Bakhytzhan Sagintayev

Sagintayev was born in the village of Usharal. His father, Abdyr Sagintayev (1921–1986), was a World War II veteran who worked as the director of the Talas Sheep Breeding Plant.[3]

In 1985, Sagintayev graduated from the Kazakh State University with a degree in economics. That same year, he became a lecturer at the Department of Political Economy of the Alma-Ata Institute of National Economy. From 1988 to 1992, he worked at the Kazakh State University, where he went from an assistant to an assistant professor of sociology. After Kazakhstan's independence from the Soviet Union, Sagintayev was engaged in entrepreneurial activity.[3]

In 1998, he was appointed as deputy akim of the Jambyl Region. From 1999 to 2002, Sagintayev served as deputy chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Small Business Support, Regulation of Natural Monopolies, Protection of Competition and Support for Small Business. From 2002 to 2004, he served as the First Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies and Competition Protection.[3] On 29 September 2004, Sagintayev was reappointed as the chairman of the Agency for Regulation of Natural Monopolies of Kazakhstan.

On 11 December 2007, Sagintayev was appointed as the Head of the Prime Minister's Office. He served that position until 30 September 2008, when he became akim of Pavlodar Region.[4]

On 20 January 2012, Sagintayev was appointed as Minister of Economic Development and Trade.[5] On 24 September 2012, he became First Deputy Chairman of Nur Otan.[6] On 16 January 2013, Sagintayev was appointed as the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development.[7]

On 8 September 2016, Sagintayev was nominated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev for the post of the Prime Minister. The following day, on 9 September, Sagintayev was confirmed by the Parliament.[8] On 28 September, while serving as PM, he was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC Samruk-Kazyna.[9]

In November 2016, Sagintayev drew attention to the number of reductions in pediatricians in the country. He supported Deputy PM Imangali Tasmagambetov's initiative to restore the faculties of pediatrics in Kazakh medical universities. Sagintayev also instructed to tighten control over the activities of veterinary services and ensure the entry of cattle burial grounds and anthrax burials in the information system of the State Land Cadastre.

In response to inflation, he sought to prevent the continuing rise of food prices for 2017. Despite the promises, the inflation in February of that year reached 7.1%. That same year, over 11 million square meters of housing were built.

Sagintayev slowly drew criticism from Nazarbayev in relation to his policies towards the self-employed population.[10] In October 2018, Sagintayev's cabinet was eventually threatened by Nazarbayev to the point of being replaced by Singaporean and Japanese politicians. On 30 January 2019, at an enlarged meeting of the government, Nazarbayev publicly slammed Sagintayev and his ministers as "cowards". On 4 February 2019, a fire erupted in an apartment in Astana, killing 5 children whom belonged to a single family.[11] This sparked fury and protests from the mothers who demanded proper housing, more kindergartens and financial support for families owning more than one child.[12] Sagintayev expressed his condolences to the tragedy and told his cabinet to be more stricter in fire safety inspection at homes to prevent incidents.[13]

Sagintayev continued to serve as the PM until 21 February 2019 when the government was dismissed due to lack of economic development.[14][15] He was replaced by Askar Mamin who was appointed as Acting PM until being confirmed by the Parliament on 25 February.[16]

On 1 March 2019, Sagintayev became the State Secretary of Kazakhstan.[17] He shortly served the position before becoming the head of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan in 24 March 2019.[18]

Sagintayev was awarded “Kurmet” order and anniversary medals.

He is an author of a number of scientific works, publications on state regulation of the natural monopolies, small and medium business development.

Sagintayev is married and has two children.