Statement by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the opening of the first session of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the seventh convocation
Dear participants of the session!
In accordance with Article 59 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, I declare the first session of the Parliament of the seventh convocation open.
Dear members of Parliament!
I congratulate all of you on the end of the elections and wish success to the members of the Mazhilis of the new convocation!
I thank the members of the previous convocation for their successful work.
In almost five years, 410 laws have been adopted within the walls of Parliament.
The members used their right to initiate the law and prepared about 60 bills.
This is more than the initiatives of the members of the previous five convocations.
New MPs, maintaining the pace of their former colleagues, should work more productively.
Because we all have large-scale tasks and big things ahead of us.
The activities of the renewed Mazhilis coincide with two significant events for our country.
We have entered the 30th anniversary of our sacred independence.
Also, modern Kazakhstan parliamentarism has reached its quarter-century milestone.
I am confident that the members who won the mandate of trust in this historical period will meet the country’s expectations and will faithfully serve our country.
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The elections have opened a new page in the development of our country.
This important event once again proved the strength of our statehood.
They demonstrated the high political culture and civic maturity of the Kazakh society.
The voting results in all regions showed that our people fully support the strategic direction of the state.
Together we have created the necessary conditions for a confident future.
Despite the differences in political positions, we face one challenge.
Our common goal is to make Kazakhstan a strong country.
The new multi-party composition of the Mazhilis and maslihats (local representative bodies) at all levels showed an increase in political competition in society.
The Nur Otan party, led by the Leader of the Nation, has reaffirmed its leadership.
The rest of the parties, representing the interests of a certain part of the population, received a mandate of trust.
On the threshold of the fourth decade of our sovereignty, our country is facing new unprecedented challenges.
Not only we, but the whole world has entered a completely new era.
The path of development of civilisation and the foundations of the world order are undergoing radical changes.
There are many trials and challenges ahead.
However, the main challenge for all of us is to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.
The twenty-first year of the 21st century will be a turning point for all humankind.
This year will determine the main directions of the next decade.
In such a difficult situation, you should not waste time and relax even for a minute.
By holding elections at the beginning of the year, we not only dealt with difficulties, but also paved the way for modernisation and received new impetus.
It is very important to maintain this pace and stay on course.
Therefore, in the 30th anniversary of independence, comprehensive reforms will be carried out.
We must concentrate all our efforts on building an effective state and a just society.
The main priority is to improve the quality of life and increase the well-being of the population.
People expect real results, not artificial ones.
People want economic and social programmes to be successful.
We will involve all active citizens in this large-scale work.
Each of them should know that they are directly involved in making decisions that affect the fate of the country.
It is important that they feel that they are contributing to the common cause.
This is the essence of the concept of a “listening state” that I proposed.
We can only move forward and succeed if we harness the creativity of a nation.
Reforming with high quality laws is key to long-term success.
I am sure that the renewed corps of MPs will adequately fulfill these tasks.
Dear members of Parliament!
Our strategic direction is clear.
Our goal is to join the ranks of the most developed countries.
A developed country is, first of all, a healthy, educated and prosperous people.
Therefore, the main task of the state is to create conditions for full development, increasing the well-being of our citizens.
By 2025, we will create an effective institutional and infrastructural environment for every citizen.
The long-term development of our country is based on the principles of Continuity, Justice and Prosperity.
To achieve our goals, we will make consistent changes in all areas.
To do this, we need to focus on the following priorities.
FIRST. We must make every effort to develop the rule of law and strengthen citizens' confidence in the authorities.
This is a very important task.
In this regard, it is especially important to introduce a new model of public administration.
Reforms in this area include a gradual decentralisation of the system, modernisation of the state apparatus, optimisation of the quasi-public sector and digitisation of the entire process.
This will make the state apparatus more compact, transparent and efficient, and the decision-making process more flexible and transparent.
Social and economic development is impossible without proper protection of the rights of citizens. This is an axiom, a truth.
In this regard, in order to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, we need to bring this reform to the end.
Despite the measures taken by the state and the direct efforts of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, problems with the quality of the judiciary still exist.
The judicial system should not be a closed corporation.
Therefore, it is necessary to significantly modernise the judiciary and attract specialists in various fields of law.
When selecting candidates, it is important to take into account not only their professional experience, but also their personal qualities.
