On the formation of the Higher Presidential Council for reforms

On the formation of the Higher Presidential Council for reforms

In the Address to the people of Kazakhstan dated September 1, the President of the country set tasks for carrying out cardinal reforms in the economic, industrial, financial, social and other spheres.

An important role in this issue will be assigned to the new Agency for strategic planning and reforms, established on September 8, 2020 by decree of the Head of state.

The Agency will be the responsible state body for analyzing the current situation, emerging trends, world experience and developing approaches to implementing reforms on this basis, as well as monitoring their implementation.

On September 14, 2020, the Supreme Presidential Council for reforms was established by decree of the Head of state to review and approve the most important proposals for reforms initiated by the Agency and other state bodies.

In order to improve the efficiency of the Supreme Presidential Council for reforms, the former President (2012-2020) of the European Bank for reconstruction and development (EBRD) was included in this Council) Sir Suma Chakrabarti.

Also on September 14, by order of the Head of state, S. Chakrabarti was appointed as a freelance Adviser to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on economic development.

S. Chakrabarti is an expert on emerging markets and has considerable experience in developing large-scale reforms in the UK civil service. He played a key role in the development of the British know-how Foundation, a technical assistance program for Central and Eastern European countries.

As the head of the EBRD, S. Chakrabarti carried out a large-scale modernization of this financial institution. During his presidency, the EBRD's investments in Kazakhstan reached $ 9 billion. The EBRD has also provided significant advice in developing new approaches to the regulation and development of PPPs, green economy and SMEs.

During his leadership of the EBRD, S. Chakrabarti was co-Chairman of the Council of foreign investors under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.