Kazakhstan, Astana, September 24/ Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Kazakhstan took the 20th place in the 'change readiness Index' prepared by KPMG International jointly with Oxford Economics, the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan said on Tuesday.
'"This year Kazakhstan entered the top 20 countries ready for change index. These results are based on the second annual index survey', the report said.
'Kazakhstan is alongside the UK, France, South Korea and other developed countries located between Panama and Spain. Within the group of countries with middle incomes, Kazakhstan is in the fourth place out of 27. Within the group of Eastern European and Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan takes the second place', the report said.
According to the report, the change readiness is assessed by the inclination of a state government, private and public agencies, people and a wide circle of civil society organisations towards changes, their ability to react to a wide range of changes, as well as ability towards quick adaptation.
'In other words, this rating allows us to understand which countries are more sustainable towards global changes caused by natural disasters and which are able to use their opportunities in such situations and control the changes', the report said.
This index is based on three indicators: opportunities for business, the opportunities of government, nation and civil society, each of which comprises sub-indexes.
On the index of 'opportunities for business', Kazakhstan is in the 31st place. However, the country took a leading position on such a sub-index as the labour market (eighth place), diversification of economy ( 10th place) and business environment (13th place) which is first of all related to institutional reforms in the sphere of lowering the administrative barriers, as well as increasing direct foreign investment inflow.
On the index of 'opportunities for government', Kazakhstan is in the 17 place. Such a position is determined by adopting important long term strategic documents, as well as an industrial and territorial development programme. The republic is in 24th place on the index of 'opportunities for civil society'.
The list of the countries included in the index increased by more than 50 per cent compared to 2012 and amounted to 90 states. The top five included such countries with a high level of income as Singapore, Sweden, Qatar, New Zealand and Germany. Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan concludes the list, the report said.