Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed July 7 the new law “On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts on Insurance, Insurance Activities and Stock Market,” reports Akorda.kz. The amendments introduce online and prescribed insurance, change the approach to travel insurance, improve dispute settlement mechanisms as well as expand the additional guarantee system for life insurance. “Our goal is to create conditions for online insurance. People and companies will be able to enter into contracts without visiting an insurance company. The absence of intermediaries will reduce the cost of insurance,” National Bank Chair Daniyar Akishev said Feb. 28 during the presentation of the draft law in the Mazhilis (lower chamber of Parliament).
Astana Hub, the Kazakh capital’s international IT and start-up hub, presented its key directions and major digital projects July 3. Located at the EXPO 2017 site, the hub launched a 100 start-ups community-building programme through which participants will co-work in a shared space, learn together, exchange experience and establish relations with investors and experts. Each team will be promoted, tracked monthly and have access to start-up auctions to attract investment. “Astana Hub is an important project for digital and innovative modernisation of the country. It is becoming a centre of advanced technologies and talented specialists. This project is set to make Kazakhstan the centre of digital innovative solutions,” said Minister of Information and Communications Dauren Abayev.
More than 30 production and trade facilities worth 10 billion tenge (US$29 million) will be opened in the Aktobe region, creating hundreds of jobs. The Ice Plus dairy company will launch an ice cream production plant with a capacity of 70 tonnes of products per day. A plastic bag manufacturing plant with a capacity of up to 1,200 tonnes of items per year will be launched in the Aktobe industrial zone. “Eight sport venues and playgrounds will be opened in the region. A stadium accommodating 150 people will be built in the Aitekebi region and a school will be put in operation in the Khromtau district,” reports the regional press service.
Asia Avto Kazakhstan will build a facility for welding and painting services in Ust-Kamenogorsk, according to Kazinform. The company has so far invested $63.5 million in the project. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance represented by the Avtovaz company is a technological partner and minority shareholder in the project. “The production we launch today will ensure the transition to a qualitatively new stage in the automotive industry’s development. The welding and painting capacities will increase local content to 50 percent and expand export opportunities,” said Asia Avto Kazakhstan Holding Chair Anatoly Balushkin.
KazCentre for Housing and Communal Services will introduce Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in multi-apartment residential buildings. The centre signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Automato company July 4 to develop software for remote collection of indications and individual metering devices at the Information Day of Domestic IT Solutions exhibition. “We support domestic IT developers taking into account the digital economy policy. We plan to create a unified intellectual information system in the housing and utilities sector, which includes the most up-to-date technologies,” said KazCentre Chair Nursultan Zhienbayev.
Almaty city authorities will open a waste sorting complex and a public park for gas-powered and electric buses as part of the 50 projects-drivers of the city’s development, reports Kazinform. This will reduce environmental damage and create new jobs. Private investors have allocated approximately 15 billion tenge (US$43 million) to the projects. “FalconEuroBus, the Kazakh-German company, is building an electric bus production plant. The assembly and painting workshop of 7,000 square metres, a covered parking lot and storage facilities are being completed. Initially, the local content production will reach 20 percent with a subsequent increase in the share,” said a representative of the regional press service.
