Cabinet staff is set to be changed in Kazakhstan

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced his plans to make staff changes in the cabinet next year. He made the statement while giving a speech in the Senate (upper house of the parliament).

«I am going to make some staff changes in the cabinet in early January after consultations with the prime minister,» the president said. He noted that the speed of the current cabinet’s work was too slow.

Tokayev said that the cabinet is quite passive regarding critical issues for the country. The president wants the cabinet to increase its efficacy.

On December 14, Alikhan Smailov told to the cabinet that he is ready to take any measure in order to execute tasks he was assigned by the president. «The leader of the state is waiting for our decisive answer to his question: is the current cabinet ready to work next year? As prime minister I want to say that I am going to make everything fulfill the tasks which the president assigned,» he said.

At the end of November, President Tokayev signed an edict that cleared the way for the Senate elections. They are set on January 14, 2023.

According to Maulen Ashimbayev, the chairman of the Senate, the cabinet members should resign after the Senate elections and a new cabinet must be formed as the constitution requires.