The StartupNomad Tour, a campaign organised to hold business classes and select the best startups in cities across Central Asia, launched in Astana, BNews reported on June 22. The tour will go to Karaganda, Tashkent, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Kyzylorda and Taraz and end in Almaty to coincide with the Global Entrepreneurship Conference on Nov. 19-20. The three best projects will be selected in Almaty. The tour has been organised by Kazakhstan’s Club of Young Entrepreneurs. In classes on the tour, executives and business speakers will share experiences and experts will explain effective technologies and business tools.
A business and commercial centre called “Astana” is to be built in St. Petersburg starting later this year, Tengrinews reports. A ceremony to lay the foundation of the centre took place on May 17. In 2014, the St. Petersburg Business Centre opened in Astana.
A draft of proposed uniform rules for development in Kazakhstan was presented in the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) on June 18, Tengrinews reported. The fundamental purpose of the new rules is to reduce the time required for developers, according to the NCE. The new rules establish uniform regulations regarding architecture, urban planning and construction activities in the country, from design to commissioning, including mechanisms for allocating land and obtaining permits. Implementing some provisions of the draft rules would require amendments to some legislative acts, including the Land Code and the law “On architectural, urban planning and construction activities.”
Five companies from Kazakhstan are presenting their products at an exhibition in Moscow celebrating the 20th anniversary of the RosUpack International Exhibition of the Packaging Industry, the Central Communications Service reports. Neftehim, the Corrugated Packaging Plant, AiBM, Intellservice and Novopek are taking part in the event with the support of Kaznex Invest. “Exports of packaging products in Kazakhstan in 2014 amounted to $25 million, which is 35.7 percent higher than in 2013. To Russia alone, we supplied $6.3 million worth of such products,” said representative of the Service for Export Promotion of Kaznex Invest Vyacheslav Lyubarets. At the end of the exhibition, a number of contracts between Kazakh and foreign companies are expected to be signed. Novopek representative Serik Keruenbayev noted that his company’s products are attracting a lot of interest.
Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Kazakhstan Daulet Yergozhin announced on his Facebook page that the country had established a Customs Electronic Data Interchange with China, Tengrinews reports. This is good news for Kazakh businesses that trade with China, he said, according to the report. Now data about dates, volumes and prices of trade can be processed electronically, he said. The interchange is expected to help the two countries generate statistical data more easily and combat smuggling.
Trade in the Khorgos Special Economic Zone is up by some 90 percent this year compared to last year, CRI English reports, and passenger flow through the cross-border cooperation centre has doubled to about 1 million people. Much of the increase is due to infrastructure investment in the area, Nie Yongle of the Khorgos Merchants Group said, according to the report. “The airport in Yining, which is the capital of the Ili Kazakh prefecture, is now being enlarged. At the same time, the expressway between Lianyungang and Khorgos has been opened up, and the construction of another expressway linking Khorgos and Almaty is underway. Once it’s done, it will be a highway network linking China with Central Asia and Europe.” A cross-border passenger train service is set to open in July.
