The Minister of Trade and Integration met with journalists

Railroads are steel arteries that ensure the development of economic and social spheres of our state. Last year the maximum volume of cargo was transported for 30 years of Kazakhstan's independence, which amounted to more than 245 billion ton-kilometers. High rates are maintained in the current year," Alikhan Smailov said.

To expand the capacity of this section, as well as to increase the export and transit potential of our country, we give a start to the construction of a major railway project - a new line Darbaza - Maktaaral," Prime Minister said.

Nine stations will be built. The railroad will give a direct exit of cargoes from Kazakhstan to these areas and from these areas to Kazakhstan. Because now they have to pass the border with Uzbekistan. This affects the development of the districts. After construction, they will get a new serious impetus," he said.

Cargoes that go to Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will pass through this line faster. Another effect: tension on the Saryagash-Tashkent section will be eased. In recent years, there has been a lot of cargo there. At the same time, not all of them are transferred in time, because this junction is not designed for such a cargo flow. It has increased dramatically in the last two or three years. Construction will help unload this main section and give movement to passenger trains," Kanat Almagambetov said.

We forecast that the cargo flow will additionally increase by 10-14 million tons. And further growth up to 20-25 million tons is possible. This section, bypassing the Tashkent junction, will be much faster to carry cargo in both directions," Kanat Almagambetov concluded.

Implementation of the national project is under control of the Government. The Minister and Akims of the regions need to intensify work in this direction," Alikhan Smailov said.

How to ensure the growth of export supplies from Kazakhstan to foreign markets and fulfil obligations to trade partners? This question was raised by the participants of the meeting of the headquarters on export issues held in Astana under the chairmanship of the Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliev, press service of the Ministry of Trade and Integration reports. Despite the good performance of Kazakhstan's trade with other countries in the first 9 months of 2023, exports of finished goods showed a decline. Commodity producers have great internal reserves to improve the situation, but it is necessary to solve the difficulties with transportation. "Exporters have something to carry, but nothing to carry. According to the transportation plan for November 2023, 8.5 million tonnes of cargoes were declared to be transported in the export direction, of which only 3.6 million tonnes were agreed, i.e. 4.9 million tonnes were denied to shippers. These facts clearly show why our exports are not growing at the rate they could", - Minister Arman Shakkaliyev said. In this regard, the head of the agency asked the members of the headquarters for specific cases and proposed to jointly develop measures to solve the problems. As Raimbek Batalov, Acting Chairman of the Board of "Atameken", noted, the lack of a clear plan to provide wagons negatively affects the export process. As a result, commodity producers cannot sell their products. Business representatives agreed that there is a need for a clear picture of railway capacity, so that shippers will have a better opportunity to plan their transportations efficiently. According to Satzhan Uzbekov, head of the Department of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, this year the transportation of goods by rail in the export direction has increased by half compared to the same period last year. Only for grain there is an increase in deliveries to China by three to four times. According to the ministry's forecasts, cargo transportation to China will show a new record in December. "A large volume of traffic is carried out, but there are restrictions on joints. This year we are fully exhausting our throughput capacity in the direction of China. At the end of the year, the volume of traffic to China will increase to 27.6 million tonnes. This is the maximum capacity of the infrastructure, which we have achieved, thanks to the relevant work", - Satzhan Uzbekov said. According to the information of Zeynulla Abdumanapov, Chairman of the National Association of Exporters "KazGrain", the volume of exports this year has decreased on the contrary. "Compared to last year, exports have decreased many times over. Since the pandemic, KTZ has accustomed us to carry cargo in containers, we have put this work in two years, but in September 2023 we restricted containerised transport of grain crops and milling products to China. Container transportations are limited by 85%. Now they can only be carried out by those stations that have paragraph 8 and 10. KTZ cuts the main transport plan by 60-70%, the only argument is that the junctions are loaded. We used to be able to regulate our shipments by submitting applications for inclusion in the additional transport plan. But today they do not co-ordinate them for us", - the head of the association shared the common problem. In turn, the representative of the Ministry of Transport said that the norms on paragraphs were provided for when there was all the necessary infrastructure at the stations, the station itself carried out cargo operations. "Now the corrective norms have been adopted, the work on paragraphs is underway. As for plans, there are rules of cargo carriage, an additional plan is agreed not to the detriment of the main one. If a consignor fulfilled the declared norm last month, they agree on a plan. Unscrupulous consignors are denied additional transportations", - Satzhan Uzbekov concluded. At the headquarters meeting, business representatives voiced several proposals to improve planning efficiency. Firstly, to automate the review of applications for carriage, so that the consignor knows why he was refused and at what section the cargo was not allowed through. Secondly, to publish KTZ's transport plans for open commodity positions, in particular, for agro-industrial complex, in the public domain on a monthly basis. This will allow commodity producers to qualitatively plan the dispatch of products. In addition, the participants of the meeting are interested in the implementation of a project to prioritise export shipments. "We are doing general work aimed at a specific result. This is not a criticism. We understand that transports should not suffer. The export headquarters itself is needed to promptly solve the issues that arise. The Ministry of Transport is ready to take the proposals into work. We will prepare issues related to cargo prioritisation together with the ministries of agriculture, industry and energy, we will work on them and show them to the Ministry of Transport in order to make appropriate changes to the rules. Another proposal is to apply penalties to those shippers who submit applications but then refuse to send cargo. In this case, they should be deprived of the opportunity to submit applications to the main transport plan for exactly the volume that was not delivered in the previous month", - Arman Shakkaliev concluded.

