On December 5, 2018, a conference was held in Almaty on the theme: “Forming an effective migration policy in the context of improving the investment rate”. The conference was organized by the Akimat of Almaty, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the consulting company WPK Group.
Aukenov E.M. – deputy mayor of Almaty, M. Tinikeev – deputy chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, chairman of the Territorial Association of Trade Unions of Almaty – Z. Umirbayeva, Sarbasov A.A. – chairman of the committee of labor, social Protection and Migration of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Sadanov A.A. – Deputy Chairman of the Migration Service Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as heads of 150 large enterprises took part.
The Deputy Akim of the city of Almaty E.Aukenov addressed the conference participants with a welcoming speech. In his greeting, E. Aukenov noted that “Kazakhstan today is an active participant in economic integration processes. The issues of creating a favorable investment climate are of particular relevance to us. We hope that the conference will give impetus to improve the investment climate for enterprises attracting foreign labor. We all have one goal, optimizing workflows and creating a favorable working environment. ”
E.Aukenov noted that as part of the implementation of the nation’s “100 concrete steps” plan, from January 1, 2017, Kazakhstan introduced new approaches to the formation of an open market of highly qualified specialists.
As can be seen from the welcoming speech, Kazakhstan is working towards improving the migration policy and investment climate of the country. Thus, it was noted that in recent years, in order to develop tourism in Kazakhstan, the procedure for staying in a number of countries for foreigners in the Republic of Kazakhstan has been simplified. Since 2013, the possibility of online registration of temporarily arriving foreigners has been introduced through the Visa-Migration Portal (subsystem of the UIS “Berkut”). For the opening of two Migration Services Centers, buildings in the Alatau and Nauryzbaysky districts of the city were allocated, and front-office units were opened in subdivisions of the internal affairs agencies, for which experts in the banking and medical fields, as well as in the field of insurance were involved.
Also in the welcoming speech, it was noted that the Akimat of Almaty raised the issue of protecting the rights of workers, namely the need to conclude collective agreements, create trade unions and prevent disproportion of personnel.
In his report, M.Tinikeev emphasized the relevance of the topic under consideration and noted that individual companies attract foreign labor, violating the legislation in force in Kazakhstan, while in Kazakhstan there are enough qualified specialists of the required profile and qualification. It was also pointed out the inefficient state allocation of quotas for attracting foreign labor in the regions of Kazakhstan.
Another problematic issue voiced by M. Tinikeev was the issue of insufficient employers’ activities aimed at creating conditions to reduce the risk of injury at the enterprise, the need to comply with the requirements of labor protection and safety. In this regard, there was a call to employers about the need to “turn to the Labor Man and understand his problems.”
Y.Kel, supervisor of the company and Tengizchevroil, L.Levina, head of corporate issues of OGCC KazStroyService JSC, A.Chernov, senior manager of human resources of JSFC PetroKazakhstan Overseas Services Inc, and Sarbasov, Chairman of the Labor Committee of Social Protection and Migration of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan, representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan gave their speech at the conference as well.
During the conference, it was announced that Kazakhstan today faced such a problem as ineffective recruitment of foreign labor, because, firstly, there are already relevant specialists in the labor market in Kazakhstan, and secondly, foreign labor can have insufficient qualifications.
At the present stage, attracting qualified labor to the Kazakhstan market is carried out within the framework of quotas, but the concern of the whole society, in terms of compliance with international legislation in the field of labor rights protection and its impact on the domestic labor market, is caused by the problem of uncontrolled labor migration flows.
The results of the conference showed that Kazakhstan is working to improve the migration policy and investment climate of the country. This work consists in the adoption of regulatory legal acts providing for legal entities carrying out investment projects in the Republic of Kazakhstan, certain advantages, work on providing investment preferences, subsidies, simplifying procedures for attracting foreign labor beyond the quotas of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and other work.
Along with the problematic issues raised at the conference, its participants voiced effective proposals on the formation of an effective migration policy in Kazakhstan.
Speaking about the role and contribution of trade unions in solving the problematic issues discussed at the conference, it is necessary to proceed from the fundamental tasks of the trade unions of Kazakhstan to protect the constitutional right of citizens to work, improve the economic and social situation of workers, including the solution of such issues, together with social partners, as the preservation of jobs in enterprises and organizations of the country.
In conclusion, the Deputy Akim of the city of Almaty, E. Aukenov, noted the important role of trade union organizations, emphasizing that trade unions are a platform for dialogue between the employer, the worker and the state to resolve collective labor disputes and conflicts.