Kazakhstan to continue pension reforms without changes - the prime minister

/IRBIS, Jan.18, 00/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to the prime minister Kasymjomart Tokaev, that Kazakhstan has no intentions to change the course of the pension reforms that started on January 1, 1998. "As the head of the government I should make several statements. First, no changes will be made in pension reform - no rollbacks, no regression will be in this area", he said to journalists after the government meeting. Different reactions of Mass media and market participants to the speech of the minister of labor and social protection Nikolai Radostovets regarding pension reform were the reasons for his speech, he said. A statistics of violations in pension accounts of the citizens was given by the minister. He also said new legislation on pension reform would be adopted this year to allocate part of pension assets to invest in certain projects in real sector of the economy. "Due to discussions, which arose in the Mass media about the pension reform. We suggest the minister Radostovets to be more responsible for his statements", he said. The country's pension reform is scheduled for 30 years. Its purpose is to transfer the united system of pensions to accumulated system where each citizen's pension will be formed based on his payments. The country has 15 private and one state accumulative pension funds. SAPF would continue to be a state fund despite discussions regarding the necessity of its privatization, informed the prime minister. The fund can be privatized only by the will of its depositors, and the share of SAPF should be lower than 35% of total pension assets. "State accumulative pension fund will maintain its status. Its privatization can happen only in several years later", he said. The pension funds regulation committee should remain within the government and not go under the control of the National securities commission, he believes. The world bank gave two tranches at $100 mln each to pension reforms and the third one is expected.