Digital transformation in higher education

At present, out of 77 existing phytosanitary quarantine posts, five posts have no control at all due to lack of specialists, and 22 posts have no attached inspectors, inspectors from district or regional inspections are sent there. The deficit of staff units of quarantine inspectors is more than 150 people, more than one hundred - territorial inspectors on plant protection. Also, for effective work, modular or stationary laboratories need to be set up at border checkpoints," Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ermek Kenzhekhanuly said.

Due to the lack of internet at 32 phytosanitary quarantine posts documents are executed in paper form. In addition, without the Internet specialists will not be able to have access to the EASU system for verification of documents that arrived and crossed the border," Yermek Kenzhekhanuly explained.

Works on test connection to the National Gateway have already been carried out and messages have been successfully delivered to the EEC loop. Work is underway to finalise the functionality. It is planned to join the EEC information system already this year," Baglan Bekbauov noted.

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According to the Forecast of socio-economic development of the country for 2025-2029, the base scenario, annual GDP growth, on average, is planned at the level of 5.4 per cent. If this figure is achieved, the country's Gross Domestic Product will increase from $321bn in 2025 to $498bn in 2029. Thus, the task set by the Head of State to bring GDP to $450bn by 2029 will be fulfilled. But the Government sets higher benchmarks in its work, which are envisaged in the approved National Development Plan of the Republic until 2029. According to this document, the annual GDP growth should be from 5.6 % to 6.9 % per year. This is a very ambitious task. In order to achieve such indicators, it is necessary to actively work on diversification of the economy, increase its complexity, organise the launch of production of high-value-added products in the country, and move away from dependence on raw materials. As you know, according to the results of 9 months of the current year, GDP growth was 4%. Moreover, the growth was achieved against the background of a decline in oil production. That is, we are growing at the expense of other, non-oil industries. The economy is developing at the expense of agriculture, which grew by 11.4%. At the expense of transport and trade, which showed growth above 6%. Construction grew by more than 10%. Thus, growth in these sectors allows us to support the economy. Of course, this is not enough. We realise this, and therefore we will work and are already working on a key issue: attracting serious amounts of investment into the economy to implement major industrial and infrastructure projects in the country. One of the points of growth will be the implementation of the National Infrastructure Development Plan, which provides for very serious investments in infrastructure. Also, as instructed by the President in his Address, a new National Project to modernise the housing and utilities system is at the final stage of development. The National Project envisages a total investment of about 10 trillion tenge until 2029-2030. The project will bring serious upgrades to the engineering infrastructure, which, as you know, is in a rather deplorable state. These are great reserves for our domestic business. In the National Project, we envisage preferential purchase of all goods, works and services from domestic entrepreneurs. Thus, there is a lot of work to be done to achieve the ambitious goals. The instruction of the President will be unambiguously fulfilled," Prime Minister stressed.

In railway machine building enterprises produced products worth 423 billion tenge, an increase of 1.5 times. At the end of the year we set the task to ensure the growth of production of freight cars in 4 times - up to 2 thousand units, passenger cars up to 122 units and locomotives up to 130 units. Production of locomotives based on Wabtec and Alstom technologies, as well as freight and passenger cars has been established," Kanat Sharlapayev said, stressing that railway engineering is characterised by a huge potential for development. Currently, the total fleet of rolling stock is about 139 thousand units. The average depreciation is 55%. In this regard, work is underway to launch new projects.

In agricultural machine building for the last 5 years the production volumes in physical terms have increased 4 times. According to the results of 9 months of this year, more than 5 thousand tractors and combines were produced. Kazakhstan agricultural producers are provided with modern machinery of domestic production, including world brands Claas, Horsch, Deutz Fahr. This year, new major investors - Amazone and Zoomlion - have been attracted. Production of large-size parts was launched: tractor cabs and combine hoppers. Co-operation between manufacturers and related industries has been established," the Minister stressed.

Domestic manufacturers produce kitchen household cookers, mini ovens, washing machines, televisions, water heaters, hoovers, extractors. We set ourselves the task of scaling up the production of consumer goods by attracting international investors. The oil and gas and mining and metallurgical engineering sectors have seen growth in production indicators. The country has the capacity to produce pumps and compressors, valves, stop valves, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment. Measures are being taken to reduce the share of imports of oil and gas and mining and metallurgical engineering. At the end of 2023, it exceeded $3 billion. In this regard, we have started work on changing the legislation in terms of introducing responsibility for the conclusion of long-term off-take contracts," Kanat Sharlapayev informed.

• in order to increase the share of products manufactured in Kazakhstan, the work on concluding long-term agreements and off-take contracts has been strengthened;
• priority purchase of more than 1.5 thousand machine-building goods has been introduced within the framework of state procurement;
• the issue of financing of machine-building projects is being worked out, the need is 600 billion tenge for 5 years;
• The Ministry, together with enterprises, is working on strengthening targeted training of personnel on the basis of dual training.

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The Head of State in his Address noted the need to increase localisation and transition to the production of automotive components. Already today our manufacturers have committed to deepening technological operations for small-unit production, which is the basis for the development of production of automotive components," Anar Makasheva noted.

These projects are direct co-operation with world manufacturers. Modern equipment is being installed at the enterprises, over 30 per cent of the production volume will be immediately produced by the small-unit method. In all countries of the world there was a stage-by-stage development of production. The first stage of development of automobile industry in Kazakhstan has already been completed," Anar Makasheva emphasised.

It is proposed to use the cluster method by creating a belt of small and medium-sized businesses around existing enterprises. That is, if production of such a component has already been established in Kazakhstan, all car manufacturers buy from this supplier. This eliminates excessive duplication and enables the development of more projects in this area," Anar Makasheva explained.

We have an ambitious task to organise additional jobs in the industry. About 5 thousand new employees are needed already during 2025. The President noted the acute problem of the shortage of industry specialists. There is a particular shortage of engineers and representatives of working professions. All manufacturers work closely with colleges and higher education institutions throughout Kazakhstan. But working specialities are less popular and the number of interested students is limited. We fully support the President's initiative to improve the image of working professions and reform the education system. These include grants for engineers, experience exchange and dual training programmes, and the construction of dormitories. A systematic approach is needed here. In turn, the automotive industry offers grants, training, and a social package for its employees," Anar Makasheva summarised.

Set target indicators to increase the index of physical volume by 2.2 times, production in money terms by 4.5 times, exports by 3 times, labour productivity by 2 times, investment by 1.5 times. We are planning to make a worthy contribution to doubling the country's GDP by 2029, as instructed by the President," Meiram Prsembayev said.

We have sufficiently developed production of products for housing and communal services. There is potential and competences for the production of energy equipment. Undoubtedly, the modernisation of these sectors will increase the capacity of the market, thereby increasing the load of enterprises of the manufacturing sector and opening opportunities for localisation of new production," Meiram Prsembayev stressed.

It is possible to achieve higher productivity by 2029 through the use of robotic complexes in production, which clearly proves the experience of countries with developed economies. We propose to include the introduction of robotic complexes in the documents of the State Planning System, where it is necessary to clearly spell out the indicators of productivity growth, to provide support mechanisms from the state," Meiram Prsembayev summarised.

Head of State stresses that it is industrialisation that should be the main driver of economic diversification. Accelerated development of the manufacturing sector, and first of all machine building, should be the locomotive in ensuring economic self-sufficiency of Kazakhstan. The state actively supports domestic manufacturers. We are facing important tasks to create a production cycle with a high share of localisation. In addition, in order to improve the efficiency of enterprises, it is necessary to carry out timely modernisation of production," Olzhas Bektenov stressed.