President’s Five Social Initiatives: Intensified housing construction and increase in business lending

One of the main events of the year was the President’s Five Social Initiatives voiced at a joint meeting of the Chambers of the Parliament. Read about the intermediate implementation results in the report by PrimeMinister.kz.

Within a week after the Head of State announced the Five Social Initiatives, the Government, jointly with the National Bank, developed a roadmap in which specific measures and deadlines for their implementation were elaborated.

To date, according to the Ministry of National Economy, six tasks have been performed. The remaining  three have a long-term implementation period — 2019–2021.

 

First Initiative: New Housing Opportunities for Every Family

The goal of the initiative is to increase the availability of housing mortgages for the masses. This initiative will make every working Kazakhstani able to get a mortgage loan. The main parameters: the interest rate on the loan — no more than 7% per year, the down payment should not exceed 20%, the loan period — up to 25 years.

Thus, the 7-20-25 Program was approved June 19 and started July 4, 2018. Under this program, eight second-tier banks issue loans: Bank Center Credit JSC, Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan JSC, JSC Eurasian Bank, Tsesnabank JSC, ATF Bank JSC, Bank RBK JSC, ForteBank JSC and JSC Sberbank.

As of Dec. 20, 2018, the total of 5,621 applications were accepted under the program. Of these, 3,542 applications for a loan of 42.4 billion tenge were approved.

These are the half-year implementation results of the 7-20-25 Program. The program, meanwhile, is expanding, offering Kazakhstanis new advantages, providing new conditions.

 

Second Initiative: Reducing Tax Burden to Increase Wages of Low-Paid Workers

From Jan. 1, 2019, the Head of State instructed to reduce the individual income tax 10 times — to 1% for those who receive wages no more than 25 times the minimum calculated indicator per month.

Thus, the Law of Kazakhstan dated July 2, 2018, provides for a 10 times reduction of the tax burden for workers with a salary of up to 25 MCI from Jan. 1, 2019.

It should be noted that the norms developed will entail losses of local budgets in 2019–2021 of about 93.7 billion tenge, which will be compensated from the republican budget during the three-year transfers in 2017–2019.

 

Third Initiative: Increasing Accessibility and Quality of Higher Education and Improving Living Conditions of Students

As part of the execution of the President’s instructions, since September 2018, educational grants have been increased by 20 thousand places:

  • 11 thousand are directed to technical specialties,
  • 5 thousand — for specialties in demand on the labor market,
  • 3 thousand — for the preparation of masters, 1 thousand — for PhD.

Thus, the total amount of the state educational order was 69,059 places (53,594 — higher education, 13,220 — magistracy, 2,265 — doctoral PhD).

The cost of training a specialist with higher education in technical and agricultural specialties was increased from 346.6 thousand tenge to 635.8 thousand tenge.

The state order for training in technical and technological specialties, including engineering personnel (in information technology, robotics, nano-technology) amounted 25,237 places (49.6%). Particular attention is paid to the training of pedagogical personnel (18.7% of the total volume of state orders), including those with enhanced linguistic competences.

At the same time, in the Five Social Initiatives, the Head of State stressed that while creating an education system based on the world standards, due attention should be paid to the conditions of education and residence of students. Thus, by the end of 2022, it was entrusted to ensure the construction of new student dormitories for at least 75,000 beds.

From September 2018, the practical implementation of a project to improve student living conditions began.

The total need for dormitories, taking into account the places built in 2018, is 90,366 (universities — 65,113 places, colleges — 24,653 places).

To cover the deficit, new places will be introduced on 170 land plots, of which 49 are allocated by akimats, 121 are owned by educational institutions and investors.

Twelve government contracts have already been concluded with educational organizations in Astana (3), Almaty (5), Shymkent (2), Karaganda (1) and Uralsk (1).

Starting from 2019, the republican budget provides funds for compensation of investment and operating costs of developers under the PPP scheme (in 2019 — 1 billion tenge; in 2020 — 4 billion tenge; in 2021 — 10 billion tenge).

According to the preliminary schedule, in 2019 it is planned to introduce 5 thousand places, in 2020 — 15 thousand places in the dormitories.

 

Fourth Initiative: Expanding Microcredit

As part of this initiative, the Head of State commissioned an additional 20 billion tenge in 2018, bringing the total amount of microcredit to 62 billion tenge. As a result, more than 14 thousand people will receive microcredits, which is two times higher than the 2017 level.

As of Dec. 21, 2018, 14,006 microloans were issued for 59 billion tenge (in the cities – 1,246 for 13.6 billion tenge, in the countryside – 12,760 for 45.4 billion tenge, the average size of microloan in the cities was 11 million tenge , in the countryside – 3.5 million tenge).

Almost every third loan provided state guarantees.

For startups 8,891 (63.5%) microloans were issued, 1,007 (7.2%) – for the development of anchor cooperation, 4,108 (29.3%) – for expanding their own business.

As part of microcredit, 12,325 people from among the self-employed and 1,681 unemployed began to engage in business, and formalized their activities.

Microcredit recipients additionally created 12,089 jobs.

Nearly 28.3 thousand people were trained under the Bastau-Business project, of which 19.5 thousand participants defended their business projects, 6.3 thousand received microcredits.

 

Fifth Initiative: Further Gas Supply in the Country

The President of Kazakhstan has commissioned a project to build a gas pipeline along the route Karaozek (Kyzylorda Region) - Zhezkazgan - Karaganda - Temirtau - Astana.

In August, the scheme and terms of financing the project for the construction of the Saryarka gas pipeline were approved, and a positive opinion was issued on the project estimate documentation.

Dec. 11, 2018, as part of the industrialization day, the construction of the Saryarka MG project was launched. The work will be carried out simultaneously by several linear flows, which will allow to sustain the planned construction time.

Currently, akimats of Astana, Akmola and Karaganda regions are developing design estimates for the construction of the first stages of gas distribution networks. Obtaining state expertise on projects is planned in the first quarter of 2019.

According to the implementation results of these projects in 2020, access to gas will be received by about 142 thousand residents in Astana, Akmola and Karaganda regions.


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