National Bank to control the retirement market and the pension money
Instead of 11 existing Pension Savings Funds a single state pension fund will be created.
Almaty. February 18. Kazakhstan Today - The National Bank will adjust the retirement market and control the pension money, Kazakhstan Today reports.
The National Bank and the Government prepared a bill on Single Accumulation Pension Fund (SAPF), and intend in the near future to make it to the parliament, the newspaper "Panorama" reports.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister Kairat Kelimbetov, the Government does not abandon the principles of the funded pension system, but only change its form. Instead of 11 existing Pension Savings Funds a single state pension fund will be created.
"Collecting system persists, we will continue to work on its improvement in terms of increasing population coverage, improve the conservation and enhancement of retirement funds. Kazakh citizens, or over 5 million people, will still save 10% of their salary. These funds will remain the property of the citizen," said Kelimbetov.
The newspaper says that the Government has analyzed the current situation in the pension market and came to the conclusion that today the State Pension Savings Fund has 20% of market share. Along with three other pension funds ("Grantum", "Pension Fund of Halyk Bank" and "Ular Umit") the State Pension Savings Fund operates 75% of the money of depositors. Moreover, only the State Fund, which is managed by the National Bank, is demonstrating the positive returns for several years. The others, especially the small members of the pension market in their annual statements of contribution do not please their investors, reporting negative returns on investment of pension savings.
The article says that all assets of the 11 Pension Savings Funds will be merged on 1 July this year. SAPF owner will be the state represented by the Government, which will delegate the right to own 100% of the new fund to the Ministry of Finance. And the money of retirees will be managed by the National Bank.
The currently existing Pension Savings Funds are provided a choice of three variants of the future: eliminate, convert to voluntary pension fund or become PAMC (pension asset Management Company).
The third option in the context of the new format of the pension system would mean that the SAPF manager - National Bank - will select PAMC on a competitive basis, which would be entrusted to manage a certain amount of pension funds. PAMC will likely invest these funds the same way as today - in Government securities and securities of quasi-sector. In addition, according to Kelimbetov, PAMC can act appraisers of new issuers entering the KASE, in terms of the attractiveness of their securities for SAPF.
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The Head of State has identified deep processing of hydrocarbons as one of the key areas of development of the oil and gas sector. The priority for our economy is high conversion production producing products with a rapid increase in added value in the technological chain with an export orientation. The added value between the initial feedstock ethane and the third conversion product polyethylene increases 20 times, from $80-90 to $1600-1800 per tonne. The Polyethylene project will certainly give a serious impetus to the development of both the manufacturing industry and the country's economy as a whole. According to experts' calculations, the contribution to the country's GDP by 2030 from the implementation of the project is estimated at approximately 1.2%," Olzhas Bektenov said.
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We on the part of the state provide comprehensive support in the implementation of projects important for the country's economy. At the same time, we expect you to increase the share of local content. For this purpose, it is necessary to determine the list of goods and equipment that will be mandatorily purchased from domestic producers. Special attention should be paid to training of Kazakhstani specialists and transfer of competences. It is important for us to maximise the attraction of local personnel, including for management positions in the project. We count on a similar approach in the implementation of other joint projects," Prime Minister emphasised.
Thus, in addition to the plant "Polyethylene" it is planned to build a gas separation complex and a trunk pipeline.
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