Kazakhstan has allocated 1 billion tenge ($6.7 million) for people needing organs transplants abroad this year, Azhar Tugaliyeva, director of medical aid organisations at the Health Ministry, said. “Our citizens go abroad only for transplantation of organs and tissues. These are the serious patients who failed to find their donors and for whom there is no possibility to have the surgery in Kazakhstan,” Tugaliyeva said. “The budget for treatment abroad is increasing, as these are serious patients. These cases involve complicated surgeries that involve donor searches and transplants of major organs that are very expensive abroad. A single such surgery can cost around $200,000. Best Western International recently entered Kazakhstan, with the opening of Best Western Plus Atakent Park Hotel, in Almaty. The four-star hotel has 196 rooms with 23 suites and conference halls that can accommodate up to 500 people. Its amenities include climate control rooms, mini-bars, safes, international direct dial telephones, free wi-fi and a gym and spa. The hotel’s Bastau restaurant serves traditional Kazakh and European cuisines for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Kazakhstan is planning to invest $3.7 billion in a new gas processing plant at the Karachaganak oil and gas field being developed by the consortium operated by the British BG Group. “The plant will work to meet the needs of the country’s capital, Astana, and the northern regions starting from 2017,” the KazMunayGas National Company said in a statement.
A new industrial park will be built in Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan, Magzum Mirzagaliyev, deputy chairman of KazMunayGas, told the Oil and Gas: Kazakhstan Content-2013 forum. Mirzagaliyev said KMG had launched a new investment forum in Aktau in September 2012 to attract investors. KMG has signed memorandums with several foreign companies to build new production facilities.
A new gold mine has been discovered in the Zhambyl region. The Golden Compass Jambyl Company discovered the deposit while carrying out a geological survey in April-August 2012. It will invest three million tenge in the project. The total gold reserves of the mine are estimated at 300-350 tons.
Kaznet has bought the Wheels and Roof newspapers and websites. The cost of the properties was not announced. Kaznet is owned by Vyacheslav Kim, managing director of the Kaspi Bank and Kaspi board chairman Michael Lomtadze.
Average wages per month have increased by 6.9 percent. The highest wages are in the mining industry and averaged 247,500 tenge per person. Wages in professional, scientific and technical fields averaged 264,600 per person. Workers in financial fields averaged 267,700 tenge per person. The highest wage levels were 232,700 tenge per person in the Mangistau region, a rate 180 percent higher than the national average.
The insurance market of the three Customs Union nations of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus has been growing. Kazakhstan insurance companies increased the value of the premiums they collected in the first half of 2012 to $662 million, an increase of 12.5 percent compared with the same period in 2011a year before.
The Japan Atomic Power Company and Marubeni Utility Services, Ltd., signed the Memorandum of Understanding with National Nuclear Center of Republic of Kazakhstan for Cooperation toward the Introduction of Nuclear Power Plant in Republic of Kazakhsta.
This Memorandum is aimed to agree the area of technical cooperation on serious study toward the introduction of nuclear power plant which is promoted by the government of Kazakhstan, as a part of cooperation implemented based on “Cooperation Agreement for LWR Nuclear Power Plant Introduction in Republic of Kazakhstan” signed among the Japan Atomic Power Company, NNC and other relevant organizations at the occasion of joint public-private sector delegation on April 2007.
