increased to 415; 226,000 children and teenagers are attending them. Besides, 15 boarding schools for children talented in sports are functioning in the country; about 4,000 athletes train there. The President set a task to increase the number of people engaged in popular sports to 30 percent.  And this is the issue of the future healthy generation and the country's strategic development, the Minister considers.  

There are over 26,000 sports facilities in the country and 18,000 sports events are held in all regions annually. In the Minister's opinion, it is not enough, and it is necessary to hold sports activities in villages, towns and cities, enterprises and organizations.

Nowadays the state takes measures on strengthening material and technical basis of physical culture and sports. The Road Map implementation made significant contribution. In 2009 there were reconstructed 56 sports facilities, including 36 children's and youth sports schools, 1 high sportsmanship school, 6 regional boarding schools for children talented in sports, 3 Olympic reserve training centers, 5 sports complexes, 4 stadiums, 1 sports dispensary. Within the framework of the Road Map there were created about 3,000 jobs.

As the Minister announced, in 2010 it is planned to continue activity in this direction. Reconstruction of 55 sports facilities is planned. It will allow to create about 2,800 jobs.