Kazakh PM orders to promptly fill vegetable storage facilities

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting on the prices of socially important food products and the creation of new jobs on Saturday, Oct. 8, El.kz cites primeminister.kz

Chairman of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Kazanbayev reported that the increase in prices for socially important food products since the beginning of the year was 19.6%, including for the last week by 0.1%. In terms of regions, the highest rates were recorded in Ulytau, Mangystau and West Kazakhstan region. In this case, the cost of a number of commodity items in the country, including onions and sugar, has recently decreased.

He stressed that today the complex work on stabilizing the prices of buckwheat, rice, potatoes, carrots, sunflower oil, social bread, flour, horns and dairy products.

As reported by the Minister of Agriculture Yerbol Karashukeyev, there are about 186.1 thousand tons of stocks of socially important food products to stabilize prices. At the same time, the regions continue massive collection of vegetables, which allows to additionally increase the product base of the stable funds.

Prime Minister stressed that currently formed low prices for a wide range of vegetable products of the new crop. In this regard, the akims of the regions need to more actively fill the stabilization funds.

"To avoid a certain shortage and importation of expensive imported vegetables in the off-season from March to June, we now need to fill vegetable storage facilities with onions, potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Now is the best time to buy them at the lowest prices, to make interventions in the off-season and not to let the prices of vegetables increase significantly," Alikhan Smailov said.

Reports were also made by Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin, Head of the National Statistics Bureau of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms Zhandos Shaimardanov, Deputy Minister of Finance Yerzhan Birzhanov, Akims of Mangystau Region Nurlan Nogayev and of Zhambyl Region Nurzhigitov.

Having heard the speakers, the Prime Minister noted that as part of the implementation of new approaches to stabilize prices, it is necessary to reserve funds in the accounts of social and business corporations, and send them to finance producers.

Prime Minister also supported new approaches to monitoring inflation through operators of fiscal data, proposed by the Bureau of National Statistics. According to him, it is necessary to work for transition to the new format from the beginning of 2023 and to provide technical support for this process.

In addition, Alikhan Smailov instructed to accelerate the reformatting of regional commissions to investigate pricing chains, and the akims of Astana, Zhambyl, Almaty and Kyzylorda regions to take personal control of signing memorandums to reduce the trade markup from 15% to 10%.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection Tamara Duisenova made a report on the second item on the agenda. She said that all the main labor market indicators were stable. At the same time, the implementation of measures to open new permanent jobs, including those subsidized by the state, to fill vacant positions, increase labor mobility, etc., continues.

Prime Minister stressed that the creation of permanent jobs is the main condition for the growth of incomes of the population and economic development.

"The Head of State instructed Akims of all districts and cities to ensure the creation of at least 100 jobs for every 10 thousand inhabitants annually. However, already now the work is not carried out effectively enough in the North Kazakhstan, Pavlodar, Akmola, and Kostanai regions," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to him, a number of regions also have low rates of mandatory pension contributions and identify the facts of fictitious employment.

Summarizing the results of the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed the Akims to strengthen control of employment issues and measures to reduce youth unemployment.

Subscribe to our Telegram channel and be the first to know the news!