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The latest changes were introduced just recently. In particular, the term of arrest was extended to 15 days, and in case of repeated violation - up to 25 days. In addition, the possibility of repeated reconciliation has been excluded and sanctions for causing serious or medium harm to health as a result of domestic violence have been toughened from 3 to 6 years," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to changes in the legislation, now there is no mandatory statement of the injured party is not required. The statements of witnesses or recordings from video cameras are enough. Often the injured party either does not write a statement or withdraws it. Now this situation has changed fundamentally. We see positive dynamics in the statistics of law enforcement agencies," the Prime Minister noted.

As for myself, I do not accept any violence against women. Moreover, I myself raise my daughters, and I want them to feel safe in our country," the Prime Minister said.

Currently we are implementing such programs as "Bakytty Otbasy" (2-10-20) and "Shanyrak" (5-10-20). Over the past three years, about 43 thousand Kazakhstani families have improved their housing conditions through participation in these programs. We will continue their realization," Alikhan Smailov said.

We are now making calculations. It is planned to attract 150 billion tenge of extra-budgetary funds annually. It will allow to provide housing for additional 8 thousand families per year. Now the terms of the program are being worked out. It will be launched in the near future, it will take at least a month. It is expected to start next year," Alikhan Smailov said.

Provision of electronic public services is an important component of improving the quality of life of citizens. The digitization of processes has made it possible to significantly reduce appeals to state bodies, the need to obtain paper certificates. This is not only de-bureaucratization, but also saving time of citizens," Alikhan Smailov said.

This is a great achievement of our country, which is noted by international experts. This work should be actively continued. It is necessary to constantly improve the level of service of the provided services, especially in the centers of public services," Prime Minister pointed out.

As the Head of State noted, it is necessary to proactively provide services throughout a person's life. For this purpose, reengineering of business processes is being carried out. It is important to move away from the practice of collecting applications and supporting documents when the necessary information is already available in databases," Alikhan Smailov pointed out.

This approach should be scaled across all life situations," the Prime Minister said.

People also complain about incorrect data. Only for 10 months of this year received more than 56 thousand applications for correction of information. This indicates insufficient quality work in the integration of various databases and digitization of information," Alikhan Smailov pointed out.

It is extremely difficult to get through to the Single Contact Center. Applying for licenses and permits is so complicated that applicants have to turn to consulting companies and individuals. In general, the above examples reduce the positive effect of the great work being done. Therefore, it is necessary to respond sensitively to complaints and recommendations of citizens, to take prompt action," Head of the Government emphasized.

It is necessary to regularly check the actual performance of each public service. Special attention should be paid to the ease of its receipt, correctness of data and their safe storage. And in general, we should optimize the list of documents requested from the population," Alikhan Smailov said.