Employment a key priority for the Government

The issue of employment is a top priority for the Government, Kazakhstan’s PM Karim Massimov said when speaking at a Government’s sitting November 28. He reminded that employment was among the hot issues on the agenda of the recent congress of the Nur Otan ruling political party. According to the Minister of Labour Ms. Gulshara Abdykalikova, for the 4 months since the launch of the State-run Program to boost Employment before 2020 a total of 78 000 people have turned to the state-run employment centers. Training and retraining courses have been offered to 66 000 people. The program was launched in July. When unveiling the Program July 11, Labour Minister Ms. Gulshara Abdykalikova said that the Program would cover a total of 1.5 million people by 2015. The poverty level is to be brought down to 6%, with unemployment standing at 5.5%. In the current year $274 million is earmarked out of the central budget to finance the program.