The 5th session of the Supreme Council for Reforms was held via videoconference under Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s chairmanship.
The agenda of the event included five issues. Chairman of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms Kairat Kelimbetov reported on the development of national projects. Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin spoke about the transformation of the national project “Digital Kazakhstan”. Minister of Agriculture Saparkhan Omarov informed about the preparation of a national project for the development of the agro-industrial complex until 2026. Minister of National Economy Asset Irgaliyev reported on the introduction of regulation “from scratch”. The proposals on justice reform were presented by Chairman of the Supreme Court Zhakip Assanov and Chief of Staff of the President Yerlan Koshanov.
Having heard the participants’ reports, the President focused on the prospects for further development of the reform strategy. The Head of State gave comments and instructions on each issue on the agenda.
In particular, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pointed out the inadmissibility of piling up and duplicating national projects, which should be focused on solving key tasks that require efforts concentration and resources “here and now”.
“It is important to have a clear methodological basis for selecting projects. This base should take into account the complex socio-economic effect of a particular national project, be clear, and, of course, non-subjective,” the Head of State believes.
President Tokayev stressed that national projects should be provided with all resources and have an absolute priority when receiving budget funding.
He expressed gratitude to his Deputy at the Supreme Council for Reforms, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, and his team for their productive work on the Gap analysis of the national projects. According to the President, the proposed recommendations can be used as a basis for further work on economic, social and public administration reforms.
As far as the “Digital Kazakhstan” national project is concerned, the President positively assessed the innovations presented in Bagdat Mussin’s report. The Head of State approved the approaches proposed in the Digital Industry Development Concept and the “DigitEL” national project.
President Tokayev also spoke about the national project for the development of the agro-industrial complex until 2026. In his opinion, the document is very extensive, since it includes all areas of the industry and provides all possible measures of both a systemic and implementation nature. At the same time, he proposed to include some of the directions in the Concept of the Development of the Agro-industrial Complex. At the same time, according to the Head of State, the national project should be absolutely applied, and be focused on solving the key aspects of development. In general, he approved the basic approaches to the reform of the agro-industrial complex. Following the discussion, the Government was instructed to finalize the project.
Assessing the presented report on regulation “from scratch”, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stressed that the country needs a strong, competitive private business that can become the basis of the national economy and the well-being of citizens.
“The norms laid down in the draft law should be really working. It is impossible to allow emasculation, compromises that suit regulators, but make the reform itself meaningless and formal,” the Head of State said.
Speaking about legal reforms, the President stressed the importance of consistent and systematic modernization of the judicial system in order to ensure impartial and fair justice.
“This is the most important criteria of the rule of law, the basis of investment attractiveness, ensuring the protection of private property rights. New approaches to the reform of the judicial system should further strengthen the independence of judges, strengthen public confidence in the courts, encourage the involvement of new professional personnel in the justice administration, and increase the convenience and efficiency of the judicial process,” he said.
President Tokayev added that the developed tools allow attracting strong lawyers and specialists in certain branches of law to the judicial profession.
According to the President, the study of these issues in the Parliament should be open and comprehensive, with the involvement of the public and representatives of the legal community. He instructed to adopt the relevant draft law this year.
“This reform is very important, in fact, it is a priority area of all work aimed at transforming Kazakhstan into a modern and effective state,” the President is convinced.
The Head of State also spoke about the reform of the criminal process, emphasizing the priority of work ensuring the protection of the constitutional rights of citizens.
“For this purpose, some conditions should be created for real competition between prosecutors and lawyers in court, opportunities for appealing court decisions should be expanded, and uniform judicial practice should be ensured. The final court verdict should be clear both to the participants in the process and to the society as a whole,” the President said.
He also stated that all changes in the political, judicial, economic and social spheres should be properly brought to our foreign partners. This work was entrusted to coordinate to Special Representative of the President for International Cooperation Erzhan Kazykhan.
In addition, President Tokayev touched upon the issue of investment disputes. In this regard, he instructed the Government to carefully consider the issues raised by Sir Suma Chakrabarti in his report by August 1. The coordination of this work is entrusted to the Presidential Administration.
In conclusion, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that there is a lot of productive work to be done on the transformation and modernization of Kazakhstan.
“We need a qualitative breakthrough, which means we need a well-coordinated and effective work, which I urge everyone to do,” the President underscored.
