May 17 in Nur-Sultan, within the framework of the XII Astana Economic Forum, Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Gulshara Abdykalikova took part in the panel session "Women in Science, Innovation, Business."

The session was attended by Ex-President of the Kyrgyz Republic Roza Otunbayeva, Managing Director of the EBRD for Central Asia Bruno Balvanera, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan Aigul Solovyova, Chairman of the Presidium of the International Organization Expo & Women Saltanat Rakhimbekova and others.

In her speech, the Abdykalikova noted that in Kazakhstan, on the initiative of the First President – Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev, a new economy is being built, aimed at moving away from commodity dependence and based on innovations. In this regard, university science is developing with a priority on research in metallurgy, petrochemistry, agro-industrial complex, bio-and IT technologies.

“Over the past five years, the share of female researchers increased from 51.6% to 52.8% of the total number of researchers and in 2018 amounted to 9,217 people. If in 2015-2017, out of 1,770 research projects, 566 (32%) had female research supervisors, in the framework of ongoing projects in 2018-2020, 418 (38%) out of 1,084 scientific projects have female supervisors,” said Abdykalikova.

The participants discussed issues of increasing women's contribution to science, innovation and economic development, considered successful practices of international organizations, governments and businesses in reducing gender gaps in various areas of activity and the prospects for integrating the efforts of the female community in promoting gender balance.

Further during the forum, Abdykalikova held a number of bilateral meetings.

Speaking with the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, Deputy Executive Director of UN-Women Asa Regner, the deputy prime minister highlighted the issues of further partnership and deepening cooperation between Kazakhstan and UN-Women in the field of gender equality and women's empowerment.

In Kazakhstan, this organization, together with the National Commission for Women and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the financial support of the Government, implements projects on gender-oriented planning and budgeting, the expansion of the economic rights of vulnerable women through their involvement in productive employment and entrepreneurship, combating violence against women and girls.

At the meeting with the Assistant Secretary General of the UN, Assistant Administrator and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, issues of ongoing work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals were discussed. Today, 80% of the SDGs are covered by the country's national strategic documents. Coordination Council under the Government of Kazakhstan has been established, which acts as a national mechanism for coordinating and implementing the SDGs in the country.

It was noted that the main priority of the Government is to ensure a decent standard of living for citizens and development as a socially-oriented state. In 2019, more than 43% of all expenditures of the republican budget were allocated to the social sphere. Large-scale reforms are being carried out in the country, aimed at the overall growth of the welfare and quality of life of Kazakhstanis, and support for vulnerable groups of the population.