“Is it really impossible to find new people in Kazakhstan as part of the Ministry of agriculture? We all understand that the rampant corruption is provided with turbid water of the entire state system. The most tidbit is probably the budget. Every official has ways of taking money from the budget to his firm, his brothers, and Sake Make-Bake. Urgently we need to introduce mandatory declarations of income and property of officials and their relatives,” said one of the readers of KazakhZerno.kz under the article on corruption in the agricultural department.
Keeper of the “project”
And we cannot but agree with this opinion, if we look at the activities of vice-minister of agriculture Gulmira Isayeva, “old-timers” of the Ministry of agriculture.
Gulmira Isayeva got her current position back in 2012. That is, soon after Asylzhan Mamytbekov became Minister of agriculture. By the way, taking into account that it was Isayeva who should have been in charge of veterinary issues, Mamytbekov should thank her for the nickname “MGM”, which was glued to him after the catchy phrase of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev “Mountain gave birth to a mouse as a result of your work “! After all, the head of state was dissatisfied with the system of veterinary security. The very system “from farm to table”, about which Isayeva spoke many times – and could not go further than talking.
However, it seems that Mamytbekov-Isaev’s tandem did not have any mutual grievances. They worked side by side all these years in a team of the Ministry of agriculture (and Gulmira Sultanbaevna works there to this day), successfully destroying the long-suffering agro-industrial complex of Kazakhstan.
At the moment Gulmira Isayeva continues to fulfill the tasks of the former head of Asylzhan Mamytbekov, who now heads the Meat union of Kazakhstan. Moreover, she is not ashamed to speak frankly about it, regularly publishing in her Facebook account a “chronicle” of her efforts to implement the program for the development of meat farming, invented by Asylzhan Mamytbekov.
Let us quote the recent post:
“The World Bank Group held a meeting with the Minister of agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan S.K. Omarov, where both sides stressed the importance of the implementation of this program in the framework of the implementation of the State Program for the development of the agro-industrial complex, which includes the development of meat farming (beef and mutton production) in priority areas. In agreement with the Ministry of national economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an agreement was reached to introduce amendments to the State program for the development of agricultural complex in order to introduce 6 indicators agreed with the World Bank, which will be used to monitor the implementation of the Project on sustainable development of livestock for 2020-2024. Let me remind you that the project is based on the national sectoral program for the development of meat cattle breeding, developed jointly with the Meat union of Kazakhstan”, – said Gulmira Isayeva, not hesitating to report that not only for her, but also for the Minister of agriculture the main priority – the implementation of plans of the Meat Union. The same “Mamytbekov’s plan”, which has been criticized many times as a “searchlighting”, and to subsidize which the government eventually refused to allocate additional tens of billions of tenge.
Gulmira Isaeva is not embarrassed by this, she acts as the “guardian of the project”. It seems that her former chief, Asylzhan Mamytbekov, continues to lead all the activities of the Ministry of agriculture.
Mamytbekov’s clan
Or here’s another fact: last week Isayeva posted on Facebook that on the 19th of November she held talks with the heads of two Chinese companies interested in importing pork from Kazakhstan on the site of the Meat union. Okay, chinese businessmen came at the invitation of the Meat union to set up business – this is understandable. But why, suddenly, the vice-minister of agriculture, as a girl on the run, is running to help the Meat union in these negotiations – it’s not clear. If these negotiations are official, why are they held in the office of the Meat union and not in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan? What should ordinary agrarians think about such a “deep immersion” in someone else’s business of a high-ranking official? Of course, she has personal interests in this case.
By the way, do not forget that in Kazakhstan, except for the Mamytbekovsky Meat union, there are other associations of breeders. But they have no influence on decision-making in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan. How many times have the opinions of experts been heard: the country does not need angus! They have nothing to feed, they are not adapted to our climate! Kazakhstan needs to develop the production of lamb and horsemeat, as well as to build meat and dairy farms with a stable content of cattle – it is much more profitable than the purely meat distillation of cattle.
But, no! The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan is deaf to such opinions. Because the Meat Union has already written its own program, and now the Agrarian Department prays for it as a holy scripture.
In this case, the question arises: why is the Ministry of Agriculture needed at all? Why are these 400 idlers, if Mamytbekov and his team are in charge? Disperse all the officials, the way Asylzhan Sarybayevich takes the reins of power into his hands officially! Mamytbekov doesn’t even need an office, he will continue to sit “on the site of the Meat union,” where Isayeva is now running to bow.
Seriously, this situation is very bad for the investment climate in Kazakhstan’s agricultural sector. Any investor, who has decided to invest in the project in our country, will conduct an analysis and understand that all here is filled by the same clan for ten years. The clan has cleared the site for itself, “sharpened” all the tools of state support in its favor – and nobody else can work in Kazakhstan without any trouble and success…
Expensive woman
Speaking of meat abroad shipment. Also, on Facebook, Gulmira Isayeva shared interesting figures – statistics on exports of agricultural products from Kazakhstan – on the 20th of November.
So, the main share of livestock products shipped abroad in January-September 2019 fell on … live stock! In particular, live cattle accounted for 44.6%, while live cattle accounted for 15.9%. As for meat, its share is insignificant – beef 4.8%, lamb – 3.6%.
What do these figures mean? The fact, that Kazakhstan has failed over the years to create a reliable and trustworthy veterinary control system for foreign buyers. That is why the main buyers of livestock products (e.g. Saudi Arabia) prefer to buy live cattle and small cattle in order to slaughter them at home – according to halal standards and in conditions of veterinary safety.
This is the failure of Gulmira Isayeva’s work, her area of responsibility, which she failed to cope with while working in the Ministry of Agriculture for seven years.
As a result, Kazakhstan loses a lot of money. Let’s remember how former colleague Isayeva, First vice-minister of agriculture Arman Yevniev, told us many times that modern meat processing plants, if the bull is slaughtered correctly, receive $20,000 worth of processed products, while the sale of the bull in meat equivalent gives only $2,000! That is, due to the fault of talentless officials of the Ministry of agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the livestock industry loses 1,000 percent of its profitability without any reason sitting in their seats in the Ministry of agriculture! Isn’t it too expensive for Kazakhstan to have this useless lady in a position of responsibility?
Batyr Alekperov
