KZBlog

Just a quick public service announcement, since I have heard conflicting information about when the Address to the People of Kazakhstan will be broadcast on TV. It looks like Khabar will be showing it live at 11:00am Kazakhstan time (i.e. in 1 1/2 hours) and then again at 11pm. If you’re not in the country, it seems that Khabar has online transmission, so you should be able to catch it online.

EDIT: Just heard that government officials got a message this morning saying the Address would be on at 11am, and that they should tell everyone in their organizations to watch it. Are they afraid no one wants to watch it on their own?

11:01 Interesting to note that he was introduced as Elbasi. And that he is starting out in Kazakh. Which unfortunately I don’t understand a word of.

The big question on everyone’s mind of course is whether he will talk about the referendum or not, though he did speak about publicaly last week.

11:07 Here we go in Russian. Comparing Kazakhstan’s progress in 20 years to South Korea, Malaysia and Hungary.

11:08 Forced Industrial Innovation Strategy is going well–new small and medium businesses. Lots of investment from foreigners and government development funds. Unemployment down.

11:10 Need to develop the meat industry and agriculture to export more meat. This will create jobs and income for the people.

11:12 Nazarbayev notes that while he is making brief comments about goals, there are already well-developed plans. Which is a good note because there hasn’t been a lot about concrete plans or strategies yet.

11:17 New social policy, because the goal of the forced industrial innovation strategy is the good of the people. New programs in
Development of education and language
Development of healthcare
Drinking water

11:19 Need to develop education, computerization, and technical education.
Missed his point on PhDs but it got big applause. Ah…he said we need to reduce the number of universities to ensure high quality education.

11:20 Nazarbayev University will be one of best universities in the world and Kazakhstan needs 2 such universities.

11:25 More preventative care in healthcare. Couldn’t agree more.

11:30 Switches to Kazakh when talking about developing the Kazakh language and making more people speak Kazakh. Then back to Russian to talk about developing Russian language too.

11:32 Anti-Crisis Roadmap program was successful in helping every family in Kazakhstan. And we will continue with rural development programs.

11:34 Self-employed. 30% own small businesses. Government needs to give micro-credit to them. 30% are temporarily employed and they need education. 30% can’t work and therefore they need social help so that everyone has permanent work.

11:44 Special Commission to Plan celebrations of 20 years of independence. And do all sorts of good things he already said.

11:46: Here it comes. About the referendum, he thanks all who signed the petition and the initiators. Notes the huge number of people who signed.

NurOtan has started a program about democratization in Kazakhstan 2015. And these people who signed this petition are a good basis for these new programs of democratization and grassroots movements

I had every intention of running for President for 2012. After this initiative group, questions came up. But we will follow the Constitution. But I am very grateful for the support. Nothing has been decided yet but I see this is a signal from the people that I have to keep up my work.

11:57 It’s over. Ended in Kazakh. I know I missed a lot but those were the highlights.

What did you, dear readers, think of the Address? What did I miss?