OREANDA-NEWS. December 27, 2013. Implementation of the program "Employment Roadmap 2020" has been discussed at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection Tamara Duissenova delivered a report on the implementation of the program.

Informing about the directions and results of performance of "Employment Roadmap 2020", the minister said that its main result was "the employment of 241 thousand people, of which 132 thousand got permanent jobs."

The results of the program have had a direct impact on employment growth. If before 2011 the average annual growth in the number of employees was 170 thousand people, then after 2012 it increased to 232 thousand people. The share of self-employed decreased from 33.7 % to 30.5% to the total number of self-employed, while the overall unemployment rate reached 5.2% in the third quarter of this year, the minister concluded.

Duissenova also named the shortcomings of the program. These are the lack of demand for a certain part of the program participants after they underwent training, lack of critical mass in the provision of microcredits, low mobility of the population.

According to the minister, it is planned to continue to improve the information support for the program through the development of a unified database on the labor market and specialized portals related to employment and implementation of the Employment Roadmap, raising public awareness about employment in general, conditions and benefits of participation in the program.

She also said that the ministry organized training for akims of rural districts and personnel of employment centers. Next year it is planned to check their knowledge of the program tools.
In conclusion the minister expressed confidence that the new measures would increase efficiency of the program.

Summarizing the discussion, the Prime Minister noted the good pace of the program implementation and stressed that "the Roadmap provides for effective tools and mechanisms for solving the problems of employment and all of them must be used."

Akhmetov drew attention to the problematic issues in all regions. "This is the lack of awareness-raising work, and as consequence many people, for whom the program has been developed, do not know how it works and what it can give them," the Prime Minister noted.

Another problem is the employment of people, who underwent training in the framework of the program. "In some regions, the level of their employment is about 60%. Once again, we are talking about the efficiency of budgetary funds. Almost every region has the facts when employers do not observe the conditions to create jobs for the implementation of infrastructure projects," Akhmetov stated.

The Prime Minister proposed to discuss further implementation of the program through the example of a certain region. In this regard, he instructed the Minister of Labor and Social Protection to select a region and send a working group to study the situation there.

"Based on the instructions of the President, we have to ensure the effectiveness of the work," Akhmetov said. He pointed out that "the efficient use of tools and instruments outlined in the program is under special control of the Government."

The meeting also heard the report of Vice Minister of Regional Development Kairbek Uskenbayev on the main provisions of the General Scheme on the organization of the territories of Kazakhstan.

The General Scheme will be the basis for better decision making in the system of public administration, and its recommendations will serve the basis for long-term regional and industrial planning.

The Ministry of Regional Development was instructed to approve the General Scheme until the end of the year.

The meeting also approved a draft comprehensive plan for the development of agro-processing and food industry for 2013-2020. Vice Minister of Agriculture Muslim Umiryayev reported on measures to develop agricultural processing.

Summing up the discussion, Serik Akhmetov drew attention of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning, development institutions to the issues of crediting in agricultural processing industry. "It is necessary to reduce the level of interest rate, which is 7% now. We will try achieve this every year, because the reduction in interest rates is another incentive to the fact that we can attract investors, both domestic and foreign, in this sphere," he said.

"It is planned to allocate about 120 billion tenge in the processing of agricultural products until 2020. And here it is necessary to use the mechanisms of funding from development institutions," Akhmetov concluded.