Qualitative employment and an equitable welfare system.

It is critical to ensure the efficiency of the labour market by creating conditions that enable everyone to fulfil their potential.

It is necessary to develop modern standards for all major occupations.

In these standards, employers and the business community will clearly stipulate the knowledge, skills, and competencies required of employees.

It is necessary to develop new or update existing educational programmes in line with professional standards.

The self-employed and unemployed represent the reserves of economic growth.

I have repeatedly asked for a solution on the issue of the self-employed.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population has shown irresponsibility and superficiality in this matter.

It is necessary to provide greater opportunities for productive employment – whether through starting a business, obtaining new qualifications, or entering the workforce.

The work of the "Atameken” National Economic Chamber on business training deserves support.

It is important to extend coverage of these demographics through the Programme for the Development of Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship by strengthening its instruments.

The process for registering the self-employed should be simplified as much as practically possible. Conditions which will encourage faithful fulfilment of obligations to the state must be created.

The people of Kazakhstan should have the opportunity to find new employment relatively quickly, including in other localities of the country.

The full-scale implementation of an online labour exchange database is required, where all information on vacancies and job-seekers will be collated and presented.

Citizens will be able to take vocational guidance tests, learn about training courses and state support measures, and find interesting work without leaving their homes.

Employment record books should also be converted into an electronic format.

The Law on Electronic Labour Exchange must be adopted before April 1, 2018.

Social policy will be implemented by involving citizens in a fully-fledged economic life.

The pension system is now fully dependent on the length of service.

Those who have worked longer will receive larger pensions.

In this regard, all Kazakhstan citizens should seriously consider legalising their labour activities.

In terms of social insurance, there will also be a strengthened relationship between the length of service and payment.

Starting in 2018, we have shifted to a new method of providing targeted social assistance to low-income population groups.

The threshold has risen from 40% to 50% of the living wage.

Able bodied low-income citizens will receive financial aid provided they participate in employment promotion measures.

State support measures for disabled citizens will be strengthened.

 Dear people of Kazakhstan!

 All social obligations of the state will be fully realised.

I would like to remind the people of Kazakhstan that in 2016-2017, pensions and allowances were increased three times.

The basic pension rose in total by 29%, the solidary pension rose by 32%, the childbirth allowance rose by 37%, and allowances in the case of loss or disablement both rose by 43%.

The salary of healthcare workers increased by up to 28%, the salary of education workers increased by up to 29%, the salary of social protection workers rose by up to 40%, the salary of Corps B civil servants rose by 30%, and scholarships increased by 25%.

Few other countries around the world have managed to increase their social spending, during what is a crisis.

National budget expenditure on the social sector in 2018 were increased by 12%, exceeding 4.1 trillion tenge.

An increase in social benefits, including pensions, will raise the income of more than three million Kazakhstan citizens.

From January 1, 2018, solidary pensions have risen by 8%.

A 16% increase in allowances for disabled people, families who have lost their primary income, and families raising disabled children has been realised.

From July 1, 2018, the basic pension will increase by an average of 1.8 times, depending on the length of service.

In addition, I order the introduction of state allowances for parents taking care of Category 1 disabled adults from childhood as of July 1, 2018.

Approximately 14,000 families will receive these monthly benefits, which will exceed one subsistence wage.

Up to three billion tenge will be required to fund these benefits in 2018.

To raise the prestige of the teaching profession, I order a raise in the salary of teachers who are versed in the updated contents of teaching materials by 30%.

The updated contents are modern curricula which meet international standards and have been approbated in the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools.

They give our children the necessary functional literacy and skills for critical thinking.

I also order the introduction of a new structure for teachers in 2018, which will take into account levels of qualifications and the increase in gaps between levels.

Qualifications should be awarded through a national qualifications test, as is the model all over the world.

This will encourage teachers to continue to improve their teaching abilities.

As a result, teacher’s salaries will grow in total from 30% to 50%, depending on the qualification obtained.

In 2018, the state will allocate an additional 67 billion tenge for this purpose.

EIGHTH. Effective public administration.

It is necessary to continue work to reduce the expenses of the business community and the wider population, when providing public administration.

It is therefore important to expedite the adoption of a law aimed at further deregulation of the business sector.

It is necessary to ensure the digitalisation of public services for businesses, and their rendering on a "one-stop-shop” principle.

Integration of state information systems will help to move from the provision of an individual public service to the provision of a set of services on the "one application” principle.

Further work should be carried out to improve the quality of services of natural monopolies.

