IN THE GLOBE`S FOCUS

The Presidential Elections As A Factor Encouraging Activity Of Regional And Town Government Organizations

Sources of the current problems were formed long before Balgimbaev�s government, � the experts

Nurlan ABLYAZOV (THE GLOBE), Sabit ZHUSUPOV (KISEI)

ALMATY, April 11

In the framework with contract of the EU European Commission in Kazakhstan, THE GLOBE and the Kazakh Institute on Social-Economic Information continue the publication of materials devoted to development of the current situation around the Presidential election.

It is natural, that today we have focused our attention on the experts� evaluation of the three following problems:

1. Changes in the regional government organisations.

2. Introduction of the free floating exchange rate of tenge and the entire economy.

3. Next Parliament election.

Personnel policy

Most of the experts believe that the government organizations in the republic require a personnel change, which was not done after the Presidential election. Kazakhstan needs a new generation of functionaries. Among the main negative features of the local government organizations, the experts first of all pointed to: a high degree of corruption, low effectiveness, an inability to improve the process of the economic reforms. As far as these factors are concerned, the Shymkent region received the most negative evaluation.

Introduction of the free floating rate of tenge and the entire economic situation

The majority of the polled experts consider the introduction of free-floating rate of tenge to be an appropriate, but belated step. It is interesting that in the experts� opinion the negative trends arose not today, nor even in Nurlan Balgimbaev�s government. So, they mention an insufficient support of the local producers, the economic crisis in Russia, the raw material orientation of the economy and the significant expenditures towards improvement of Astana, as the main reasons of the crisis.

Speaking about the government�s actions, most of the experts believe that after the comparative stabilization of tenge, (after a fall of 35 to 40%), the emission of tenge will be unavoidable, and will worsen the standard of life. Inflation will grow and we will need to reconsider the budget. At the same time, some positive moments are mentioned as well. First of all, this includes an increase of competitiveness of the local producers and encouragement of the small and middle business.

Next Parliament election

It is important to emphasize that the experts believe the Presidential election gave a start to the establishment of the basis of the Kazakhstan political sphere, and it meant the simultaneous completion of the epoch of political calmness which had taken shape over the sovereignty period. The two leaders became obvious among the political parties: Otan and the Communist party.

The Communist party is significantly ahead of Otan in Petropavlovsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk, but has practically no chance in Shymkent.

According to the experts� prognosis, such parties as Otan, the Communist party, Azamat, the Republican people�s party (RPP), Civil party, Orleu and the Agricultural party have a chance to be represented in the regional Maslikhats. The chances to be represented in the Parliament are almost the same for all the parties, except one thing: RPP exchanges the places with Azamat.


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