Astana Opera to present classical masterpieces

ASTANA – Soprano Maria Mudryak and tenor Medet Chotabaev will present “Masterpieces of Musical Art” March 2 at the Astana Opera House in the capital. The Astana Opera Symphony...


Documentary screening commemorates Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-nuclear movement anniversary

ASTANA – Achieving the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) remains a global priority 22 years after its introduction, said speakers at the Feb. 26 film...


Kazakh President urges measures to improve living standards during Nur Otan party congress

ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev outlined at the Feb. 27 18th Congress of Nur Otan Party efforts to improve social supports and living standards in Kazakhstan. According to...


Kazakh National Security Committee to protect government agencies from information leaks

ASTANA – The National Security Committee will be equipping government agencies with systems to prevent information leaks. The Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry scientific and technical council has...


Japanese spring festival celebrates Japanese, Kazakh culture in Astana

ASTANA – Capital residents will have a chance to get acquainted with Japanese traditional music and classics, as the Japanese Spring Festival comes to the city Feb. 27 for...


Civil service experts exchange best practices at Astana Civil Service Hub conference in Dubai

ASTANA – The public sector must keep up with private sector innovation, concluded speakers at the Feb. 10-12 Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) conference on Civil Service in the...


Kazakhstan has two and a half million hectares of unused agricultural land

ASTANA – Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country by area in the world, has two and a half million hectares of unused land. Measures taken recently by the Ministry of...


Paramount Group provides UAE with next generation of armoured vehicles

ASTANA – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the acquisition of Paramount Group’s armoured personnel carrier, the Mbombe 4×4, Feb. 17 at the International Defence Exhibition in Abu Dhabi....


Inbound tourism to Kazakhstan increased 10 percent in 2018 over previous year

ASTANA – Approximately 8.49 million people visited Kazakhstan in 2018, which is 10.2 percent more than in the previous year, said Kazakh Tourism national company chairman Rashid Kuzembayev in...


New government members take oaths of office

ASTANA – New ministers, including minister of education and science, minister of agriculture, minister of national economy and of infrastructure and development took their oaths of office Feb. 26...


Tattoos should be perceived as artwork, says Kazakh tattoo artist

ASTANA – Tattoos are artwork that should be created for each person based on the individual’s wishes and ideas and taking into account his or her anatomy and health,...


Business news in brief

Turkestan opened a new information technology centre, Turkestan Hub, Feb. 19. The centre is intended for use by young IT professionals and investors, the press service of the regional...


Economic news in brief

Investments in health and social services in Kazakhstan reached 122.2 billion tenge (US$324.88 million) at the end of 2018, 26 percent more than a year earlier, reports finprom.kz. More...


Central Asian nations discuss security, environment and other regional issues in Tashkent

ASTANA – Experts from the Central Asian countries, and beyond, agreed at a Feb. 19-20 conference in Tashkent to continue supporting cooperation in security, connectivity and environmental issues at...


External news in brief

Kazakhstan presented its food and beverage products at the GulfFood event, the 24th iteration of the world’s largest annual food and beverage trade show, which took place Feb. 17-21...


National news in brief

Astana airport has introduced electronic boarding passes, Kazakhstan’s civil aviation committee has announced. “This technology is used in the world’s largest airports. Passengers can scan boarding passes with a...


Kazakhstan increases focus on assisting large families, next generation

Kazakhstan, as we have said many times before, has come a long way in a very short time. The country’s development in the last two decades has been remarkable...


Kazakh President appoints new government, reorganises ministries

ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Askar Mamin new Prime Minister, announced the Akorda press service Feb. 25. The same day, the President reorganised several ministries and appointed...


Kazakhstan’s car production increases approximately 80 percent

ASTANA – Kazakh passenger car production increased 78.8 percent (30,000 cars) in 2018 compared to the previous year. The East Kazakhstan region manufactured 18,300 cars, or 60.8 percent of...


Korean culture, language are popular among young people, says Korean community leader

ASTANA – The Korean language and culture are popular among young people, said Chinson Korean Cultural Centre Chair Lyudmila Lim in an interview with The Astana Times. The Chinson...


Astana Ballet to present globally recognised ballet

ASTANA – The Astana Ballet will present four one-act ballets on International Women’s Day, March 8. Among them are “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” ballet by American choreographer William...


Air Astana increases number of flights to Uzbekistan

ASTANA – Air Astana will begin April 1 offering three additional flights per week from Almaty to Tashkent and two additional flights per week from Astana to Tashkent. The...


Kazakh President dismisses government over failure to improve living standards

ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev dismissed the country’s government Feb. 21 over what he termed its failure to improve living standards, reported Akorda.kz. In announcing his directive for...


Aktobe region bets on manufacturing, agriculture, SMEs and PPPs, governor says

ASTANA – In this exclusive interview, Berdybek Saparbayev, Akim (Governor) of the Aktobe oblast in the western Kazakhstan, speaks about the major efforts by his administration to develop industry,...


Finland to promote EU-Kazakhstan cooperation, boost economic ties, says envoy

ASTANA – Kazakhstan is the most important Central Asian economic partner for Finland, said Finnish Ambassador Mikko Kivikoski in an interview with The Astana Times which touched upon a...


Astana coworking develops, offers different solutions

ASTANA – Although a novelty several years ago, the coworking culture seems to be gaining popularity within the city’s business community. Coworking sites in the capital offer a similar...


