BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
Trend:
Measures for the development of border areas are being taken within the framework of various program documents aimed at improving the living standards of rural areas' residents, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov said, Trend reports citing the government.
While implementing a set of measures for the development of border districts of Kazakhstan for 2014-2020 (approved by Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 1289 as of November 29, 2013), the akimats (mayor offices) of the regions adopted appropriate action plans aimed at addressing of issues of development of economy, tourism, transport and logistics, social and engineering infrastructure, arrangement of border crossings, creation of new jobs, cross-border trade, use of trans-border rivers,” Alikhan Smailov said.
According to him, in 2019, 102 projects were implemented in border villages for a total of 5815.8 million tenge ($13.4 million), and in 2020 – 183 projects for 13676.8 million tenge ($31.6 million).
The prime minister also noted that since 2017, work has been underway on a separate Action Plan for the development of border areas in Almaty, East Kazakhstan, North Kazakhstan, and Turkestan regions.
“In these regions, work was carried out to provide communication services (mobile, internet, mail), and expand the network of public service centers, as well as access to public services, and other activities aimed at improving life support and raising the standard of living in the border areas. The priority of the development of rural areas is ensured by the adoption of the national project "Strong regions are the drivers of the country's development". The work is conducted as part of the project "Auyl - El Besigi" as well," concluded Smailov.
In general, local executive bodies have identified 3,500 villages with development potential in the country, out of which 1,173 are reference and 2,388 are satellite. The list of villages with development potential included 915 border villages (or 71.2 percent of the total number), including 216 strategic villages that are located in close proximity to the State border.