WEEKLY REVIEW: Kazakhstan to develop economy class trade retail networks
On Monday, October 6 National Economy Vice Minister Timur Zhaksylykov said that the Government believes it is necessary to boost economy class trade retail networks. "Kazakhstan has improved the effectiveness, access to and transparency of many key electronic services," Prime Minister Karim Massimov said at the Global Forum of E-Government in Astana on Tuesday. "Development of information technologies has tremendously deep impact on our society and current IT technologies are essential for modern community and global economy," Massimov said.
The Prime Minister stressed that nowadays Kazakhstan pays utmost attention to the development of IT technologies and has vastly invested into communications infrastructure over the past decade. Information Kazakhstan-2020, an ambitious program initiated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been adopted in the country to this end. "This program embraces all aspects of work of our government agencies. We've managed to improve the effectiveness, access to and transparency of many key e-services rendered in Kazakhstan," Mr. Massimov added.
The overarching goal, in his words, is to create open government. "On average, 40 million services performed annually in Kazakhstan via e-Government system," said Vice-Minister for Investment and Development Askar Zhumagaliyev speaking at the forum. "By the end of this year it is planned to have issuance of all permits in electronic format. Today the e-Government provides more than 570 types of services. On average 40 million services performed annually in Kazakhstan via the system", said A. Zhumagaliyev.
Vice-Minister also reminded that today in Kazakhstan 70% of the population use the Internet. On Wednesday Kazakh Defence Minister Serik Akhmetov held talks with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Spain to Kazakhstan Manuel Larrotcha Parada,. The parties debated further development of bilateral Kazakh-Spanish relations, as well as military and military-technical cooperation.
Akhmetov noted successful cooperation between the Kazakh Defence Ministry and Spain in defence industry complex development. As stated there, the memo of military and military-technical cooperation, signed last year, lays the necessary legislative foundation for further strengthening of military cooperation. "New state support of automotive industry's investment projects worth USD 20 million is being implemented in Kazakhstan," Vice-Minister for Investment and Development Albert Rau said on Thursday. According to him, at the present time there are about 100 state support instruments in the area.
He also noted that following the first five-year plan of industrialization, Kazakhstan engineering sphere showed the best results.
Vice-Minister said that by the end of the next five-year plan it is planned to produce about 200 thousand motor cars. At the briefing at the Central Communications Service Yerbolat Dossayev, National Economy Minister denied the information about possible devaluation of the national currency of Kazakhstan. "We are closely monitoring the situation unfolding around the economy of the Russian Federation. At the present time, the Ministry and the Government are developing preventive measures in order to be able to understand, in what direction and to what extent will strengthen or weaken the Russian national currency," said Y. Dossayev.
In addition, the Minister has denied the information about possible devaluation of tenge.
"Today I assure you that no devaluation is expected," said Dossayev. "In the coming months Kazakhstan will complete the agreement on accession to the WTO," Prime Minister Karim Massimov told at the second forum of machinery in Kazakhstan. "At present we are holding the final stages of negotiations. In my opinion, in the coming months, we will complete the agreement on Kazakhstan's accession to the World Trade Organization," K. Massimov said.