Guest lecture by William Seitz on the theme "The listening to Kazakhstan project of the World Bank"

In his lecture, the economist touched upon the topic of poverty and the factors that point to it. According to the results of long-term observation, Seitz assures that the majority of citizens of Kazakhstan evaluate or feel themselves "poor" having significantly more income than citizens of other CIS countries. Other factors of poverty may be mass anxiety about the effects of the war, which indirectly or directly affect the living conditions of the citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, examples of which are the overcharging of housing rents and the lack of jobs during the period of mobilization of citizens of the Russian Federation.

One of the most important factors leading to poverty, the lecturer noted people's distrust in the state and the fight against corruption. At the same time, the lecturer assures that the proposal of the President of the country on an open economy can be a solution to this problem.

At the end of the lecture, U. Seitz presented the results of a survey on gender equality in the CIS, referring to the fact that many employers have double standards regarding the gender of their employees and their salaries. He argues that in the CIS, some women who apply for the same position as men have much lower salaries due to their nature. Is it really? To the question: “Where do the data and results for these surveys come from?” William Seitz replied that they receive data thanks to the joint work of the World Bank and the Bureau for National Statistics, also through their direct partners - Nazarbayev University.

The students showed their interest in the introduced problems and asked their questions, to which they kindly received detailed answers.