-12° / -17°C WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018 No 3 (141) www.astanatimes.com Freestyle skier wins bronze, nation’s Extended government first medal at PyeongChang meeting sums up results By Anuar Abdrakhmanov PYEONGCHANG – Kazakh- of 2017, outlines errors stan freestyle skier Yulia Galyshe- growth was provided by non-prima- va won Kazakhstan’s first medal at By Aigerim Seisembayeva ry sectors. It is important because it the 2018 Olympics, taking bronze shows the economy’s stability and in the individual moguls. ASTANA – Members of the Ka- the change in its structure. Foreign The Kazakh athlete was consid- zakh government reported to Presi- trade turnover grew 25 percent to ered one of the main contenders dent Nursutlan Nazarbayev during $69.5 billion. Investment in fixed for the medal, as she took leading the Feb. 9 extended government assets increased 5.5 percent, with positions at the World Cup stages meeting, outlining the key out- private investments growing 6.9 several times. comes of 2017 and setting goals for percent,” he said. Galysheva steadily made her way the coming years. Sagintayev also highlighted that to the main final, winning points all Opening the meeting that lasted inflation dropped to 7.1 percent, the the way. At her first attempt, she for more than three hours, Presi- national debt did not exceed 26 per- scored 75.10 points, placing third. dent Nazarbayev said the past year cent of GDP and the national budget In the next round, the judges gave was tough and marked by an un- income grew 26.3 percent. her 76.81 points, bringing her from stable global economic situation. He then focused on the results of sixth place to the main final. His overall assessment of the gov- the implementation of national pro- Galysheva started first in the ernment’s work in this regard was grammes initiated by Nazarbayev in final round and showed her best mostly positive, with targeted criti- previous years. results in these Olympics, scoring cisms addressed to certain ministers Regarding the “100 Con- 77.40 points. regarding the implementation of crete Steps” Plan of the Nation, First place in this event went major national programmes. Sagintayev stated 74 laws and more to Perrine Laffont of France, fol- Nazarbayev focused on prob- than 500 legal acts were adopted lowed by Canadian Justine Du- lems in the banking sector, clarify- over the three years of its imple- four-Lapointe. ing the objectives of the digitisa- mentation, while 55 steps out of 100 “I’m happy that I won the med- tion programme, controlling the have already been implemented. al. I would like to thank my team, budget and reducing inspections The measures undertaken as part which was with me during the prep- of small and medium-sized enter- of the plan include a complex at- arations. This medal is the achieve- prises (SMEs). testation of civil servants, testing ment of the whole Kazakhstan. National Olympic Committee. Photo credit: Prime Minister Bakytzhan of the new result-based system of Yulia Galysheva Once again, I want to thank all the Sagintayev, Deputy Prime Minister their remuneration, transition from fans who supported me. Of course, Askar Zhumagaliyev, Minister of a five-tier justice system to a three- the Olympics are a special compe- tus of an athlete who won medals in Canada and seventh at the Sochi Olympic medal is a well-deserved Finance Bakhyt Sultanov, Chair- tiered one, a new antimonopoly tition, but as I said, for me it’s the all important international competi- 2014 Olympics in Russia. reward for the years of training and man of the National Bank Daniyar legislation that is in line with the same competition as the World tions,” said Galysheva. “Millions of Kazakhs witnessed courage. We sincerely congratulate Akishev, Chairman of the Board of standards of the Organisation for Cup. The same athletes, with whom Kazakh skiers have never won your brilliant performance, courage you and your coach, as well as the Atameken National Chamber of En- Economic Co-operation and De- we compete throughout the season, a medal in moguls. This is Galy- and incredible desire to win, which entire team that made their contri- trepreneurs Ablai Myrzakhmetov, velopment (OECD), a shorter are here as well. Although there are sheva’s third Olympics. She took you showed throughout the com- bution,” said President of the Na- Akim (Governor) of the Karaganda procedure for obtaining permits, more cameras and attention at the 11th place in moguls at the 2010 petition against the best freestyle tional Olympic Committee of Ka- Region Yerlan Koshanov and Akim a tax reform that will increase Olympics. I will now have the sta- Olympic Games in Vancouver, skiers from around the world. The zakhstan Timur Kulibayev. of the Kyzylorda region Krymbek budget revenue by 90 billion tenge Kusherbayev presented reports on ($276.3 million) in 2018 and the their areas of responsibility. Government