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Today’s Kazakhstan is a country in constant flux. From the architectural transformation of its capital city, Astana, to the greening of its oil-based economy and the high tech overhaul of its healthcare and education systems, rapid modernization has afforded the average citizen a standard of living few could have imagined during Soviet times.

Indeed, in the 21 years since independence, Kazakhstan’s soaring economic growth has given rise to a relatively large and increasingly prosperous middle class–one well connected to the outside world and with aspirations of achieving a far greater quality of life than the generation that preceded it.

No one knows this better than Kazakhstan’s president, who in his State of the Nation address to Parliament last December outlined a plan for building on the country’s impressive gains by focusing on a set of ten social and economic priorities—part of the so-called “Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy.” A comprehensive approach, the strategy aims to bring the Central Asian republic into the ranks of the world’s most developed countries by the middle of the 21st Century.

In his speech, Nazarbayev underscored the importance of innovation as a driver of Kazakhstan’s economic development and diversification, the core focus of a ten-year initiative launched in 2010. But he also placed unprecedented emphasis on the need for social reform, urging Parliament to adopt policies that not only protect the welfare of the people, but also promote self-betterment and individual initiative, helping Kazakhs overcome what he later called “the inertia of paternalism.”

Not satisfied with the pace of Parliament’s response, the President echoed those calls for reform six months later in a column he penned for Kazakhstanskaya Pravda. “Social issues cannot be postponed until later,” he wrote, reminding readers that the “care of every Kazakhstani is at the center of my attention” and that of vital importance to the country’s development is finding a “balance between economic success and the provision of public goods.”

Titled “Social Modernization of Kazakhstan: 20 steps toward a Society of Social Inclusion and Employment,” the column is a paean to the virtues of hard work and civic participation. But it’s also a scathing critique of the ideology of consumerism; warning of the perils of “wild capitalism,” the President pointed to the “work less, earn more” mantra of consumer societies, which he said spawned “massive social dependence in the developed world” and cited as “a main cause of the global economic crisis.”

Consumerism has turned out to be a ruinous course for countries around the world, the President said, and for Kazakhstan he proposed an alternative way forward—what he calls a “Society of Universal Labor.”

“All the value of world civilization, all the economic and cultural wealth, is created by human labor, not by virtual financial institutions,” Nazarbayev wrote, describing his plan as “practical,” “pragmatic,” and premised on the belief that in today’s global competition, labor is the “decisive factor.”

Which is to say that for all of its mineral riches and vast reserves of oil, Kazakhstan’s most valuable resource is its people. By instilling in them industriousness and a sense of self-reliance, Nazarbayev believes that the state can help prepare Kazakhs for a future in the new innovation-driven economy, unleashing people’s creative potential and empowering them to act and organize on their own behalf.

“Kazakhstan is opening a new page in its own development,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrissov on a visit to Brussels last March to mark the 20th anniversary of relations between Kazakhstan and the European Union and to formally announce the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy. “Our vision is to bring Kazakhstan into the group of 30 most developed countries in the world, and when we say developed we mean from all aspects of life: economically, politically, and from the point of view of democratic and civil institutions.”

As Idrissov later told Tengrinews, Kazakhstan’s English-language news site, the President’s message should serve as a call to younger generations of Kazakhs not to squander what previous generations have managed to build and to take the country forward with “a more professional approach.”

Of course, stating the vision is one thing; implementing is quite another. Critical to success, Nazarbayev said, is the establishment of an “effective system of state management,” including a corps of experts across ministries and at each and every level of government. Also important, he added, is that the reforms be carried out on a national scale and at a measured pace appropriate to the sector in question.

“There should be no rushing ahead,” Nazarbayev told readers. “All changes in the social sphere should correspond to the level of development of Kazakhstan’s economy.”

Those changes run the gamut from amendments to the legislation governing education, housing and other social issues to the establishment of a health insurance system and the development of innovative measures to expand access to information technology. All are important parts of the package, and the President was careful to address each in detail. But one issue in particular, he said, merits the country’s utmost attention.

