Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed June 12 a decree proclaiming the first Sunday of July as National Day of the Dombra. The decree aims to maintain a national identity and revive the culture. A dombra is a round and flat, two-stringed instrument made of pine, maple, hazel and oak. It is included in the Representative List of the United Nations (UN) Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan launched the Qazaqtanu scientific and educational project, reported Kazinform June 12. It aims to promote the Kazakh culture, history, philosophy and the values of the Kazakh people among all ethnic groups. The Sacred Heritage: Uly Dala Eli project was previously implemented with the youth movement to strengthen national identity and unity based on common cultural historical and spiritual values. “It is of special importance in shaping common values, the rapprochement of the Kazakh-language and Russian-language discourses on the key issues of modern development,” said Deputy Chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and Head of Secretariat Leonid Prokopenko.
Public service centres for immigrants will be opened in Almaty and Atyrau by the end of the year. The applicants can receive medical examinations, fingerprinting and be issued an insurance policy and individual identification number within a few hours. “More than 34 million services were provided through the Egov.kz website in 2017. About a million licenses and permits were issued through the E-licensing system. About 135,000 companies were launched since 2012. We minimise the use of electronic signature to increase the services of the web portal. At present, 44 services can be obtained through a one-time password. The Government for Citizens now provides more than 83 percent of all state services. Last year, it provided 38 million services,” said Minister for Information and Communications Dauren Abayev June 21.
The Ministry of Culture and Sports is developing a tourist map of Kazakhstan, according to the press service of the ministry. Sixty tourism destinations including 43 operating and 17 new sites were selected in cooperation with Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs. “We should identify mechanisms to attract domestic and foreign tourists. We forecast that the project will increase the tourist flow up to 13 million tourists a year, attract $5.8 billion of direct investment and create 64,000 workplaces,” said Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly June 21.
Kazakhstan intends to revive the tungsten industry, according to Kapital.kz. Its total reserves are estimated at more than 2 million tonnes. In total, 12 deposits have been explored in the country. “It is a rare and highly-demanded metal… Taking into account the total reserves in the North Katpar and Upper Kairaktinskoye, Kazakhstan will have a major share of the world’s resources of tungsten. After reaching the designed capacity of these fields, the country will take the second place in tungsten production in the world,” said Tau-Ken Samruk Chairman Kanat Kudaibergen at the World Mining Congress June 21. The additional research is underway at the fields. The ore mining technologies are being improved and tested. Transport and energy infrastructure are also being developed.
Entrepreneurs and investors constructed 424 facilities and modernised 377 facilities worth 52 billion tenge (US$153 million) in 2017 as part of the Ruhani Zhangyru programme, reported Kazinform. This was announced at the ASAR forum June 22. The forum is held in a new region every year to reveal the opportunities and trends of tripartite cooperation. The first ASAR forum was held in 2017 in Atyrau. “The ASAR platform is one of the tools for implementing the Atameken sub-programme. It ensures the provision of joint activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), businesses and the state, intensification of efforts and attraction of additional resources and developments. Taldykorgan is the only region where the project for the creation of the community foundation was successfully implemented and approved by a NGO,” said Minister for Religious Affairs and Civil Society Darkhan Kaletayev.