Kazakh E-Law Assistance system will optimise lawyers’ services

ASTANA – National Information Technologies (NIT) and the Association of Legal Consultants Chambers signed an agreement Feb. 15 to provide legal consultants’ and lawyers’ services through E-Law Assistance, the...


Kazakh-language Notre Dame de Paris to be staged across Central Asia

ASTANA – Following its December debut in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh version of the French musical Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) will be performed in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan,...


Astana Akim discusses healthcare, housing and other issues with Astana residents

ASTANA – Astana Akim (Mayor) Bakhyt Sultanov discussed housing, medicine, education, ecology, security and other issues with citizens at the Feb. 20 annual reporting meeting. The meeting came as...


Non-profit promotes Central Asian culture in South Korea

ASTANA – The Central Asian Supporters Association (CASA) based, a non profit organisation based in Seoul, South Korea, promotes Central Asian culture and connects citizens of the region living...


Kazakhstan is global leader in flax production

ASTANA – Kazakhstan ranked first in the world in the production of flax reaching the volume of more than 900,000 tonnes flax in 2018. This was announced by Kazakh...


Martian landscapes on Earth: Kiin-Kerish Valley and Shekelmes Cape

ASTANA – Kiin-Kerish Valley and Shekelmes Cape in the East Kazakhstan region are famous for their red, orange and white-coloured landscapes that resemble the surface of the moon. Although...


Becoming a 16-year old world champion: a story from a Kazakh karate fighter

ASTANA – A 6-year-old girl who became a world karate-do Shotokan champion in four years has been named one of Kazakhstan’s 100 New Faces. Eduarda Velk is a two-time...


Central Asia’s largest solar power plant opens in Karaganda region

ASTANA – The Karaganda region began large-scale transition to green technology by opening a solar power station in Saran, the largest such facility in the Central Asian region. “The...


Kazakh citizens invest $2.6 million in National Bank notes

ASTANA – Kazakh citizens have purchased government notes worth $2.6 million through the National Bank’s Invest Online system, an innovative technology product for people to invest in securities. Invest...


Time to end sanctions against Syria and restore economic stability

Whenever light appears at the end of the tunnel in the Syrian conflict, it escalates into new dimensions. The military war has now been replaced by an economic war...


“Ayka” film premieres in Astana

ASTANA – The Oscar-shortlisted “Ayka” film directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy was recently released in the capital. The film features Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova who won the Best Female award...


Kazakh clock-in, clock-out automation service start-up plans expanding to Southeast Asia

ASTANA – Kazakh start-up Clockster, a clock-in, clock-out automation service powered by biometric identification, seeks to expand to Southeast Asia after selling four devices to SubicWorx in the Philippines,...


Kazakh university students with C grades studying on state grants will retain stipends

ASTANA – The Ministry of Education and Science and the Kazakh League of Academic Integrity, which includes the country’s leading universities, proposed cancelling the older system of depriving Kazakh...


Construction to start in the second quarter on Astana’s first gastronomic market

ASTANA – The capital’s first gastronomic market will be built in the second quarter of 2019, reports the city akimat (administration). The Keruen Global gastronomic market will be located...


Kazakhstan increases solar power electricity by 9 percent

ASTANA – Kazakhstan saw a 9-percent increase last year in its volume of solar power generated electricity. The 2018 volume was 107.1 billion kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to 103.1...


Zaisan Lake residents investing in tourism infrastructure

ASTANA – Zaisan Lake’s rich and diverse fish stocks are attracting fishing enthusiasts from within Kazakhstan and from neighbouring Russia. Now, the local population has built a hotel for...


Digital Kazakhstan measures increase labour productivity, reduce costs

ASTANA – Measures implemented through Digital Kazakhstan have had a 218-billion tenge (US$579 million) economic impact and created more than 43,000 jobs, said Minister of Information and Communication Dauren...


Kazakh President meets with newest 100 New Faces winners

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s 100 New Faces project aims to motivate citizens to achieve better results in their activities, said President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Feb. 13 meeting in the...


Artificial intelligence cleaning robots from Yakutia find first customers in Kazakhstan

ASTANA – An autonomous robot cleaner designed to clean large premises and industrial and commercial facilities was presented Feb. 4 at the Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in the capital....


Be human above all, Kazakh war correspondent stresses

ASTANA – Nazgul Kenzhetay, perhaps Kazakhstan’s first war correspondent, hopes to raise awareness of the lost childhoods of the millions of innocents along the border between Turkey and Syria....


Turkestan region signs memorandums to modernise trade system, healthcare, research centres

ASTANA – Turkestan regional authorities recently signed memorandums of cooperation (MOC) with local and foreign companies and institutions to improve and modernise its trade system, build a pharmaceutical plant...


Kazakh National Bank blocks second-tier banks from taking commissions for loans

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s National Bank has banned second-tier banks from charging fees for lending to the population. This move follows its ban on such banks charging interest on accounts...


Nazarbayev University scholars, students invent medical device named among world’s top 20 innovations

ASTANA – The United Nations (UN) recently recognised an invention by Nazarbayev University (NU) scholars and students’ to rehabilitate patients after a stroke as among the world’s top 20...


Kazakh defence-industrial sector to prioritise local production, says deputy prime minister

ASTANA – Increasing Kazakhstan’s production in the defence-industrial sector is to be prioritised among defence-industrial firms in Astana and Almaty, said Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence...