Kazakhstan Vice PM held telephone conference

ASTANA. March 13. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan Vice Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov held a telephone conference on the problems of housing and utilities system; Kazinform refers to the Premier?s press service

Opening the conference Serik Akhmetov emphasized that President Nazarbayev defined development of the housing and utilities system as one of the foremost objectives of the government agencies for the forthcoming period. Kazakh Government had earlier adopted the action plan (road map) and project plan on execution of the President's assignments specified in his State-of-the-nation Address. The action plan is supposed to enhance the performance of the housing and utilities system foresee. Extra financing will amount to KZT 50 bln which will be budgeted to reconstruction and construction of water supply and sewerage, heating and energy supply systems. This should create about 50,000 jobs. Local agencies will focus on ensuring employment in regions, advanced training of personnel and performance of housing and utilities system. These methods will foster modernization of the housing and utilities sphere, ensure sustainable and reliable work of the housing and utilities sector. The participants of the conference discussed the methods of defining the facilities and criteria of co-financing from national and local budgets, and the issues of effective and timely utilitization of additionally allocated funds. Akhmetov assigned local agencies to provide with necessary information on regional needs as it will decide the efficiency of target transfers distribution. He urged heads of ministries, governors and mayors of Astana and Almaty cities to work out specific proposals on modernization and further development of housing and utilities to resolve the objectives of steady post-crisis development.