OREANDA-NEWS. On 05 March 2009 was announced, that Mr. Shigeo Katsu, Vice-President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia Region, and Mr. Motoo Konishi, the World Bank's newly appointed Regional Director for Central Asia visited Kazakhstan from February 23 to 24, 2009. The main purpose of the visit was to introduce Mr. Konishi as the new World Bank Director for five Countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and to discuss with the key Kazakh counterparts the outcomes of the ongoing Bank projects and programs and areas for the World Bank's future support to Kazakhstan.

On February 23, in Astana, Messrs. Katsu and Konishi met with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr. Massimov to discuss ongoing projects and programs that the Bank is currently supporting in Kazakhstan, issues of regional cooperation in Central Asia and beyond, and the Bank's support to the Government's anti-crisis program, among other issues.

"No country is immune to the unprecedented global crisis, and Kazakhstan is also experiencing its consequences," - said Mr. Katsu, World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia. "The country was fortunate to enter the crisis with a very strong financial position. Its anti-crisis program contains strong policy measures designed to improve the resilience to crisis of all segments of Kazakhstan's society - small businesses and households, industrialists and financial services. The Government has taken the right track with crisis mitigation and demonstrates strong leadership. It is now important that this package is implemented swiftly, efficiently and transparently," - added Mr. Katsu.

The Bank believes that it is now essential to safeguard improvements in the living standards achieved by Kazakhstan over the past several years, and to ensure that vulnerable social groups remain protected. Seven years of rapid economic growth has brought down significantly the number of very poor households. At the same time, rapid growth of consumer loans and mortgages burdened many families with debt which is often denominated in foreign currency. Many low-income families can slide back into poverty if they lose jobs or if their debt burden becomes too high. As for the very poor, they have few options to adapt to economic slowdown. They can take steps undermining their long-term prospects - take kids out of school and send them to work, or save on medical expenses and nutrition. The World Bank is helping the Government of Kazakhstan to map the poverty implications of the crisis, enhance the existing and establish new social assistance schemes if needed which are designed to prevent the poorest households from undertaking such impetuous steps.

No less important for crisis mitigation is to improve the business climate and to support of SMEs, who create the most jobs in the economy. The Government has recently made important steps to facilitate the business environment, by extending the moratorium on inspections, adopting the new Tax Code which reduces the tax burden on manufacturing industries and SMEs, and simplifying the registration of property rights and construction permits. Further steps are envisaged in the coming months to simplify the work of entrepreneurs, including by streamlining the customs procedures. The World Bank supports Kazakhstan through investment projects and advisory services in all of these areas.

Mr. Konishi, a Japanese national, joined the Bank in 1981 as a Young Professional. He has since held various positions at the World Bank, with his most recent assignment being Sector Manager for Transport in the Sustainable Development Department of the Europe and Central Asia Region. During his Bank career Mr. Konishi has been directly involved in a number of World Bank projects in water supply and sanitation and transport sectors in the countries of Central Asia. He possesses extensive regional experience in North America, East Asia, Eastern & Southern Africa, Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.

In his new capacity as Regional Director for Central Asia, Mr. Konishi's top priorities in Kazakhstan will be to: (i) support the Government in the implementation of its Anti-crisis program; (ii) help the Government ensure that social achievements of this decade are safeguarded against the impacts of the current economic slowdown; and (iii) help the country strengthen the competitiveness of its entrepreneurs and the quality of its public administration and human capital, so that Kazakhstan is best positioned to capture the next wave of economic expansion when the global economy starts improving.

The World Bank's overall mission in Kazakhstan is to improve people's lives by promoting diversification and competitiveness of the economy and creating more job opportunities. Since July 1992, the Bank has provided 32 loans to Kazakhstan for the total amount of more than 2.1 billion dollars.