Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline, symbolically launched by the presidents of Kazakhstan and China on Sept. 7, runs through Mangystau, Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan regions. Its total length is 1,477 km. The project encompasses the building of two gas compression stations in the villages of Bozoi and Karaozek. Completion of the 1,143 km long Bozoi-Shymkent Pipeline will allow the transport of up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The pipeline’s capacity will reach 6 billion cubic meters of gas per year after the launch of the Bozoi gas compression station. “Construction of Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline will allow for a number of tasks of a national scale to be fulfilled, including providing Kazakh gas to the southern regions, uniting all the main gas pipelines of Kazakhstan into a single gas transmission system and, finally, it will provide opportunities to export Kazakh gas to the Chinese market,” Director General of KazTransGas JSC Serik Sultangali said. “This is not just a socially important project for Kazakhstan, it will also allow the export of Kazakh gas to China. Implementation of this project corresponds to the strategy and mission of our company,” the Vice President of Trans-Azia Gas Pipeline Company Limited said. The project costs $ 3.6 billion. About 3,800 people are engaged in the project’s implementation, 90% of them are Kazakh specialists. National gas and gas supply operator KazTransGas JSC reached an agreement with the participants of the consortium for the development of the Kashagan deposit. As a result, all the produced commercial gas will be transported via the Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline. The Beineu-Shymkent gas pipeline is one of the most important infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan. It is included on the list of strategic investment projects and on the Industrialization Map for 2010-14. The project is being carried out by Kazakhstan jointly with China in accordance with the agreements between the two governments on the construction of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline and in accordance with the agreements reached between KazMunaiGas and the CNPC.
National Bank Chairman Grigoriy Marchenko said Kazakhstan plans to invest 20% of the Single Pension Fund abroad within the next 3-5 years. “Within the following 3-5 years, the share of foreign securities in the Single Pension Fund’s portfolio should be brought up to 20%. Now it stands at 10% … The pension fund’s assets will not be invested into private equity and hedge funds,” he said. The Single Pension Fund was created by a governmental decree dated July 31, 2013. Marchenko stated during a briefing in late July that “the process of forming the Single Pension Fund is not complete”. It is being created based on the state-run pension fund [the rest of the country’s pension funds to be merged are privately owned]. Kazakhstan’s Government will be the founder and the sole shareholder of the Single Pension Fund. The assets will be managed by the National Bank (Central Bank of Kazakhstan) as the Bank already has a vast experience in managing the National Oil Fund’s money”. “I am not sure that the pension reform will be complete before the end of the year. We need to make sure everything is done prudently, rather than by setting a tough deadline. The pension statistics are 8.5 million depositors with a total of $23 billion worth of savings,” Marchenko said. Before the decision on merging all of the country’s private pension funds, Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said “the current service fee rates applied by the country’s pension funds have reduced the people’s pension savings by 26%”.
