The Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a regular session of the Council for Interaction with Local Representative Bodies (maslikhats) at the Senate chaired by Vice Speaker Askar Shakirov.
Apart from members of the Council, deputies of maslikhats from 17 regions of the country also took part in the event via videoconference.
During the session, a thorough exchange of views on the major issue on the agenda, i.e. involvement of maslikhats’ deputies in the implementation of the Address of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the people of Kazakhstan, was held.
“This document provides a comprehensive program for ensuring the vital activities of the country in the context of unprecedented contemporary challenges. The Head of State set out a complex of interrelated tasks in his Address with a view to improving the state administration system. The development of local self-government has been defined as one of the major directions of this process, which implies consolidation of local representative bodies the activity of which should become transparent to the population to the utmost,” the Senate Vice Speaker said.
With this in background, promotion of effective development of regions was mentioned as one of the priorities of the upper house of the Parliament. Maslikhats are comprehensively assisted in the framework of their legislative powers through the Council for Interaction with Local Representative Bodies.
Promotion of the government program “Rukhani Zhangyru”, which is meant to be one of the propulsions of political and economic reforms in the country, was a separate topic of discussion during the session.
According to Toleubek Mukashev, Chairman of the Republican Public Association “Association of Deputies of Maslikhats of Kazakhstan”, “the most up-to-date approaches should prevail in this work, such as popularization, primarily among young people, of the cult of knowledge and education, tolerance and professionalism”.
The sitters agreed on the need for more targeted and substantive work with the electorate. In his speech, Secretary of the West Kazakhstan regional maslikhat Malik Kulshar noted that “deputies of maslikhats should bring to each citizen of Kazakhstan the essence and ways of implementation of the President’s Address”.
At present, the Republican Public Association “Union of Lawyers of Kazakhstan” with about 20 thousand members in the country makes a great contribution to this work with the coordinating role of the Senate. Its chairman Serik Akylbai informed that “with a view to increasing legal literacy of deputies of maslikhats, a number of thematic lectures with explanations of laws adopted by the Parliament have been prepared and sent by the Union of Lawyers of Kazakhstan to the regions. This work will be continued.”
At the session, the Department for Coordination of the “Rukhani Zhangyru” Program of the Ministry of Information and Public Development, the Institute for State and Local Governance, as well as the republican magazine “Maslikhat zhane Akimdіk - Maslikhat and Akimat” were accepted as collective members of the Council.
Based on the results of the session, the participants elaborated a forward work plan for the Council in line with the issues considered.