This work must be publicly reported in the media.
It is also important that information about the judicial system is made more accessible to the public.
It is necessary to change the work of law enforcement agencies as much as possible.
I have clearly stated this in my Address.
We will present a service model for interacting with citizens.
Public safety is ensured through the use of new digital technologies.
Parliament must strengthen the legal framework for the rule of law, fair competition and property protection.
Then these principles will be strictly implemented.
Today, work is underway on a number of legislative proposals.
However, there are still many new initiatives to be put forward and many laws to be passed.
SECOND. Effective social policy is a key tool for building a strong and inclusive society.
Despite significant progress in many indicators of the Human Development Index, Kazakhstan still lags behind the leading countries in this indicator.
High quality human capital is the basis for the long-term competitiveness of all states, including Kazakhstan.
The world is moving towards the “knowledge economy”, this is the reality.
Today, the generation of Independent Kazakhstan already accounts for half of all citizens of our country.
Today’s children and youth will determine the labour market of Kazakhstan by 2050. The prosperity of the country in the future depends on their competitiveness.
It is important to understand that being a “young nation” gives us long-term benefits.
But it is necessary to correctly take advantage of these benefits, to carry out consistent work on the development of human capital. Investments in young people will certainly pay off many times over and will benefit our entire state.
Recently, we have made progress in reforming the education sector.
At the same time, a number of accumulated problems have to be solved.
An urgent task is to narrow the gap in the quality of education between different social groups and regions.
At this stage of development, a new policy is required to retrain and continuously improve the skills of workers.
To this end, a special national project is to be developed and implemented.
The modernisation of national healthcare is of particular importance. In a pandemic, the urgency of this problem has become obvious.
The health care system must be patient-centered, prioritising their interests, health and life.
The transition to such a model is possible through personification, the introduction of digital tools, and expanding people’s access to qualified medical care.
In this regard, the development of preventive medicine based on the prevention and early diagnosis of diseases plays a special role.
A healthy lifestyle of citizens is a basic condition for the formation of a healthy nation.
Therefore, special attention should be paid to mass and children's sports, which I already mentioned in my Address. I want to repeat that this is a priority task of strategic importance.
On my instructions, the government has revised the approaches to financing mass and children’s sports. This area will be provided with significantly greater resources for development.
This task should be under the control of the MPs.
The members of parliament and maslihats should keep other issues that I noted under constant control and in the centre.
We also have to reset social security policy.
The state’s priority should be to support the most vulnerable citizens.
At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the targeting of state aid and the corresponding requirements for receiving it.
The Social Code that is being developed will provide a comprehensive answer to topical issues in this important area.
Another key element of the social infrastructure is the domestic pension system.
It must be fair, sustainable, and meet the interests of people.
We launched a very important, one might say, unique reform - the possibility of partial withdrawal and use of pension assets.
In addition, it is necessary to provide citizens with the opportunity to manage their savings through various tools.
The government and the National Bank are developing a Concept for the further development of the pension system. It is obvious that its practical implementation will require high-quality legislative support.
Overall, I expect the new members of parliament to actively work to improve social policy.
THIRD. It is impossible to ensure the well-being of citizens without the progressive growth of the national economy.
The government should continue countercyclical macroeconomic policies to support economic activity.
As part of improving fiscal policy, it is necessary to revise the Tax Code in terms of its simplification, stimulation of business activity and competition.
It is necessary to focus on supporting small and medium businesses.
Another task is to create favorable conditions for doing business.
It is necessary to develop mechanisms to support entrepreneurship based on a fundamentally new regulatory policy.
I have already instructed to switch to regulation from a “blank slate”, which will significantly reduce the costs of starting and running a business. The corresponding Decree was signed by me at the end of 2020.
In accordance with it, the Government is preparing an important legislation that will be submitted to the Mazhilis in June 2021.
I ask the MPs to comprehensively consider this legislation, taking into account the wishes of entrepreneurs and public interests.
Further. We need to reduce the role of the state as an owner and regulator. The privatisation programme launched earlier should be continued and completed, the mission, role and functions of the quasi-public sector should be revised.
Given the dynamic transformation of the labour market, it is necessary to stimulate the flow of labour from low-productivity to more productive sectors of the economy.
This requires the completion of the primary industrialisation of the country.
