Almaty: Nazarbayev's 'shadow' on Tokaev's growth plans

In his inaugural address for the New Year, the President promises a future of peace, development and prosperity. Starting with the National Fund, with subsidies for children. A further boost from the world of sport, with the attempt at redemption at the Paris Olympics and possible qualification for Euro2024. On the leadership's plans, the prospect of a return of the former 'master-father'

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The speeches of good wishes by President Kasym-Žomart Tokaev and all the representatives of the state institutions of Kazakhstan describe a new year marked by peace, development and prosperity. A prospect that citizens anxiously await two years after the Almaty riots and the many events that have put everyone's lives to the test, in Central Asia and in many regions of the world.

The main expectations are for subsidies for children from the National Fund, the increase in minimum salaries from 70 to 85 thousand tenge (170 euros), and the possible qualification of the national team for the final phase of the European football championships.

The children's fund will allocate 50% of the annual investment, with a mechanism based on data collection, without even needing to submit documents. Parents will only have to verify the information about their child on the portal of the National Pension Fund, or on the government Egov portal, to receive a sum in their current account to be allocated towards housing conditions, or the possibility of accessing higher education.

The amount of sums that will be paid to the accounts reserved for children is not yet known; the government promised to conclude the operation by February. According to official statistics, there are 6.7 million children and young people under 18 in the country. The Nazfond-detjam project was proposed by Tokaev during the last electoral campaign in the message of 1 September 2022, an initiative deemed "populist" by many commentators.

To regulate the economic life of Kazakhstan, from the beginning of the year entrepreneurs, managers and founders of legal entities and their spouses will have to submit the tax and property declaration by September, under penalty of heavy fines and confiscations. The government intends to bring order to the tax system, make the fight against corruption more effective and defeat the shadow economy, but observers remain rather skeptical on this point too.

Greater consolations are expected from the world of sport: Kazakhstan was admitted to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after a pronouncement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last July, which was not a given in these times of wars and sanctions.

At the Tokyo 2020 edition, for the first time not even one gold medal was won, but only eight bronzes, and there is a great desire for revenge. Furthermore, the possibilities remain open for the national football team to participate in the European Championships in Germany in June, beating Greece in the play-offs in March to then face the winner of Georgia-Luxembourg.

Furthermore, the shadow of the deceased Elbasy, the "father of the homeland" Nursultan Nazarbaev, who is returning to the center of public attention after the publication of his autobiography, is once again growing over the hopes and expectations of Kazakh society. The former "eternal president" seemed to have definitively left the scene after the riots of January 2022, which had started the "de-Nazarbaevization" process.

His recent private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, of whom Nazarbaev has long been the inspiration, suggests that the 83-year-old ruler of the post-Soviet scene intends to return to active politics.

The possibility is strongly opposed by the current leadership of the country, in an attempt not to weaken the image of the dolphin Tokaev, re-elected as president of a "new Kazakhstan". In November Nursultan presided over the grandiose funeral of his brother Bolat, master of the economic plots of the entire ruling family for thirty years, and his burial was in some way a symbolic act; without his brother-godfather, Nazarbaev would like to go back to being a father-master.