It is important to establish reasonable tariffs for these and for energy producers, taking into account investment programmes.

Decisive actions are needed to improve the business climate, especially at the regional level.

The Government should prepare a new package of systemic measures to support business and to bring it out from the shadow and into the light.

It is important to accelerate the implementation of the privatisation plan, expanding it by reducing the number of subordinate organisations of state agencies.

Those subordinate organisations, which are genuinely necessary, should be consolidated as much as possible to reduce administrative costs.

The funds which this releases should be directed towards the introduction of a new system of remuneration for civil servants based on a factor-point scale.

This will reduce the imbalance in civil servants’ salaries in the regions and the centre and take into account the nature and effectiveness of their work.

I instruct the Government, together with the Agency for Civil Service Affairs, to implement pilot projects in central and local state bodies to introduce this system in 2018.

It is necessary to unlock the full potential of the effectiveness of the public service in the regions through increasing their economic independence and responsibility.

In general, the focus of regional policy should be shifted away from equalising expenditures and towards stimulating the growth of the regions’ own revenues.

In particular, one of the most promising sources for any region is the development of inbound and domestic tourism, which today creates every tenth job in the world.

The government, in turn, must take a package of measures, including simplifying visa procedures, developing infrastructure and removing other barriers in the tourism industry.

Within the framework of fiscal decentralisation, it is necessary to solve the issue of transferring corporate income tax from small and medium-sized businesses to regional budgets.

Starting from January 1, 2018, in cities of district significance, as well as villages and rural districts with a population of more than two thousand people, the legislation provides for the introduction of an independent budget and municipal ownership of local government.

From 2020, these norms will operate in all settlements across the country.

Seven types of tax and other non-tax revenues, as well as 19 directions of expenditures, have been transferred to village budgets.

This will involve the population in solving local issues.

In addition, state bodies should use modern digital technologies to listen to citizens’ criticism and suggestions in real time and provide prompt responses.

Through the implementation of new technologies, the state and companies should ensure reliable protection of their information systems and devices.

Today, the notion of cyber security includes protecting not only information but also access to the management of production and infrastructure facilities.

These and other measures should be reflected in the National Security Strategy of Kazakhstan.

NINTH. The fight against corruption and the rule of law.

A preventative fight against corruption will continue.

Much work is already being done.

Over the past three years alone, more than 2,500 people, including top officials and state-owned company executives, have been convicted of corruption.

During this period, damage caused by them to a value of around 17 billion tenge was reimbursed.

The digitisation of processes in government bodies, including their interaction with the public and business, is important.

In particular, citizens should see how their appeals are reviewed, and receive timely and qualitative answers.

Institutional reforms of judicial and law enforcement systems are being carried out.

Norms providing for strengthening the protection of the rights of citizens in criminal proceedings, reducing their repressiveness have been introduced to legislation.

The rights of lawyers have been expanded, as well as judicial control at the pre-trial stage.

The powers and areas of responsibility of law enforcement bodies have been delineated.

The work on strengthening the guarantees of the constitutional rights of citizens, ensuring the rule of law, and humanising law enforcement must continue.

In the field of protection of public order and security, it is necessary to actively implement intelligent video surveillance and recognition systems on the streets and in places of mass gatherings, as well as providing control over traffic.

TENTH. Smart cities for a smart nation.

2018 is the 20^th anniversary of our capital – Astana.

Its formation as one of the most important centres of Eurasia’s development is a source of our common pride.

Modern technologies provide effective solutions to the problems of a fast-growing metropolis.

It is necessary to introduce comprehensive management of the urban environment based on the Smart City concept and the development of competences of those people moving to the city.

The world has come to an understanding that it is cities that compete for investors.

They choose not a country, but a city in which it is comfortable to live and work.

Therefore, based on the experience of Astana, it is necessary to form a "benchmark” standard for a Smart City and start expanding best practices and an exchange of experiences between the cities of Kazakhstan.

Smart Cities will be the engines of regional development, spreading innovations and improvement to quality of life throughout the country.

These are the 10 objectives. They are clear and understandable.

 Dear people of Kazakhstan,

 Thanks to our political stability and public consensus, we began to modernise our economy, our policy and national consciousness.

The impetus for a new stage of technological and infrastructural development has now been provided.

The constitutional reform has established a more precise balance of power between the different branches.

We have launched the process of modernising our national identity.

In fact, these three basic aspects are a comprehensive triad of Kazakhstan’s modernisation.

To fit with the new times, we must unite as a single nation – a nation on the verge of a historic ascent under the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.