budget tax revenues grew 1.2 times. “The capital of Kazakhstan found itself in the focus of global attention; close attention and interest of the whole world. Astana won in the nomination of the “City of the Future” by the National Geographic version. Besides, Kazakhstan joined the list of the countries worth visiting by the New York Times version... In total, under EXPO over 6,000 various events were held. Our country strengthened its image as a dynamically developing state of the Eurasian Region. The phenomenon of EXPO promoted productive and intensive interaction of science, business and society,” declared President of Kazakhstan at the EXPO-2017 Closure Ceremony. EXPO-2017 was highly appraised by foreign visitors. The EXPO-2017 Heritage facilities continue functioning as tourist attractions. Chairman of Samruk-Kazyna (2017–2021) On 23 December 2017, by the order of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Yessimov was appointed Chairman of board of the National Welfare Fund JSC Samruk-Kazyna. In February 2018, on behalf of Yessimov, Samruk-Kazyna JSC introduced a number of changes to the procurement mechanism to expand the competitive environment, improve the quality of goods and services, and reduce costs. On 19 April 2018, at a meeting of the Management Council of the NWF “Samruk-Kazyna”, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev approved and adopted a new Development Strategy of the Fund for 2018–2028 and an updated Transformation Program. That same month, Yessimov presented a new personnel policy of the “Samruk-Kazyna” National Welfare Fund. Within the framework of it, in order to attract young talents in the group of the Fund, the programs "Zhas Orken" and "Digital Summer" are being implemented. For two years more than 100 students were employed in the Samruk-Kazyna company. In 2018, it was introduced into the mechanism of off-take contracts, which allows entrepreneurs to receive in advance a guaranteed long-term order for products planned for release as part of the creation of a new production. Since 2017, the Fund's debt burden has decreased by 1 trillion tenge, and the external debt - by 5.1 billion US dollars. The Fund became the number one taxpayer in the country. Tax payments of the group of companies of NWF “Samruk-Kazyna JSC” for 9 months of this year amounted to 813 billion tenge, which is more by 102 billion tenge compared to the data of the same period in 2018. The Saryarqa Gas Pipeline was completed on time. The gas pipeline, built within the framework of