The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov has published an analytical article on the results of the six-year presidency of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. According to the head of government, over this period Kazakhstan managed to significantly strengthen its economic position and improve the welfare of its citizens, despite global challenges. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 288 billion dollars, and GDP per capita exceeded 14 thousand dollars, having increased by almost half.
The priority of state policy has become the diversification of the economy with the development of the non-oil sector. Over the period 2019-2024, production in the manufacturing industry grew by 31.4%, and in construction – by 96.3%. In the structure of industry, manufacturing enterprises have matched the share of extractive industries. Production in the engineering sector tripled, and the average annual growth of industrial production was 20.3%.
Petrochemicals are developing – polymers, composite materials, and chemical reagents with high added value are being produced. One of the key projects is the Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. (KPI) plant in the Atyrau region. In agriculture, labour productivity has doubled, and the volume of food production has increased 2.1 times.
Over the past six years, 130 billion dollars in direct foreign investment has been attracted to the economy. In 2024, Kazakhstan received the highest credit rating in its history — Baa1 (investment grade, moderately low credit risk) with a ‘Stable’ outlook from the agency Moody's. Foreign trade turnover increased by one and a half times – to 141.4 billion dollars, and export volume reached 81.6 billion. The share of exports of machinery, equipment and vehicles rose from 1.1% to 5.8%.
Under the leadership of the President, a large-scale modernisation of the country's infrastructure is being carried out. A National Project is being implemented to renew 86 thousand kilometres of engineering networks. Given the growth in electricity consumption, nuclear energy is being developed – the area for the construction of the first nuclear power plant has been determined.
The volume of housing commissioning in 2024 reached 19 million square metres, which is 51.4% higher than the figure for 2018. Over the last six years, the reconstruction of 4.4 thousand kilometres of republican roads has been completed. By the beginning of 2025, access to natural gas was provided to more than 12 million citizens. Currently, water supply coverage stands at 99.4% in cities and 97.8% in villages.
Priority attention is given to protecting the rights of citizens. The minimum wage has been doubled – to 85,000 tenge. The salaries of teachers have been doubled and medical workers have received annual salary increases of 20-30%. Life expectancy has increased to 75 years. Since 2019, 955 healthcare facilities have been built.
In the sphere of education, 1,367 kindergartens have been opened and 1,200 schools with one million student places have been built. More than 3 thousand rural schools have been modernised. The Year of Working Professions gave impetus to improving the technical education system – 410 educational institutions are now under the patronage of 498 companies. The share of youth in science has increased to 46%. Over six years, 314 sports and fitness complexes have been built.
Kazakhstan is actively developing digitalisation and the introduction of artificial intelligence. The volume of innovative products more than doubled – to 2.4 trillion tenge. A venture fund, Qazaqstan Venture Group, has been created with financing of 1 billion dollars. This year, the International Centre for Artificial Intelligence Alem ai will open.
Over the past six years, under the leadership of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan has achieved significant successes in economic and social development. The country is confidently moving along the path of economic diversification, infrastructure modernisation and digital transformation. Even more ambitious tasks lie ahead, and under the confident leadership of the Head of State, Kazakhstan has every opportunity to fully realise its potential.