2017年-世界发展银行全球_Kazakhstan___Public_Expenditure_and_Institutional_Review_for_the_Agricultural_Sector_50页_1mb

Summary of Public Expenditure and Institutional Review for the Agricultural Sector in Kazakhstan

Core Content

This document presents a comprehensive review of public expenditure and institutional frameworks in Kazakhstan's agricultural sector, conducted by the World Bank. The analysis is part of a broader initiative to evaluate budgetary and policy mechanisms in both the health and agricultural sectors. The report outlines the current state of agricultural budgeting, identifies key challenges, and proposes policy reforms aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending in agriculture.

Main Objectives

• To assess the state of budgeting, execution, and management in the agricultural sector.
• To evaluate the alignment of public spending with sector policies and strategies.
• To review the capacity of institutions to plan and execute budgets.
• To provide recommendations for enhancing public expenditure quality and effectiveness.
• To support the government's budgetary reform, including the introduction of results-based budgeting.

Key Challenges

The agricultural sector in Kazakhstan faces several challenges, including:

• Structural inefficiencies: Land ownership and management need to be reformed to ensure efficient use by the most productive operators.
• Credit allocation: There is a lack of alignment between credit programs and the diverse needs of different farm types, leading to inefficiencies.
• Irrigation and drainage infrastructure: These systems require significant investment for sustainable management.
• Public services and infrastructure: Spending on essential services like research, extension, and SPS control is insufficient.
• Income disparity: Subsidy programs may not effectively address income inequality.
• WTO compliance: Current subsidy structures are incompatible with WTO rules.

Sector Strategy

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has developed a Strategic Plan for the period 2009–2011, which outlines three strategic directions:

1. Agricultural Development (Competitiveness, Food Security, WTO Accession)
2. Forestry and Cross-Sectoral Water Issues
3. Rural Development

The report emphasizes that while the strategic plan is a valuable step, it lacks a holistic situation analysis and fails to clearly identify key challenges. It also notes that the current definition of food security is based on import dependence, which is not a constraint in Kazakhstan.

Spending Program

The MOA agricultural budget has grown significantly since 2001, increasing from 26.3 bn KZT in 2001 to 139 bn KZT in 2008. The budget is divided into eight functional categories, with subsidies being the largest share, rising from 6% in 2001 to 24% in 2008, and projected to increase to 39% by 2009. Key components include:

• Area subsidies: Account for the majority of subsidies (59% in 2008) and cover 82% of arable land.
• Production subsidies: Focus on livestock, but do not contribute significantly to economic efficiency or food security.
• Credit programs: Account for 27% of MOA expenditure in 2008, but may be crowding out private sector lending.
• Infrastructure spending: Has declined, with irrigation and drainage investment being particularly low.
• Public services: Research and extension spending is minimal, and SPS control is essential for the development of the processing sector.

Policy Recommendations

The report proposes several reforms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the agricultural spending program:

Budget Management

• Restructure agricultural programs: Consolidate 79 programs into 8–10 functional categories.
• Enhance analysis: Conduct ex-ante and ex-post socio-economic and environmental analyses of program outcomes.
• Integrate evaluation systems: Link budget analysis to the central evaluation system of the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning (MEBP).

Execution and Monitoring

• Simplify results frameworks: Reduce the number of indicators at both the strategic and program levels.
• Balance compliance and flexibility: Review the costs and benefits of the current control system to improve implementation flexibility.

Strategy and Programs

• Holistic situation analysis: Include technical, economic, social, and environmental dimensions.
• Revisit food security definition: Shift focus from import dependence to household affordability.
• Link strategic directions, goals, and tasks: Ensure coherence and clarity in strategic planning.

Program Reform

• Subsidy programs:

  • Option 1: Shift spending from area and production subsidies to input subsidies.
  • Option 2: Decouple subsidies from specific crops.
  • Option 3: Fully decouple subsidies from production, aligning with EU practices.

• Public services and infrastructure:

  • Reallocate savings from subsidy reforms to essential services like research, extension, and SPS control.
  • Ensure these investments are aligned with WTO requirements.

• Land market:

  • Create a more flexible land market to allow competitive producers to expand and uncompetitive farmers to exit the sector.

• Credit market:

  • Encourage private sector lending and gradually transfer state credit administration to private financial institutions.

Conclusion

The report highlights the need for a more efficient and effective public expenditure system in the agricultural sector. It emphasizes the importance of aligning budgetary policies with strategic objectives, improving the quality of program design, and reforming subsidy structures to ensure compliance with international trade rules and enhance long-term productivity and competitiveness.