As I said earlier, the industry of our country must be flexible and adaptable to current changes.
Therefore, the adoption of the law “On industrial policy” is of particular relevance.
It doesn’t have to be set in frames. It should provide for specific measures, effective mechanisms to support and stimulate domestic business.
Many of the MPs of the current convocation have significant practical experience. I believe this experience will be fully utilised in the development of this bill.
In general, systemic transformations will continue.
We will discuss them in detail at the next meeting of the Supreme Council for Reforms on January 29. Decisions will be made in key areas.
It is planned to approve a fundamentally new State Planning System, an updated National Development Plan of the country until 2025, as well as a new concept of public administration.
Given the scale and importance of the adopted documents, it will be necessary to develop an appropriate legislative framework for their implementation.
In accordance with my instructions, the government will have to ensure the transformation of state programmes into National Projects by the end of the first half of the year.
I would especially like to note that within the framework of this work it is necessary to integrate the initiatives expressed in the Nur Otan electoral platform into the programme documents.
The measures and approaches proposed by the party must be put into operation and implemented.
Constructive proposals from the programmes of other parties that gained seats in parliament will also be carefully studied by the government.
FOURTH. Balanced development of the country in terms of territory and space.
In addition to all this, we pay special attention to the development of the most important industries that unite all regions with a single economic space.
In particular, transport, energy and digital infrastructure.
We will endeavour to systematically promote development centres with a focus on managed urbanisation.
Priority will be given to improving the infrastructure linking regions, cities, districts and villages.
We will modernise over 3,500 villages to new standards.
The roads to each village, which act as foundational support of the surrounding settlements, and the motorways of state significance will be fully repaired.
To further improve local self-government, it is important to simplify budget procedures and increase the independence of representative and executive bodies.
In this regard, I would like to draw the attention of maslikhat deputies to the following.
Your active position should help you make quality and balanced decisions that protect the interests of voters.
Prompt and successful implementation of these changes depends on the effectiveness of the work.
FIFTH. One of the main directions of reforms in Kazakhstan is political modernisation.
The main principle of this modernisation is to make all changes in an evolutionary way, on the basis of national dialogue and compromise.
The first part of last year’s political reforms provided new opportunities for parties and gave impetus to the country's democratic development.
The recent elections have had a positive impact on the strengthening of political competition.
Qualified and authoritative people came to the Mazhilis and Maslihats.
We have achieved this by setting a 30 percent quota for women and youth on party lists.
The introduction of a proportional system of elections to maslihats increased the activity of parties in the regions.
It also helped to maximise the involvement of citizens in the local political process.
The institution of parliamentary opposition significantly enhances the role of small political forces.
Thus, we have given a significant impetus to the development of a multi-party system in the country and the strengthening of parliamentarism.
Another important step is the election of village mayors.
Elections will be held this year in some rural districts.
We intend to strengthen the system of local government from the very bottom.
This is a very important issue.
Therefore, in the future, after the election of village mayors, a transition to the election of governors of districts is possible.
However, we should not be satisfied with what has already been achieved.
A new impetus is needed to strengthen the political system and increase the influence of citizens in the decision-making process.
A lot of work has been done in the development of the second part of the reforms in this direction.
It takes into account the proposals of all parties, including those that did not enter parliament yesterday, and they will be taken into account in the future.
Ideas and initiatives of members of the National Council and other authoritative experts and activists are included.
We have witnessed how intense this election campaign was, despite the quarantine restrictions.
Some parties did not have enough votes to enter the Mazhilis and Maslihats.
Each of them contain well-educated, qualified citizens who have mastered a certain sphere well.
They promptly and appropriately raise many topical issues that need to be discussed from the high rostrum of parliament.
If representatives of such parties went to parliament, this would strengthen the discussion and increase the effectiveness of joint work.
Obviously, they will also make a significant contribution to improving the quality of legislative work.
Therefore, we need to lower the threshold for political parties to enter the Mazhilis from 7 to 5 percent. It’s time to make that decision, as this rule will encourage officially registered parties to participate in the upcoming elections.
It will also contribute to the development of political competition in the country.
This initiative will enable to take into account the opinion of the population when conducting public policy.
In the future, the list of party members and other related procedures can be created online.
For this, it is better to use the capabilities of electronic government.
As you know, the parliament, along with legislation, has a control function.
