Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Kazakh president has once again called on all citizens to buy domestic products.

“My proposal is to organize in all shops and supermarkets sections with the trademark ‘Made in Kazakhstan’ — it is a patriotic act for all Kazakhstanis,” Novosti-Kazakhstan quoted Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying at the congress of the ruling Nur Otan party on March 11.

As Kazakhstan is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and Moscow is one of the largest partners of Astana, the Central Asia’s biggest country has been strongly affected by the harsh economic downturn Russia has undergone as the result of sanctions.

After the dramatic fall of the Russian ruble at the end of 2014, people have favored changing tenge to rubles for shopping in Russia. Therefore, Kazakh producers have faced great difficulties. With Russian products appearing more attractive to consumers their profits plummeted.

Earlier, Nazarbayev said the weakening of the Russian ruble and the pressure of imported goods on local producers have damaged domestic manufacturing.

He therefore called on Kazakhstan citizens to support domestic producers by launching a nationwide campaign "Made in Kazakhstan" at the Kazakh government meeting on February 11.

“If we want to have all products of our own, we should consume domestic goods. I am 100 percent sure that our products are ecologically pure. According to the World Health Organization, the most healthy products and water for human organism are those from places where people are born. Besides, it will help our business,” Nazarbayev said.

As part of the campaign, sections with products issued from domestic manufacturers will be marked with special colored labels with the inscription "Made in Kazakhstan", to highlight Kazakhstan’s products among other goods and make them more attractive to buyers.

Nazarbayev also recommended starting the production of new export products in Kazakhstan.

“We need to launch the production of three-four new export products as to diversify our economy,” he said.