Kazakhstan to spend 63bln tenge on single-industry towns’ development in 2024

At today’s meeting of the Cabinet, Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of National Economy Nurlan Baibazarov outlined comprehensive plans of single-industry towns’ development, Kazinform News Agency reports.

According to him, the approved comprehensive plans of Altay, Balkhash, Zhitikara, Lisakovsk, Ridder, and Stepnogosrk towns’ development for 2023-2027, will enable to address infrastructure and real sector problems. These plans include 326 activities to the amount of 456.6 billion tenge, he said.

In his words, central government agencies and akimats of regions annually allocate funds for the development of infrastructure.

In his words, 348.4 billion tenge were allocated from 2019 to 2023, including 184 billion tenge from the national budget, for this purpose. In 2024, this amount will reach 62.8 billion tenge, including 31.2 billion tenge from the national budget.

As part of diversification of single-industry towns’ economy and creation of alternative productions in non-resource-based sectors, the akimats of regions are implementing 41 anchor projects worth 1.4 trillion tenge with the generation of more than 10,000 jobs, the Minister said.

The projects encompass mining and chemical industries, agro-industrial sector, construction industry as well as other sectors.

29 out of 41 above-mentioned anchor projects, are operating successfully today. Nine projects are under implementation, while three projects stand idle. Local authorities are currently working on attraction of new investors.

“There are 20 single-industry towns in Kazakhstan with the population of 1.4 million people. It should be noted that single-industry towns significantly contribute to the country’s industrial development. In 2023, single-industry towns accounted for 40% of the country’s total industrial output,” Baibazarov said.

He emphasized that the presence of backbone enterprises and their stable operation positively impact single-industry towns’ socio-economic development.

“23 backbone enterprises are operating in single-industry towns’ oil and gas, coal, bauxite, iron ore and other sectors. In 2023, industrial output made 18.5 trillion tenge, which is 15% less compared to the same period in 2022. The weakest performance indicators are observed in Temirtau, Balkhash and kulsary. Meanwhile, Stepnogorsk, Balkhash and Karazhal report some decline in physical index of industrial production,” he added.