Its effectiveness has been proven in international practice.
The effective use of this essential competence significantly strengthens the institutional framework of modern parliamentarism in Kazakhstan.
This corresponds to my political formula: “A strong President - an influential Parliament - a responsible Government”.
MPs must always persistently defend the interests of the people.
SIXTH. Increasing the activity of civil society representatives, improving youth policy and supporting charitable activities.
As you know, at the beginning of the year I signed a corresponding law on amendments and additions to some legislative acts on the activities of public councils.
Thus, we have significantly strengthened the powers of public councils.
Now another important step will be taken to increase civic engagement.
This is the discussed “Public Control Law”.
It is also necessary to legalise the institution of online petitions.
The purpose of these initiatives is to increase the efficiency of the state, to involve civil society in the decision-making process.
Improving legislation in the field of state youth policy is one of the main tasks.
The government has adopted a comprehensive youth support plan for 2020.
A national project “Generations of Independence”, laws on state youth policy and volunteering are being prepared.
MPs must legislate the concept of “youth social services”.
In accordance with international practice, it is necessary to introduce the “Youth Development Index” in Kazakhstan.
On this basis, the work of local executive bodies on the implementation of youth policy will be assessed.
The systematic support of charitable activities is also a top priority.
Incentives in this area should be simple and specific.
Accordingly, various benefits should be provided to businesses and individuals participating in charity events and volunteer projects.
SEVENTH. One of our main goals is the full protection of human rights.
At the same time, it is important to ensure maximum freedom of choice for citizens.
Globally, the human right to legally express disagreement with any election or against all candidates is widely practiced.
Indeed, the idea of an alternative opinion and voting against everything should also be the norm for us.
Therefore, ballots of all levels must contain the option “against all”.
This initiative contributes to the protection of citizens’ electoral rights.
Isn’t it a choice to officially show that you have no choice?!
Another issue is that the protection of human rights must be constantly improved.
We need to strengthen it institutionally and organisationally.
For example, we have an ombudsman institution.
However, it has not yet reached its full potential.
Therefore, we should soon adopt a special law on the Ombudsman.
This law regulates the activities of this institution in all areas.
Without appropriate specialists and organisational work, the activities of the Ombudsman will be difficult to ensure legally.
The main issues related to human rights are observed in the regions.
There are a lot of complaints about the local authorities.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the institution of the ombudsman, primarily in the regions.
We need to strengthen the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights.
At the same time, we must address a wide range of issues related to the protection of children’s rights.
It is necessary to strengthen state control and think over effective mechanisms to ensure the safety of children, prevent suicide and bullying among children.
The issue of inclusive development of children with special needs cannot be ignored.
One of the most pressing issues is the formation of a regulatory framework to improve the efficiency of the provision of relevant services in educational institutions.
The solution of such socially significant issues is not only the task of state structures.
We all need to understand that this requires the participation of the entire civil society.
Dear members of Parliament!
The proposed initiatives are only part of the long-term socio-economic and political reforms that are now on the agenda.
Necessary legislations in many areas are being discussed.
I believe that the MPs should take an active part in this work and establish constructive relations with the government.
My main position is that all topical issues of society should be discussed, first and foremost, in parliament.
Members of the public and experts should be actively involved in the preparation of draft laws.
One of the main requirements is to provide effective feedback on controversial issues that may cause public outrage.
Parliament has two important tasks – the adoption of high quality laws and becoming a center for finding solutions to pressing problems.
Overall, it is necessary to comprehensively improve the country’s legislative system.
Lobbying for personal gains should be completely eliminated in the process of developing legal norms.
First and foremost, you should focus on the needs of the electorate and analyse all the risks and threats.
MPs should always know the aspirations of the society and feel its pulse.
Parliament is a vibrant working environment that serves the interests of the country.
We must always remember that our people expect positive changes from us.
Therefore, you need to be more responsible in making decisions.
We must work together as one to ensure that all our plans are successful.
We will overcome any difficulties and climb to the top together!
Together we will build a fair and prosperous Kazakhstan!
Let’s keep our cherished values like the apple of our eye and step into a wonderful future together!
Once again, I wish you all success!
The bright future of our country depends on your achievements.
All the people are looking at you with great hope.
I hope you will live up to this expectation with dignity.
Thank you for your attention!