Comment function
The comment function is well implemented in the Kazakh Ecoportal, which was launched in 2021. EIA procedures and other procedures are published on the Ecoportal. To be able to submit comments, citizens must first authorise themselves with an electronic digital key, which every citizen in Kazakhstan receives. As soon as citizens are authorised, comments can be submitted easily via a comment field in the portal.
Source: Screenshot of the comment field on the Kazakhstan Ecoportal
Kazakhstan also has a government website on which all laws must be published. After citizens are authorised they can also submit comments and read the comments of other citizens. This allows citizens to see which topics have already been addressed in comments, so that the authorities may receive fewer comments with the same arguments. Moreover, the users can respond to comments with emoticons such as “thumbs up/down”. Authorities can use the emoticons to see whether projects or new laws are received positively or negatively by the public. In addition, the operators of the portal can also respond directly to comments on the portal and this is also visible to all users, which facilitates communication between the authorities and the public.
Source: Kazakh Legal Acts Portal
Archive function
The Kazakh Eco-Portal also has an archive in which information on completed public hearings and procedures can be found. However, users need to know the project number, initiator, etc. to find information on completed public hearings in the archive. The portal can be filtered by project type, initiator, project name, start date and end date.
In addition, according to the legal regulations in Kazakhstan, the competent authorities are supposed to upload the video recordings of public hearings online in the portal, but there are no video recordings in the portal.
