Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has ordered the national government to review state programs and plans of industrialization and economic diversification, Prime Minister Karim Masimov said on Thursday in Astana.
“The President has justly criticized the work of the government, district administrations and national companies for giving insufficient attention to industrialization and economic diversification,” he said.
The government, district administrations and national holdings “should systematize their efforts, select the best (industrialization and diversification projects) and give them maximum support regardless of the form of property,” the premier said.
The national government is switching to “manual control” of the economy in order to fulfill the industrial projects planned earlier, he said.
“We will have “manual control” starting from now till the end of this year. There is no other way out,” Masimov said. “The market does not function as it should, so, we must fulfill all the earlier projects.
“We will get down to business and weekly monitor investment projects, just like we did in the good old times. This period is peculiar,” Masimov said. “This crisis is like a war, so we will live by war time laws.”
He ordered Industry and Trade Minister Vladimir Shkolnik to prepare within a week proposals on the broadening of functions of his department and the appropriate coordination of all investment projects.
“We must review the functions of the Industry and Trade Ministry, add labor and financial resources and reconfigure the existent development institutes,” Masimov said. “The ministry has so many missions that it does not have enough powers and resources for accomplishing them.”
The system of investment projects” supervision “will be presented to the President and enter into force if it is approved,” PM Masimov said.
