On January 18, 2018, the Presidential Communications Service held a press conference on "Strategic Objectives of the 2018 Annual Address of the President of Kazakhstan" organized by the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan (KAZISS) that was attended by leading KAZISS experts as well as other prominent experts and political scientists, economists, sociologists and the representatives of the media.

The Address of President N.A. Nazarbayev outlined the 10 priority tasks for successful navigation and adaptation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Elbasy's new address is aimed at strengthening the success achieved by Kazakhstan during  26 years of the independence in structural reforms of political and socio-economic nature.

According to the KAZISS Director, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Sociology, Professor Zarema Shaukenova, Kazakhstan has everything necessary to gain its place among the leaders of the new world. Kazakhstan having undergone several stages of industrialization - the first in the 1930s, together with collectivization; the second in the 1940s, when more than 400 factories and plants were transported there; and the third starting with the virgin land campaign until the dissolution of the Soviet Union – has entered the new century where the nations income comes not only from manufacturing, but from services and digital technologies the modern industries are built on. Manufacturing entities do not just consume the results of R & D, but are themselves the platforms for research and development.

The KAZISS Chief Research Fellow, Doctor of Economics Vyacheslav Dodonov focused on the tasks set in the Address to reboot the financial sector that is of great importance for the country's economy, namely the banking, protection of the ordinary players in the financial market, long-term loans to business, development of the stock market. This qualitative shift, on the one hand, is aimed at addressing a number of long-standing challenges in the banking sector in particular and, on the other hand, to meet the current standards of the developed countries.

The KAZISS Research Fellow of the Department of Socio-Political Analysis, MA Slamzhar Akhmetzharov drew the attention of the participants to the "Smart City" concept, importance of agro-industrial development with further improvement of the quality of life in both the unreal and the rural regions of Kazakhstan.

Lyatsat Nurkatova, Head of the KAZISS Department of Socio-economic Analysis, Doctor of Sociology, Professor, CorrespondingMember of the National Academy, spoke on four aspects of human capital - education, health, employment and social security - as vital and on the government policies such as equal access to education, technical and vocational education, modernization of higher and academic freedom, employment policies to meet the demand on the labor market, pensions and social security, primary health care, universal medical insurance, etc.

Head of the KAZISS Department of Socio-Political Analysis, Doctor Alua Zholdybalina noted the importance of good governance, namely Open Government (according to the UN, 190 states implemented automated financial management), social networks (according to the 2017 Annual Digital Report, about 2.8 billion people worldwide use social networks), and the sites of the government agencies and virtual reception rooms to conduct electronic communication.

All in all, the speakers stressed that the Address of the Head of State provides systemic plan of the measures to maintain and improve the quality of life and well-being in Kazakhstan within the environment of economic uncertainty and turbulence.