Kazakhstan has to increase areas of irrigation lands - Prime Minister

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - The issue of increasing the areas of irrigation lands in Kazakhstan has to become one of the most important while development and revision of the budget for 2016 and preparation of the plan for 2017-2019, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov told at the joint sitting of the Parliament Houses.

"One of the primary tasks is increasing the labour productivity in the agricultural sector. Another important task is to increase the areas of the irrigation lands. We have a lot of land in Kazakhstan, but we do not have enough irrigation lands. Thus, I think we have to take into account increasing of the irrigation lands while preparation of the budget for 2017-2019," K. Massimov said.

As the Prime Minister specified, this issue will be addressed thanks to the loans of external institutions. "Yesterday, I met with representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and they expressed readiness to support us in this sphere," the Prime Minister stressed.

The Head of Government proposes to use the budget potential and expansion of the public-private partnership in order to address this issue.