Astana. 21 May. Kazakhstan Today - Government adopted Program of single-industry towns development for 2012-2020, Kazakhstan Today reports referring to the Prime Minister press service.

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov chaired a conference call of the Government in the Ukimet Uyi today. The draft Program on development of single-industry towns for 2012-2020 was adopted by the Government at the session.

In his recent Address to the Nation, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev charged the Government to work out a program on development of single-industry towns for 2012-2020. On March 20, the Government approved the main conceptual approaches of the Program. On the instruction of the Prime Minister, the draft Program was also discussed in the regions.

Speaking at the session, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Bakytzhan Sagintayev presented the draft Program of single-industry towns development for 2012-2020. 27 single-industry towns with the total number of population reaching 1.5 million people or 16% of the country's urban population were selected for participation in the Program.

A number of tasks is planned to be resolved in order to address the problems of single-industry towns.

First of all, single-industry towns will be optimized depending on production capacity of functioning enterprises.

Thus, a long-term development plant was elaborated for every single-industry town. The general development plans, plans on development of social and utility infrastructure are also expected to be corrected.

Secondly, special attention will be paid to economic diversification and SME development.

Large investment projects will be implemented within the Industrialization Map. Besides, auxiliary and service enterprises will be established by the township-forming companies. Strategic investors are planned to be attracted to some single-industry towns in order to revive former specialization.

Special attention will be paid to business development. The Program includes additional measures of support for small and medium business, in particular, increase of financing of interest rates for credits obtained in single-industry towns with low and medium economic potential from 7 to 10% with elimination of sectoral restrictions, provision of grants totaling 1.5-3 mln tenge for establishment of new productions, implementation of partnership programs between the government and township-forming enterprises on development of small business and establishment of Entrepreneurship Support Centers. Presently, a several regional akimats have already signed memorandums of cooperation with KazMunaiGas JSC, Kazzinc LLP, Kazakhmys LLP.

One of the key tasks is provision of population employment. On the analogy of the Employment - 2020 Program, training and retraining courses will be organized within the Program. Young people of single-industry towns will be provided with opportunities to receive education in vocational and technical education institutions. The measures on housing construction are to be implemented by the analogy with the second direction of the Employment - 2020 Program as well.

Speaking at the sitting, the Minister also informed that the funds totaling 38.2 billion tenge would be allocated for implementation of the Program in 2013, 43.2 billion tenge - in 2014, 53.9 billion tenge.

The Program implementation is divided into two stages: initial stage of 2013-2015 and sustainable growth period till 2020. Implementation of this Program is expected to result in four-time increase of the number of active small business entities in single-industry towns by 2020, reduction of the share of people with substandard income in single-industry towns to the level of 6%, reduction of the unemployment level to about 5%.

"This Program is one of the important tasks set by the President in his State-of-the-Nation Address. I believe, it was discussed quite thoroughly," Prime Minister Karim Massimov said.

Upon the results of the discussion, the draft Program on development of single-industry towns for 2012-2020 was adopted by the Government.


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