Massimov instructed to urgently improve the program of development of Kazakhstan single-industry towns

Massimov instructed to urgently improve the program of development of Kazakhstan single-industry towns. Kazakhstan Prime-Minister set this task to the Ministers at the government meeting on March 20, Tengrinews.kz reports. "This program has to be urgently improved. We need to get the feedback. That's why it is very important. Mainly Akims (Mayors) will be working on it. The money will be made available for implementation. We already have 20 billion tenge ($135 million) allocated in the budget for support of one-industry towns," Massimov said and called the accountable persons to present the final version of the program that has to be adopted in May. According to the head of the government, it is necessary to define important programs included into the President's address before the new budget cycle of 2013-2015: Affordable Housing, Business Roadmap, Employment Program, etc. "All the programs have to be understandable so that we could enter the new budget cycle," Massimov reminded. Ministry of Economic Development and Trade have already analyzed the condition of one-industry towns in Kazakhstan. 27 towns with the total population of 1.5 million people (16 percent of the town population) were selected. 8 of them are in Karaganda oblast, East Kazakhstan and Kostanai oblast have 4 one-industry towns each, Zhambyl and Pavlodar oblast have 2 towns each, all other oblasts have one single-industry town each, except for Kyzylorda and North-Kazakhstan oblasts. "Considering the single-industry and excessive labor force in these towns, the focus was made on creating an optimal employment structure of the towns and distribution of labor resources to the promising areas of the oblasts' growth with an emphasis on newly-created industries. Training, re-training and improvement of qualification of the workers under Employment-2020 program will be organized. The quotas will be set for employment of citizens of one-industry towns in major production companies," Minister of Economic Development and Trade Bakytzhan Sagintayev said. The first public presentation of the program of development of one-industry towns has been made in the government on March 20. The commission on the regional policy is led by first Vice-PM Serik Akhmetov. According to Prime-Minister, oblast Akims (governors) will be responsible for this program.