WEEKLY REVIEW: Kazakhstan plans to bring down housing prices

ASTANA. January 11. KAZINFORM The Government of Kazakhstan has announced a new plan to reduce housing prices. Rapid development and modernization of the railway transport in the country continues.
None
None

On Tuesday, January 8, the official website of the Kazakh Prime Minister posted a statement confirming planned reduction of housing prices within "Affordable Housing-2020" State Program. Thus, the Government of the country announced its plans to ensure the reduction of prices per square meter of housing. This will be achieved through reduction of costs for construction materials. Presently, the work on establishment of 16 integrated house-building factories is being held in the country and 7 of them are almost ready. 6 of these factories plan to use a large-panel construction technology, 4 factories will be using ready-made panels assembly method and 6 more will use a combined technology. Two large house-building factories will be developed in Astana. The prime cost of one square meter of their housing will be about $500-550.

On Wednesday, January 9, Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov instructed to complete the establishment of the national railway cargo carrier and infrastructure service providers at the session on the results of the work of JSC "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" in 2012. Premier Akhmetov also noted the need to continue the rapid development and modernization of the railway transport. At the same time, he stressed it was high time to use the principles of state and private partnership in the railway industry. Speaking of capital intensive projects of the industry the PM said the state should participate on a parity basis. S. Akhmetov also spoke of the opportunity to attract pension savings funds to the implementation of infrastructure projects. In conclusion, he noted it was necessary to map out a complex plan on the creation of a network of transport and logistics centers. "Kazakhstan is a landlocked country. And this type of service infrastructure is of critical importance, it needs to be developed," Akhmetov stressed.

The visit of an extended delegation from Kazakhstan headed by Vice Prime Minister Krymbek Kusherbayev to Baku took place the same day. Within the framework of the visit Deputy Premier Kusherbayev met with Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade, Minister of Economic Development Shahin Mustafayev and Minister of Agriculture Ismet Abbasov. In the course of the bilateral meetings, both sides praised growth of sales turnover between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and welcomed efforts on expansion of economic cooperation between the two countries.

On Thursday, January 10, Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov held a meeting on the preparation of the exhibition "EXPO-2017". The meeting focused on the main guidelines of the National Plan of Preparation for "EXPO-2017".

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov chaired a conference call the same day to review implementation of the President's instructions on activation of the State Program of Forced Industrial-Innovative Development realization. Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev reported that 537 projects were launched within the Industrialization Map over the last 3 years. The processing industry has been stably developing since 2010. According to A.Issekeshev, seven projects launched in 2010 stand idle.

Summing up the results of the conference, the Prime Minister strongly criticized the executive bodies for inadequate attention and coordination of issues regarding implementation of the Industrialization Program and the Industrialization Map. "The emphasis in the Program implementation is shifted from the center to the regions now. Regional authorities don't pay proper attention to attraction of both domestic and foreign investments. It is necessary to ensure transition to advanced technologies and productions, intensify the work on fulfillment of the economic growth reserves in the region for a mid-term," S.Akhmetov said.

At the end of the session, the Head of Government charged the executives to ensure strong control over achievement of the target indicators of the Industrialization Program and work out a detailed action plan on implementation of the State Program of Forced Industrial-Innovative Development for 2013-2014.

On Friday, January 11, Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov began his working tip to East Kazakhstan region visiting the city of Semey. The first destination of the working visit was the Thermal Power Plant-1 of "Teplocommunenergo" Public State Enterprise. The Head of Government got acquainted with the work of the plant during the autumn-winter period and prospects for the plant development. Besides, the issues regarding construction of the Thermal Power Plant-3 in Semey were discussed at a meeting with the city authorities and representatives of JSC "Samruk-Energo". Besides, the Prime Minister also visited "Firm Asia" LLP specializing in production of ready-mixed concrete. The head of the company told S.Akhmetov about technological aspects of production of reinforced concrete products and plans on the enterprise development. The Prime Minister also held a meeting with businessmen of Semey where the topical issues of development small and medium business in the region were discussed.

After that the Cabinet's delegation went to the town of Zyryanovsk where it surveyed new objects of JSC "Kazzinc" and discussed the development program of the single-industry town.

Currently reading