October 18 at the site of the press center of the Government, Minister of Finance Alikhan Smailov spoke about the funding for the implementation of the President’s Address “Growing Welfare of Kazakh Citizens: Increase in Incomes and Quality of Life.”

As the minister noted, in order to financially ensure the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State, the necessary changes were made to the republican budget for 2019–2021.

“For a three-year period, the government will provide 1.288 trillion tenge for the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State contained in the Address. About 966.1 billion tenge will be allocated from the republican budget within three years,” Smailov said.

These funds will be used to increase the size of the minimum wage, the development of the manufacturing industry and exports, small and medium-sized businesses, the agro-industrial complex, increasing the availability of housing mortgages and improving housing conditions for the population, building educational facilities, ensuring child safety.

As the minister noted, 288.9 billion tenge for three years, or 96.3 billion tenge annually, are provided for increasing the minimum wage. Of these, 85.8 billion tenge — directly to increase salaries of 275,000 civil servants; 10.4 billion tenge — to compensate for the loss of the revenue part of the regions due to an increase in tax deduction.

“The state will set the minimum wage, which will be doubled. This is valid not only for budget organizations. This is valid for the entire economy, for all sectors, for all enterprises of private and state ownership. It is clear that state employees will increase salaries at the expense of the republican budget. As for private enterprises, this will be done at the expense of the wage fund of private enterprises,” Smailov emphasized.

Taking into account the adoption of additional measures, according to the Ministry of Finance, the average salary in the country in 2019 will grow by 9.1%, the growth of real incomes of the population will be 4.6%.

More than 500 billion tenge will be spent on the development of the manufacturing industry and exports over three years, of which 322 billion tenge will be the re-use of funds previously allocated from the National Fund and the republican budget.

The development of small and medium-sized businesses (under the Business Road Map 2020 program) provides for 90 billion tenge for three years, or 30 billion tenge each, which are proposed to be used to subsidize bank loan rates. These measures of state support will cover business projects implemented in mono- and small cities, rural settlements without sectoral restrictions. It will also affect the projects of entrepreneurs operating in priority sectors of the economy and manufacturing industry. About 4,000 new projects are expected to be financed, which will make it possible to create about 13,000 new jobs and produce 2.5 trillion tons of products.

According to Smailov, 300 billion tenge will be allocated for the development of the agro-industrial complex over three years, or 100 billion tenge each year.

Additional funds will be mainly used to increase the volume of subsidies to agricultural entities, the authorized capital of KazAgro JSC. As a result, by 2022, exports of processed agricultural products and labor productivity in the industry will grow 2.5 times.

To increase the affordability of housing mortgage and improve housing conditions for the population in Kazakhstan, the Nurly Zher State Program is being successfully implemented. The term of implementation of which the President extended for another five years.

“In the next five years, according to the State Program, we plan to build more than 650,000 dwellings, which will provide housing for about two million of our citizens,” the minister said.

Within the framework of the 7–20–25 Program, over the next five years more than 100,000 families will be able to purchase housing. In addition, 30 billion tenge will be allocated to increase the construction of rental housing within three years, which will improve living conditions for more than 250,000 families.

Fifty billion tenge will be allocated from the budget for the construction of educational facilities to the regions experiencing the greatest shortage of student places, as well as to solve problems with three-shift and emergency schools.

To ensure child safety, as well as to strengthen the work of school psychologists, 16.8 billion tenge, or 5.6 billion tenge annually will be allocated.

“It is proposed to send these funds for the introduction of additional payments for the qualification of pedagogical skills, to increase the official salaries and hold advanced training of psychologists of the secondary education system,” said Smailov.