Kazakhstan is so far behind in most advanced branches of science – President
Speaking at the first meeting of the National Council for Science and Technologies under the President, Tokayev said that spending on science has rose by 60%, while the share of science in the GDP dropped to 0.13% over the past five years. Much of the spending, that is, 70% is budgetary funds. At the same time, there is a huge imbalance in financing different areas of science, with fundamental and applied research accounting for 82% of the budgetary funds, and development works a mere 18%.
Stressing that the country lacks modern knowledge-intensive productions, the Kazakh Head of State said that 65% of the country’s enterprises are of third technological generation (primary sector or metallurgy), 34%are of fourth technological generation (mechanical engineering and petrochemical industry), and a mere 1% are of fifth technological generation (microelectronics, robotization). There are no enterprises of sixth technological generation focusing on nano- and biotechnologies in the country, the President said, adding that the country is so far behind in the most advanced branches of science.