GOVERNMENT: Agricultural land-lease abolished. Foreign borrowings attracted for housing construction
Prime Minister Karim Massimov met with President of Rwanda Paul Kagame this week, who paid an official visit to Kazakhstan. The parties discussed the issues regarding development of bilateral cooperation in trade and economic sphere. First Vice Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev held a sitting on development of the town of Baikonur with Governor of Kyzylorda region Krymbek Kusherbayev and representatives of governmental agencies. The meeting participants discussed also the course of implementation of the Road Map on joint use of Baikonur launching site for 2014-2016. The document outlines the issues of functioning and development of Baikonur launching site, the town of Baikonur and implementation of the project on establishment of Baiterek space launch complex. Following the meeting the Vice PM gave certain tasks on further development of the town. EBRD provides first credit line under new Women in Business programme in Kazakhstan. The EBRD is providing a local currency credit line for women entrepreneurs which will be on-lent via Bank CenterCredit, one of the EBRD's partner banks in Kazakhstan. The 3.7 billion tenge financing package will support female entrepreneurship and participation in the economy by helping women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access finance, know-how and advice. The Women in Business programme, which the EBRD has already successfully rolled out in Turkey, the Western Balkans and the Caucasus, combines credit lines to women owning or running businesses with know-how and advice provided through the EBRD's Small Business Support programme supported by donors. At a briefing in the Central Communications Office Bakytzhan Sagintayev announced the start of a large-scale privatization. The following measures are suggested to fulfill the government's tasks: A new list of the subjects of Kazakhstan's largest holdings as Samruk-Kazyna, Baiterek and KazAgro will be compiled. The priority list will include 60 large companies, the so-called top-60: 38 - from Samruk-Kazyna, 4 - from Baiterek, 4 - from KazAgro and 14 - owned by the government. It is proposed also to transfer Samruk-Kazyna owned companies to private sector. The largest assets will be sold to strategic investors through direct sale or through IPO and SPIO mechanisms.
Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva chaired a telephone conference on the issues of preparation for holding additional vaccination against measles. This second stage of the vaccination of people from 15 to 19 years old starts on October 1. The first stage was held in February and 881 thousand people were vaccinated during that period. It is planned that about 305 thousand people will be vaccinated during the second stage of the vaccination. D. Nazarbayev noted that the number of measles cases increased 4.4 times this year compared to 2013.
Besides, Minister of Agriculture Asylzhan Mamytbekov informed that the export of Kazakhstani grain would make about 7 million tons in 2015-2016 marketing year. According to him, there will be no new export destinations.
Minister of National Economy Yerbolat Dossayev informed that the Government planned to attract a strategic investor to Zhilstroisberbank.
The Minister noted that Zhilstroisberbank was among the top 60 organizations of the state. Therefore, it is planned to attract a strategic investor to the bank and when the strategic partner is found the development strategy of the bank may be changed. In other words, it provides for external borrowings, mixing of the budget funds and investments.
Y. Dossayev also informed that the institute of lease of agricultural lands would be abolished. The purpose of the draft law is to introduce a new mechanism of privatization by means of auctions. Moreover, the land will not be allowed to be sold lower than 50 percent of its cadastral value. The current land users will own the land until the end of the lease. Besides, they can buy out the land at the preferential price before the end of the lease term.