Kazakhstan Marches Forward As Poverty, Unemployment Rates Drop

By Norshazlina Nor'azman ASTANA, June 29 (Bernama) -- Kazakhstan, which has regarded Malaysia as a close friend since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations in 1992, has taken great strides towards the economic and social upliftment of its people over the last two decades. The last of the republics to declare independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has the most developed economy in Central Asia. Its success story is similar to that of Malaysia, a nation it looks up to for inspiration. In fact, there is much more the two nations can learn from each other as they move forward in their journey towards attaining higher levels of progress and development. LOWER POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT RATES It may be hard to believe that Kazakhstan, with a population of approximately 17 million, was once an impoverished and little-known state. Thanks to the policies and strategies laid out by its President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has been at the helm since Kazakhstan attained independence, it has embarked on the road to becoming one of the 30 most developed nations of this world by 2050. Kazakhstan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erlan Idrissov, said tremendous progress has been made over the last decade to scale down poverty and unemployment in the country. He said following the implementation of major poverty-mitigating measures, the government had successfully trimmed the poverty rate to 5.3 percent, from 40 percent earlier. Efforts undertaken to spur employment has also paid off as Kazakhstan's unemployment rate is currently at less than five percent. It used to hover around 12.8 per cent in 2000 and close to 20 percent earlier. "We regard these (new poverty and unemployment rates) as huge achievements for the nation," Idrissov told Bernama in an interview. He said over the years, wages and incomes, as well pensions, of the people have also seen an upward trend. "For example, between 2000 and 2013, the number of people with incomes below the poverty line had decreased by more than four times, while (the quantum of) pensions (paid out) increased by more than six times," he added. ON THE RIGHT TRACK On developments in the education and healthcare sectors, Idrissov said between 2000 and 2013, investments in education had seen an eightfold increase while expenditure on healthcare increased 10-fold. Over the past 15 years, 1,000 hospitals, 1,100 schools and 4,000 kindergartens were built in Kazakhstan. In 1993, the government introduced the "Bolashak" international scholarship programme, a brainchild of Nazarbayev, to provide opportunities to students to study in the world's top universities, including in Malaysia. The scholarships, which have benefited more than 10,000 students so far, is also viewed as a cultural bridge to connect Kazakhstan with the countries concerned. "Kazakhstan has been spending a lot of money on education and health ... these are the most difficult sectors to reform because of our huge population. We've to develop projects and programmes, and distribute the resources in an effective way... it's a very difficult task. "Ensuring an equal distribution of wealth is a headache for most governments across the globe. But overall, our government's spending on education, healthcare, social protection, sports and recreation - which relate to human development - has been increasing in stages," explained Idrissov. He also said that President Nazarbayev has set out specific tasks for the development of the country under Strategy Kazakhstan 2050, which outlined Kazakhstan's roadmap to attaining its vision of being among the top 30 most developed countries in the world by 2050. Not only does it reflect the government's long-term strategic goals to turn the nation into an economic powerhouse, it also focuses on the growth of one of its most vital assets - human capital - and rising the standard of living and quality of life of its people to be on par with that of developed countries. Asked if the government was satisfied with its achievements thus far, Idrissov said various statistics have shown that Kazakhstan was on the right track but "we've not reached the ideal state yet and our people are not entirely happy yet. But we're inspired to continue to move forward". In the 1990s, he pointed out, Kazakhstan's economy was "on the decline", and it was only in 1999 that it began to stabilise. "The year 2000 was the first year of our recovery," he added. LEARNING FROM MALAYSIA Malaysia and Kazakhstan may differ from one another in terms of their political systems and geography but they share good diplomatic relations and have fostered close cooperation in various fields. Kazakhstan's president and top government officials frequently travel to Malaysia to observe and study the latter's vast experiences. "(Former Prime Minister) Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) and our president had developed a very good personal relationship when both nations initiated diplomatic ties (in 1992). We're now continuing that legacy and maintaining the good relationship between the two countries," he said. He said Kazakhstan was impressed with Malaysia's success stories and was keen to learn from its best practices and experiences in various fields. Malaysia, he added, had served as a role model to Kazakhstan, particularly in the development and modernisation of its economy, governance, public sector, education sector and human capital investment. "We, of course, have great respect for Malaysia's economic growth and we have tried to study what made Malaysia tick. We want to focus on those experiences that are are useful to Kazakhstan's development," he said. He also said that Kazakhstan was keen to foster cooperation with Malaysia in other areas such as the halal industry, Islamic finance and racial harmony. There was also vast propects for cooperation between Malaysia and Kazakhstan in the energy sector, particularly in oil and gas production, refining and services, he said. INTERRACIAL HARMONY Idrissov said his government was also impressed with Malaysia's interracial harmony and how the people of various ethnicities live together on the basis on trust and understanding. "We like the fact that Malaysians are tolerant towards each other, regardless of race or faith. We too share similar principles as we are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country too," he said. Kazakhstan's population consists of the indigenous ethnic Kazakhs, and others like Russians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Chechens, Koreans and Uighurs. He said during the Soviet era, Kazakhstan was treated as a testing ground for social experiments, which resulted in the state being turned into a melting pot of cultures of people from the Baltic nations to Japan. "Our society became very diverse but the locals were tolerant and were willing to share the last crumbs of their bread with those who were forcefully exiled to Kazakhstan. Now, in Kazakhstan, we all live together and have equal access to all social services," he said. --BERNAMA