«Now is the right time»: Alikhan Smailov instructed to fill vegetable storages promptly
On Saturday, October 8, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting on prices for socially important food products (SIFP) and the creation of new jobs.
Chairman of the Trade Committee of the MTI of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Kazanbayev reported that the increase in prices for SIFP since the beginning of the year amounted to 19.6%, including 0.1% over the past week. By region, the highest rates were recorded in Ulytau, Mangystau and West Kazakhstan regions. At the same time, the cost of a number of commodity items in the country, including onions and sugar, has been declining recently.
He stressed that today comprehensive work is continuing to stabilize prices for buckwheat, rice, potatoes, carrots, sunflower oil, social bread, flour, horns and dairy products.
As reported by the Minister of Agriculture Yerbol Karashukeev, there are about 186.1 thousand tons of SIFP reserves to stabilize prices. At the same time, mass harvesting of vegetables continues in the regions, which makes it possible to further increase the food base of the stabilization funds.
The Prime Minister stressed that currently low prices have been formed for a wide range of vegetable products of the new harvest. In this regard, the akims of the regions need to fill in stabilization funds more actively.
«So that in the off–season – from March to June - we do not have a certain shortage and import of expensive imported vegetables, we now need to fill vegetable storages with onions, potatoes, carrots, cabbage. Now is the right time to buy them at the lowest prices in order to make interventions in the off—season and not let the prices of vegetables grow significantly», — Alikhan Smailov said.
Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Musin, Head of the Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms Zhandos Shaimardanov, Vice Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov, Akims of Mangistau region Nurlan Nogayev and Zhambyl region Nurzhan Nurzhigitov also made reports.
After listening to the speakers, the Prime Minister noted that as part of the implementation of new approaches to price stabilization, it is necessary to reserve funds held in the accounts of social and entrepreneurial corporations and direct them to finance producers.
The Prime Minister also supported new approaches to monitoring inflation through fiscal data operators proposed by the Bureau of National Statistics. According to him, it is necessary to carry out work for the transition to a new format from the beginning of 2023 and provide technical support for this process.
In addition, Alikhan Smailov instructed to speed up the reformatting of regional commissions to investigate pricing chains, akims of Astana, Zhambyl, Almaty and Kyzylorda regions — to take personal control of the signing of memoranda to reduce the trade premium from 15 to 10%.
Tamara Duissenova, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, made a report on the second issue of the agenda. She said that all the main indicators of the labor market today demonstrate stability. At the same time, measures are being implemented to open new permanent jobs, including those subsidized by the state, fill vacant positions, increase labor mobility, etc.
The Prime Minister stressed that the creation of permanent jobs — is the main condition for the growth of incomes of the population and the development of the economy.
«The Head of State instructed the akims of all districts and cities to annually ensure the creation of at least 100 jobs for every 10 thousand residents. However, already now in the North Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Akmola and Kostanay regions, the work is not being carried out efficiently enough», — Alikhan Smailov said.
According to him, in a number of areas, low rates of mandatory pension contributions are also noted and facts of fictitious employment are revealed.
Summing up the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed akims to strengthen control over employment issues and measures to reduce youth unemployment.