Speaking to the plenary session participants, the Head of State noted that for many of those present the participation in Astana Economic Forum had become a good tradition.
- The eleventh time the Forum becomes a platform for discussing the most important issues of economy, investments and innovations. The current event will also be on the search for adequate responses to global challenges, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Pointing to the growing tensions and new global transformations of modern civilization, Nursultan Nazarbayev identified five major megatrends of planetary development. Among them are digitization of all aspects of human activity, energy revolution, rapid growth of the world's population, change in the pace and nature of urbanization, and the global labour market.
The Head of State stressed that the result of the economy's new digital model would be not only its increase, but also the growth of cybercrime, which in 2017 is recognized as the most serious threat to business.
-We come to terms with this new reality. Carrying out the Digital Kazakhstan program will guarantee the growth of the country’s digital infrastructure and IT-ecosystem, the population’s digital literacy will exceed 85%. Using new technologies, we plan to increase labour productivity in the manufacturing sector by 5 times in five years, the President of Kazakhstan stated.
In addition, Nursultan Nazarbayev told the audience about the international exhibition EXPO-2017: Energy of the Future held in Kazakhstan, which became the basis for the systemic development of the "green" economy in the country.
Speaking about the rapid growth of the world population, the Head of State noted the need to increase food production, especially taking into account the limited base resources and the growing deficit of fresh water.
- It will require a significant increase in productivity and resource efficiency of the AIC, which should now become one of the most high-tech industries. In Kazakhstan, the goal is to increase performance in the agro-industrial complex by 2.5 times over 5 years, using modern achievements, the President of Kazakhstan said.
At the same time, Nursultan Nazarbayev told the audience about the strategy of agglomeration development in Kazakhstan, as well as the Forum of large cities of the Silk Road countries, which is planned to be held as part of events dedicated to the celebration of Astana’s 20th anniversary.
Noting the transformation of the global labour market, the Head of State focused on the measures being taken by Kazakhstan to reform the education sphere, aimed at building the skills of creative thinking, the ability to find the right information and correctly apply it.
- At the dawn of the state formation, we launched Bolashak Program, which enabled 13,000 Kazakhstanis to study under public finance in the best universities in the world. In parallel, the world's universities opened in the country - Nazarbayev University, KBTU, KIMEP and MUIT. Within the new Five Social Initiatives, the number of grants is increasing, the living conditions of students are improving, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev emphasized that these five global trends were the main factors of the world's growing instability, and he proposed the G-Global initiative, which unlike the G-7 and G-20, would consolidate the views and interests of all countries and can become effective tool for finding more balanced solutions.
- At this site, it is possible to discuss issues of sustainable development, reducing economic inequality, defining the contours of new rules for international trade, disseminating biased information, and using and regulating crypto-currencies. Considering the need to involve the entire international community in developing global anti-crisis solutions, we propose to implement this initiative on the UN platform, the Head of State concluded.
In conclusion, the President of Kazakhstan wished the participants success and expressed confidence in the effective and productive nature of the forum.