for Citizens corpora- Sagintayev presented a 20-minute tion that provided 64 million ser- report on the government’s work vices in two years, among other carried out in 2017. He noted the measures. Kazakhstan moves up one spot to 41st national economy has reached the Nazarbayev, in this regard, in- point of stable development, which structed the government to take is confirmed by international rating control of the introduction of elec- agencies that are providing stable tronic declaration for imports and on 2018 Index of Economic Freedom forecasts to the Kazakh economy. the reduction of the number of in- The second place was taken by zakhstan is ranked 11th among 43 on the index is respectable, some “GDP [gross domestic product] specting and supervisory agencies. By Zhazira Dyussembekova Singapore and the third went to countries in the Asia-Pacific re- things were criticised by the foun- grew four percent, and 60 percent of Continued on Page A2 New Zealand. The top 10 countries gion, and its overall score is above dation. ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s econ- also include Switzerland, Aus- the regional and world averages,” “Kazakhstan’s government is omy moved up one spot to 41st on tralia, Ireland, Estonia, the United reads the report. well aware that the economy is the recently released 2018 Index of Kingdom, Canada and the United Among other CIS members, overly reliant on oil and extrac- Economic Freedom annual report Arab Emirates. China placed 110th Armenia was ranked 44th, Azer- tive industries, but initial attempts The country published by the Heritage Founda- and the United States ranked 18th. baijan 67th and Kyrgyzstan 78th. to open such sectors as transport, Moldova’s economy is 105th in the pharmaceuticals, telecommu- ranking. Tajikistan is 106th, while nications, petrochemicals, and Russia placed 107th and Belarus food processing to greater de- improves ranking on 108th. Ukraine was ranked 150th, velopment and investment have Uzbekistan took 152nd place and been uneven. Notwithstanding Turkmenistan 169th. some positive changes, investors The index began in 1995 and remain concerned about corrup- Open Budget Index evaluates countries in areas that tion, bureaucracy, and arbitrary surpassed neighbouring Azerbai- affect economic freedom, which law enforcement, especially at By Meruyert Abugaliyeva jan, Mongolia and Tajikistan. are rule of law, government size, the regional and municipal lev- The key comments note the citi- regulatory efficiency and open els. An additional concern is the ASTANA – Kazakhstan received zens budget was not published last markets. Based on an average banking sector, which suffers 53 points in 2017, compared to year and the socio-economic devel- score, countries are classified as from low liquidity, poor asset 51 the previous year, in the Open opment forecast was not published “free” with scores of 80 or higher, quality and a lack of transpar- Budget Index (OBI) ranking. The on time. The in-year and year-end “mostly free” (70-79.9), “mod- ency,” said the report. rating uses a 100-point scale to reports received excellent evalua- erately free” (60-69.9), “mostly Rule of law is assessed by the measure central government budget tion (89 and 64 points, respective- tion. It was the highest ranking in Kazakhstan’s economic freedom unfree” (50-59.9) or “repressed” categories of property rights, Central Asia and among the Com- score is 69.1 out of 100 maximum. transparency. ly), compared with low marks (37 (under 50). where Kazakhstan has 56 points The assessment was conducted points) for the mid-year review. monwealth of Independent States “Its overall score has increased Kazakhstan belongs to a group out of 100, government integ- by the International Budget Part- The public participation score of (CIS). by 0.1 point, with significant im- of “moderately free.” The nearest rity (44.6) and judicial effec- nership (IBP). Scores are assigned 13 was higher than the global average Out of 180 countries represented provements in investment free- countries in the list are Jamaica on tiveness (58.1). That area is the to 115 countries based on 109 indi- of 12. The figure indicates few oppor- in the ranking, Hong Kong was dom and government integrity the 40th place and Colombia on weakest for Kazakhstan among cators that assess public access to tunities are provided for the public to recognised as the freest economy offsetting steep declines in fiscal the 42nd. four assessed. information in eight main budget be involved in the budget process. of the world, the same as 2017. health and monetary freedom. Ka- While Kazakhstan’s position Continued on Page A2 documents. By contrast, Kazakhstan received Kazakhstan’s score was the re- 63 points for budget oversight, im- sult of limited budget data provided plying the legislative system and for public inspection, according to supreme audit institution provide the ranking.