Kazakhstan National Development Plan 2029 – What To Expect?
On 30 July 2024, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, signed a decree approving the “National Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2029.”
Here, Unicase offers a brief overview of the strategic reforms expected under the state’s National Development Plan.
The core idea of the document is to increase investment and liberalise the economy while considering the sustainable use of natural resources and environmental protection, along with further improvements introduced to the justice system and law enforcement agencies.
The approaches outlined in the National Plan are also aimed at accelerating transitional processes to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Similar to the SDGs, the Plan comprises 17 development areas, grouped into 4 blocks based on the commonality of planned outcomes and implementation mechanisms, including key national indicators for each year.
State initiatives will focus on improving the well-being of the local population and building an inclusive society by creating equal opportunities for every citizen.
The Plan includes the following priorities:
- High Quality of Life (healthcare, education and science, social protection, and a comfortable living environment)
- A Strong Economic Foundation (mineral resource base: oil and gas, metals and other minerals, energy, and manufacturing)
- New Growth Points (transport and logistics, agro-industrial complex, innovation, digital and creative economy, and tourism)
- Cross-Cutting Economic and Social Transformations (creating a dynamic entrepreneurial environment, initiating a new investment cycle, enhancing environmental sustainability, ensuring effective public finance, upholding the rule of law, and improving public administration efficiency).
By 2029, the Plan aims to achieve several targets:
- Kazakhstan’s GDP should reach US$450 billion (compared to US$264 billion in 2023).
- GDP per capita is expected to be US$21,055 (compared to US$13,277 in 2023).
- The real economic growth rate should reach 6.7% year-on-year (compared to 5.1% in 2023).
- Life expectancy should reach 77 years (compared to 75.09 years in 2023).
A strategic priority is also ecological sustainability. By 2029, Kazakhstan aims to have renewable energy sources account for 12.5% of the total energy production. Measures will be taken to develop circular economy principles through more efficient use of existing resources, waste recycling, and the production of goods from secondary raw materials.
Another important priority is improving the system of investment preferences:
- Expanding measures to enhance the attractiveness of domestic market for investors by ensuring stable business conditions.
- Improving the efficiency of special economic and industrial zones by providing value-added services and enhancing the quality of their management.
- Reducing the time required to conclude investment agreements and obtain permits, and other documentation. Currently, even after receiving a positive decision, investors face several challenges at project preparation and implementation stages. To optimise procedures, it is necessary to monitor the duration of each stage for the entire range of potential investment contracts.
Providing technical conditions, infrastructure development, and access to raw materials, as well as receiving government support and financing from development institutions, are of utmost importance for the economy.
A separate priority is to radically simplify the approval process for project documentation for investors, including recognising international projects implemented in accordance with advanced global standards without the need for separate project documentation development.
The central element of the investment model will be the “one-stop shop” principle for investors throughout the investment cycle, with a comprehensive mandate for coordinating the collection of a general pool of projects, preparing individual project cases, and finding and negotiating with potential investors with the participation of sectoral government bodies.
According to the document, maintaining the competitiveness of Kazakhstan’s investment market requires effective feedback channels from investors and enhancing their protection. Key tasks in this area include conducting investor surveys with the open publication of a comprehensive overview of the country’s investment climate (including sectoral approach), developing effective feedback channels for investors, and strengthening the institution of the investment ombudsman.
Thus, the state intends to shift its priority from a limited export-commodity-based economy to one favouring economic diversification, responding to the increasing pressures of global economic, climatic, and technological megatrends, as well as the critical levels of accumulated imbalances in the socio-economic sphere.
The document is expected to help overcome the “middle-income trap” and establish robust institutional and socio-economic foundations for positioning the country among high-income nations as the primary medium-term development goals. Kazakhstan is already facing rising inflation, high competition for investments, economic slowdown, the reconfiguration of trade and economic ties, and the impact of sanctions and protectionism.
The decree has already come into effect (as of the date of signing), replacing the previous National Development Plan until 2025.
For more details, please see the document at the link: https://adilet.zan.kz/rus/docs/U2400000611
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