“Without a doubt, the most urgent matter of social modernization is to create an effective model of social-labor relations,” the President wrote, adding that such a model should be based on a partnership between state, private and professional associations. In recent years, Kazakhstan has done much to promote job creation, namely through the Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development Program designed to diversify the country’s economy and make it more competitive in the global marketplace.

That program has largely been a success, having led to the creation of thousands of new jobs since it was launched in 2010. As the President stated in his speech to Parliament, plans are in place to create another 1.5 million jobs by 2020, mainly through targeted support for rural-based entrepreneurs. But just as important as job creation, he said, is job seeking on the part of would-be workers. “We see that not all unemployed people seek work,” wrote Nazarbayev. If Kazakhstan is to be a competitive nation, he added, “We need to get rid of this mentality! Young people must develop new skills.”

Strengthening the legislative framework around labor also remains a pressing priority, said the President, who noted that though the country had adopted a Labor Code in 2007, the provisions regulating relations between employer and employee are often overly complex and difficult for employees to understand. One provision in particular, he said—a stipulation that new employees undergo an unpaid probationary period—had been used by unscrupulous employers to justify hiring help for a fixed term only to fire the worker without pay after the job was done. “It is nothing but exploitation of our country’s youth!” the President boomed, adding that upon further investigation, this injustice was found to be within the employer’s legal rights.

Equally outdated, the President went on, is the legislation on trade unions, which he called a “key partner of the state” in the sphere of labor relations. Absent any reference to the concept of a “social partnership,” he said, the law, which was adopted in 1993, hamstrings labor organizations in forging collective agreements, robbing them of the ability to prevent and settle disputes and conflicts. In fact, he said, owing to its Soviet inspired charter, the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan (FTU), the country’s largest trade union, does not even comply with current requirements.

“We must take decisive steps to modernize the labor movement, especially the FTU,” Nazarbayev wrote, stressing the need for “an efficient, multi-level mechanism” for settling labor disputes outside of court and for provisions in the Labor Code that would hold companies liable for such things as late payment of wages and failure to comply with collective agreements.

Perhaps the most visible sign of how far Kazakhstan has come in its drive to modernize society is the tremendous growth of information and communications technology (ICT). Since 2011, for example, the number of Internet users in the country has more than doubled—reaching 8.7 million—while a slew of new initiatives in e-governance have set out to digitize the delivery of state services and simplify business procedures for domestic and international investors.

The challenge, now, said Nazarbayev, is to develop a strategy for implementing those e-government services at the regional, town and district levels. Meanwhile, he said, the state should continue to expand access to information over the web through additional contributions to the digital archives of the Kazakh National Electronic Library (KAZNEB) and the modernization of the Kazakh media.

According to Darkhan Mynbay, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Culture and Information, a number of measures aimed at the latter are already underway, including work on a new draft code of journalistic ethics, updating the one first developed in 1997, and a plan to publish “professional portraits” of real working people. One example, he said, are Kazakhstan’s Olympic medal-winners “who by their hard work and talent have brought honor to our country.”

No less urgent, Nazarbayev went on, is the need for new legislation regulating public events. “In the 21st Century, social employment means much more than just employment,” Nazarbayev wrote. “Social employment also takes the form of public events organized by local authorities jointly with members of society.” Bicycle demonstrations, chess tournaments, city marathons, sports competitions, agricultural festivals, youth theater performances: these have an important role to play in enhancing social life, he said, and he called on all Kazakhstanis to take greater advantage of the country’s abundant cultural offerings, including the many theaters, museums and libraries opened over the past decade.

The past twenty years have seen striking change across Central Asia, and Kazakhstan has long stood out as a regional leader—not only in its economic ascendance, but also in the standard of living that growth has afforded citizens of the country. Now, having created the conditions for a middle class to grow and prosper, President Nazarbayev is calling on Kazakhs themselves to chart their own future—to work hard to improve themselves and to build a modern society that reflects the greatness of the country they call home.