By Fatima Kemelova Saniya Sakenova
ASTANA – The Kazakh Ministry of National Economy has identified the country’s regions with the highest and lowest levels of comfort for living, based on the System of Regional Standards, Kazinform reported on July 3.
The system covers education, healthcare, social security, culture and sports, recreation, transport, roads, engineering infrastructure, safety and environmental protection, infocommunications, household and service maintenance.
The ministry conducts annual monitoring to evaluate how well settlements are provided with necessary facilities and services. This includes analyzing the state of existing infrastructure and identifying needs, with calculations performed separately for each region.
Almaty leads the ranking with a provision rate of 92.1%, followed by Astana at 89.3%, Shymkent at 88.1%, the Mangystau Region at 71.3%, and the Pavlodar Region at 69.2%.
The newly established Abai and Ulytau Regions recorded the lowest rates, at 56.3% and 59% respectively.
Active work is underway to reduce these disparities. Between 2022 and 2024, the Abai Region received 18.8 billion tenge (approximately US$36.3 million) from the state budget, implementing 221 projects. In contrast, the Ulytau Region was allocated 6 billion tenge (approximately US$11.6 million) for 37 projects.
In 2025, it is planned to allocate 8.6 billion tenge (US$16.6 million) for the Abai Region and 5.2 billion tenge (US$10 million) for the Ulytau Region. When determining general transfers, priority is given to settlements that lag most significantly behind target indicators, ensuring they receive funding first.