What awaits the Kazakh economy in the future will be determined by how the state and society will keep up with the mainstreams of the 21st century – political scientist on the President's address

In his address to the people of Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined the key areas of state policy aimed at ensuring sustainable socio-economic progress, unlocking the creative potential of citizens, and improving the standard of living of Kazakhstanis. Political scientist Aigul Zabirova, chief researcher at the KISI under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, emphasized the importance of these tasks, especially in the context of the country's achievements since independence, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.

According to Zabirova, Kazakhstan has come a long way since independence. During this period, the country's economy has changed significantly, moving from a planned to a market economy.

"Real GDP from 1991 to 2023 grew by 274.5%. GDP per capita in real terms grew by 227.1%. It is important that the annual income of households has also grown; for example, over the past ten years, it has grown from 1 million 590 thousand tenge in 2014 to 3 million 929 thousand tenge in 2023. And if the Kazakh steppe entered the 20th century as a nomadic culture with a feudal organization of society, then Kazakhstan entered the 21st century as a society that has overcome the urbanization mark, with 100 percent access to education, a legal, democratic, and social state,” the expert noted.

Nevertheless, Zabirova emphasized that the main thing is not only economic growth but also how it affects the lives of Kazakhstanis. In his address, President Tokayev emphasized that the main goal should be to improve the standard of living and unlock the potential of each citizen. According to the political scientist, this requires flexibility and readiness from the state to respond to the new challenges of the 21st century.

“What awaits the Kazakh economy in the future will be determined by how the state and society will keep up with the mainstreams of the 21st century—technical markets and technological trends, institutional transformations in the economy, an efficient banking sector. To what extent we can keep up with the latest mainstreams largely depends on how significantly we can change the education system, since today society has to learn new professions and do this more than once during their lives,” she explained.

President Tokayev drew attention to the need to train personnel capable of solving complex technological and structural problems, such as technological and climate change, problems in medicine like threats of pandemics in the future, and the need to modernize the education system. In this context, Zabirova noted that quality education is becoming the most important factor in successful development. According to her, at the global level, more and more young people are refusing to receive higher education, choosing vocational training instead, a trend that is also gaining popularity in Kazakhstan.

"Kazakhstan needs to pay attention to these emerging trends and make career and technical education attractive to that part of the youth who are not very interested in academic education but who are attracted to a specific profession and to which they feel a true calling," said Zabirova.

Along with economic challenges, Kazakhstan also faces various obstacles. However, according to Zabirova, the most important factor for successfully overcoming these challenges is the optimism of the nation.

"Over the past five years, Kazakhstan has faced a variety of challenges: external events, the exhaustion of the hydrocarbon development model, the need to create jobs in the private sector of the economy, floods, and other man-made events. But we cope with them because we understand well what makes a nation strong. First of all, this is the optimism of the nation; this is the people's faith in the future," she concluded.

In his annual address, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized the need for Kazakhstan to tackle both current and long-standing strategic challenges amid global and regional crises. He highlighted that the country's main goals are ensuring sustainable socio-economic progress, fully unlocking citizens' creative potential, and improving the well-being of the population. Tokayev also paid special attention to patriotism as a guiding principle for all government actions, encouraging that every initiative should contribute to the nation's development.