President of Kazakhstan opens VI convocation Parliament’s second session

Astana, September 1, the House of the Majilis. Today, Kazakh Parliament held a joint session of the Houses with the participation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Head of State opened the second parliamentary session, followed by the State Anthem of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Leader of the Nation outlined in his speech the main areas of the country’s development, including the sphere of law making.

He told that the year of the 25th anniversary of the country’s Independence is marked by the beginning of a new stage of the Nation’s Plan implementation. In particular, he was talking about the need to create new growth drivers for the domestic economy and to keep on reducing Kazakhstan’s dependence on fluctuations in world prices for raw materials.

Stressing that the Member of Parliament have a lot to do in provision of legislative support to the most important areas of the country’s life, President outlined as one of the priorities strengthening the legal framework of the country's security and providing legislative support to the Nation’s Plan. The Head of State also noted that the Parliament and the Government need a more strict control of the budget spending.

Particular attention was paid to the need to ensure legislative framework for preservation of spending on state-guaranteed social package. This involves, above all, pensions, allowances and scholarships. As Nursultan Nazarbayev said, budget policy should be built in such a way as to prevent declining living standards in Kazakhstan.

President also stressed that all the adopted legislative innovations should be widely explained to Kazakhstani citizens. In addition, he set a task to make active use of the OECD countries’ practices of advance public awareness raising and public discussions of necessary legal innovations.

Parliament will consider about 50 bills, 7 of which are initiated by the Members of Parliament.

On behalf of all MPs Majilis Chairman Nurlan Nigmatulin thanked the Head of State for opening the parliamentary session and for outlining the priorities for the Parliament’s activity.

The meeting was attended by Heads of central bodies of all government departments, representatives of local and foreign media.

For the first time the session was broadcast on the Majilis’s website.