Kazakhstan, Astana, April 5 / Trend A.Maratov /
The Kazakh parliament will be multi-party as of the next parliamentary elections, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a press conference in Astana today.
"The parliament will be multi-party," he said when replying to a question about future plans.
He said the presidential mandate has given him the authority to address the tasks facing the state.
"As for the economy, the program has already been defined. This is an industrial and innovation program that will last up until 2015 and the Strategic Plan will run up to 2020," he added.
Earlier in his annual address to the nation, Nazarbayev suggested social modernization, which will focus on increasing employment by providing the people with education and housing.
"Our foreign policy orientations are the same. We have close relations with Russia and China. The EU, the United States and regional countries are our great partners in the framework of integration processes," he said.
The country will deal with political modernization in the near future, as the international community hopes, he added.
"I think we will strengthen the rule of law through a free judiciary. We will work towards the decentralization of power. Although we have a unitary state, we have a huge territory," Nazarbayev said.
He said issues of media freedom will also be in the spotlight. "Our partners and friends in the West gave us recommendations on this issue and we will consult with them," Nazarbayev said.