Kazakhstannamedone of the main streets in the capital, Astana, after the late King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan on May 19. The move to name a key road after the late king was to honour his stature in the Arab and international community as well as his contribution to establishing and nurturing ties between Jordan and Kazakhstan. Amman Mayor Akel Biltaji attended a celebration to mark the naming of the street while visiting Kazakhstan at the invitation of Astana Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov. During the visit, the two mayors worked toward fully implementing the twinning agreement between the cities of Amman and Astana in various areas of municipal services. Jordan signed the twinning agreement under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Jordan named a street in the Tareq area after First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2010, recognising his contribution to establishing fraternal relations between Jordan and Kazakhstan.
Financing for technical and vocational education in Kazakhstan has doubled over the past three years, Minister of Education and Science Aslan Sarinzhipov said at parliamentary hearings on staff training at Kazakhstan’s universities and colleges. “Just over the past three years, public funding for technical and vocational education has almost doubled. In 2010, there was allocated 52.9 billion tenge [US$288.7 million], and in 2013, 91 billion tenge [US$496.7 million]. In addition, funding for equipping workshops in colleges increased by six times, from 896 million tenge [US$4.9 million] in 2010 to 5.5 billion [US$30 million] in 2013. A dual system is being implemented. Modern institutions and new management models have been created. As a result, the employment of graduates in their specialities increased by 10 percent,” Sarinzhipov said. According to him, funding for higher education increased by 20 percent over two recent years, from 89.1 billion tenge (US$486.4 million) in 2011 to 106.5 billion tenge (US$581.3 million) in 2013. In 2013, nine Kazakh universities were included in the group of 701+ (QS World University Rankings). According to the ministry, today 1.86 million people study at 130 universities and 849 colleges in Kazakhstan. About 300,000 graduates appear annually in the labour market.
Standardisation of fifth-generation (5G) communication technologies in Kazakhstan may be finished in 2018, with implementation to follow immediately, Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Communications and Information Saken Sarsenov said in an interview for Primeminister.kz during the ASTEX 2014 International Exhibition and Conference. “According to preliminary estimates of experts, 5G technology will be standardised in 2017-2018. And as soon as it is standardised by the International Telecommunication Union, we will begin to implement it in Kazakhstan,” he said. According to him, 5G is much faster than 4G. South Korea and some European countries have already started to test the new technology. Sarsenov said that the agency planned to open videoconferencing with the heads of ministries, departments and regional administrations of all district centres. He noted that a UN survey found Kazakhstan to be in second place among 148 countries in the “e-participation” of citizens in government.
A meeting of the Commission on Citizenship under the President of Kazakhstan chaired by Secretary of State Adilbek Dzhaksybekov took place on May 21. During the meeting, issues of admission to and exit from Kazakh citizenship were discussed. As the Secretary of State noted, “since the independence of Kazakhstan, citizenship of our country was received by more than 948,000 people, most of which has occurred in recent years.” A number of organisational and legal issues in changing citizenship in Kazakhstan were discussed at the meeting. Following the meeting, the commission approved some decisions and recommendations.
