Business news in brief

Implementing 13 projects in the capital will attract more than 27.6 billion tenge (US$71.33 million) of investment into Kazakhstan’s economy, reported the city akimat (administration). In education, 11 projects will create more than 10,000 school spots, 1,000 places in kindergartens and 1,500 jobs. Singapore International School will construct a campus, including dormitories, and TAMOS Education will attract more than four billion tenge (US$10.34 million) in investment to construct a private school with a physics and mathematics emphasis. SABIS will build an international school by 2023, creating 1,000 school and 250 kindergarten places and 200 jobs. Its construction will cost $15.5 million. EURO AST KZ2019’s projects will also create 500 school and 120 kindergarten places. In the previous school year, Nur-Sultan had 108 schools with a shortage of places for children. Akim (Mayor) Altai Kulginov noted that, when choosing a school construction site, it is important to account for population density and potential connections to engineering networks and infrastructure.

The Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency will create a service allowing businesses to review their partners on integrity, said the agency’s Integrity Department Director Daniyar Sabirbayev at a recent briefing. As part of its anti-corruption project for supporting businesses, the agency learned complaints about dishonest business partners began to outnumber those about dishonest government officials. The service will be an objective tool for assessing whether business partners pay their taxes or have the appropriate licences, for example, and to incentivise better business behaviour. The action is needed “to make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the business environment,” he said.

Kazakhstan will develop a mobile application to independently assess its road quality, said Anti-Corruption Agency Integrity Department Director Daniyar Sabirbayev at a briefing. The Kazakh agency recently opened the Sapaly Zholy (Quality Road) project office, which is developing an app to evaluate road quality through phone vibrations and aiming to engage residents in road quality control. The app, which will launch in September, will become “the first project allowing for civilian control and monitoring of road quality in Kazakhstan,” he noted. Kazakhstan’s roads were recently renovated under the first phase of the 2015-2019 Nurly Zhol programme using 337.5 billion tenge (US$872.24 million) from the national budget. More than 6,800 kilometres of national roads will have been reconstructed by year’s end.

Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund is constructing five buildings in the Turkestan Region, reported the region’s akimat (administration). They include the Palace of Schoolchildren, Congress Hall, 7,000-seat central stadium and Khoja Akhmed Yassawi Museum, which will open next year. The Turkestan Region, established in June 2018, is the youngest among the nation’s 14 regions. It measures 11.6 million hectares and is home to nearly three million people.


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