Kazakh anti-crisis plan deals with global meltdown head on

Astana, Mar.12 (ANI): Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has once again reiterated that his government's "Anti-Crisis Program", introduced to counter the ongoing global financial crisis, will ensure the stability of the national financial system, support the key construction sector, small and medium-sized businesses, the agro-industrial complex and other innovation projects.

Addressing a joint session of the Kazakh Parliament in the week gone by, President Nazarbayev explained the essence of the recently adopted Anti-Crisis Program, which aims at collecting USD 14 billion from internal resources for injection into the Kazakh economy.

In his address titled "Through Crisis to Renovation and Prosperity", President Nazarbayev highlighted that the adopted measures would not only resist the crisis, but prepare the nation for further economic growth.

"We need to realize a new plan of economy modernization for post-crisis development," he stressed.

Within the next two years, the Kazakh Government plans to allocate over USD four billion in projects targeted for the modernisation of the economy. Most of these resources will come from the National Fund, he said.

The Kazakh President put forward a number of tasks to implement.

Among them was an employment strategy under which one billion dollars will be allocated to create 350,000 jobs. The modernization and construction of fresh sources of water supply, heat supply, power engineering, highways, schools and hospitals would take place under the public utilities system.

The petrochemical and power sectors would also receive due attention in the coming years as part of the post-crisis development plan, the President underlined.

Projects such as the setting up of a petrochemical complex in Atyrau, the Moinak hydro power station, expansion and reconstruction of the Ekibastuz GRES - 1 power plant, the third power unit of the Ekibastuz GRES - 2 power plant, the Balkhash thermal power plant, the Beineu-Bozoi-Akbulak gas pipeline, and the Western Europe - Western China transit corridor. will serve the two important objectives - food security and export diversification - Nazarbayev said.

Export specialization will create more than 500 thousand new workplaces and provide about eight percent of additional GDP growth in the next five years. It was stressed that the Government would meet all its obligations to increase social benefits and pensions as well as wages of the civil servants. (ANI)