Asian Games Open in Nagoya as Kazakhstan Targets Bigger Medal Haul
ASTANA – The 20th Asian Games opened in Japan on Sept. 19, bringing together thousands of the continent’s top athletes. Kazakhstan is represented by 558 athletes competing in 35 of the 43 sports on the program, reported the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. The opening ceremony was held in Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya, and the…
Italy, Central Asia Launch B5+Italy Platform to Expand Regional Business Ties
ASTANA – Government and business representatives from Central Asia and Italy convened on Sept. 16 in Astana for the launch of the B5+Italy platform aimed at turning growing political engagement into investment, industrial cooperation and stronger trade links across the region. The forum in Astana brought together government officials and businesses from Italy, Kazakhstan, the…
South Korea, Central Asia Target Deeper Industrial Ties at First Summit in Seoul
ASTANA – South Korea and five Central Asian nations moved on Sept. 16 to deepen industrial and supply chain ties, seeking to combine Korean technology and manufacturing with the region’s critical minerals and push for more local processing and production. Seoul hosted the first Korea-Central Asia summit at the leaders’ level on Sept. 16, where…
Kazakhstan Plans $60 Million Tokenization Pilot for Alatau City Projects
ASTANA – Kazakhstan plans to tokenize up to $60 million in real estate and logistics projects by the end of 2026, launching its first major test of digital assets as a new source of financing for the economy, National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov said at a Sept. 15 government meeting. The plans include up to…
Kazakhstan Seeks Digital Leverage in AI Race
ASTANA – Kazakhstan is seeking to translate its energy base and position between major markets into digital leverage as data centers, advanced chips and artificial intelligence infrastructure emerge as strategic assets in an intensifying global technology contest. At the center of the nation’s ambition is the Data Center Valley in Ekibastuz, an industrial city in…
South Korea Meets Central Asia: What is at Stake at Seoul Summit
ASTANA – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and the leaders of all five Central Asian states will meet in Seoul on Sept. 16 for their first summit, seeking to turn nearly two decades of ministerial dialogue into a leader-level partnership focused on critical minerals, energy and resilient supply chains. Lee has described Central Asia…
S&P Sees Stronger Bank Oversight in Kazakhstan as Credit Growth Slows
ASTANA – S&P Global Ratings improved its assessment of Kazakhstan’s banking industry risk and upgraded or raised the outlooks on several financial institutions, citing stronger supervision as credit growth and banking-sector profits slowed in the first seven months of 2026. In its Sept. 4 release, S&P said stronger supervision, banks’ capital buffers and Kazakhstan’s sovereign…
Top Experts Argue Central Asia Needs Stronger Agency in Emerging Global Order
ASTANA – Central Asia’s best defense against challenging and fragmenting global order lies not in choosing a geopolitical camp but in deeper regional coordination, diversified partnerships and stronger international rules, top experts said during an Aug. 31 discussion in Astana. The five Central Asian states are unlikely to become a separate pole in the emerging…
EXCLUSIVE: First Korea–Central Asia Summit Marks New Phase in Seoul’s Eurasian Strategy
ASTANA — South Korea is moving to place its nearly two-decade engagement with Central Asia on a presidential footing, bringing the region’s five leaders to Seoul in September for an inaugural summit expected to focus on critical-mineral supply chains, energy infrastructure and artificial intelligence, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea Jung Ki-Hong said in an…
Key Appointments, New Government: What Comes After Kazakhstan’s Kurultai Vote
ASTANA – With Kazakhstan’s first Kurultai election concluded and the new unicameral Parliament set to convene for its inaugural session tomorrow, attention now turns to the institutional changes and key appointments that will shape the next phase of the country’s political transition. The Kurultai, named after gatherings when Turkic and Mongol tribes used to make…
Kurultai Vote Raises Stakes for Parties, Parliament and Foreign Policy, Experts Say
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s first election to the new Kurultai is reshaping more than the country’s parliamentary architecture, said experts at an Aug. 24 meeting in Astana organized by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS). They pointed to voter turnout, a bigger role for political parties and growing geopolitical competition around Central Asia at a…
Exit Polls Put Adilet Party Near 72% in Kazakhstan’s First Kurultai Election
ASTANA – The Adilet party was projected to receive around 72% of the vote in Kazakhstan’s inaugural election to the Kurultai on Aug. 23, according to three exit polls released at midnight on Aug. 24. Exit polls, which were announced during a live election night broadcast, also showed four other parties narrowly clearing the threshold…
Why Kazakhstan’s AI Challenge Might Not Be Adoption, but Capability
ASTANA – Kazakhstan is moving rapidly to position artificial intelligence at the center of its economic modernization strategy, investing in computing infrastructure, skills, startups and Kazakh-language technologies as governments worldwide compete for a place in the emerging AI economy. Kazakhstan has an increasingly ambitious AI agenda. The government has made AI part of its broader…
What Kazakhstan’s Recent Elections Reveal About Voter Participation
ASTANA – Voter turnout in Kazakhstan has fluctuated considerably in recent national elections, with presidential contests drawing higher participation than the two most recent parliamentary votes, as experts point to party mobilization, geography and public trust as key factors. Turnout is not just how many people cast ballots. It can also offer insight into political…
Kazakh Voters Increasingly Seek Concrete Policy Solutions, Experts Say
ASTANA — Healthcare, education and social protection are emerging as key areas of competition in Kazakhstan’s election campaign, with experts saying voters are increasingly looking beyond broad promises to how seven political parties intend to deliver measurable improvements in quality of life. Those issues were at the center of an Aug. 14 meeting of the…
Two Giant Tungsten Deposits Could Test Kazakhstan’s Push Beyond Raw-Material Exports
ASTANA – Kazakhstan plans to turn two of the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposits into the country’s first full-cycle tungsten operation, requiring ore to be processed domestically rather than exported as raw material as Astana seeks to capture more value from its critical mineral reserves. The Northern Katpar and Upper Kairakty deposits are being developed…
What Lies Behind Kazakhstan’s External Debt
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s external debt rose 7.5% year on year to $182.8 billion as of April 1. External liabilities of the government and state-controlled institutions jumped 39%, while private-sector debt remained virtually unchanged and intercompany debt linked to foreign direct investment declined 5.5% in one year. The National Bank defines external debt as debt obligations…
Kazakhstan Prioritizes Foreign Retails Chains as Higher-Value Exports Grow
ASTANA – Kazakhstan is preparing new support to place domestically produced goods in major foreign retail chains as the country seeks to build on rising nonresource exports and shift sales toward higher-value finished products. Nonresource exports increased 14.5% in the first five months of 2026 to $11.8 billion, while around 44% of goods produced in…
Kazakhstan Expands Digital Water Management as Pressure on Resources Grows
ASTANA – Kazakhstan is expanding digital monitoring, flood forecasting and groundwater research as it seeks to move from reactive water management toward a system that can anticipate risks and track water supplies more accurately. The Central Asian nation seeks to invest in better data to help solve some of its most persistent water problems. The…
Kazakhstan Moves Up 17 Spots in Post-Shock Investment Risk Assessment
ASTANA — Kazakhstan rose 17 places to rank 53rd in the May 2026 update of the Global Investment Risk and Resilience Index, marking one of the country’s strongest recent improvements in assessments of its ability to withstand economic and geopolitical shocks. The May 2026 edition of the index assesses countries by combining long-term resilience indicators…
Kazakhstan Releases First Tiger Into Wild in More Than 70 Years
ASTANA — Kazakhstan has released a tiger into the wild for the first time in more than 70 years, marking a historic milestone in a decade-long effort to restore the predator to its former habitat and revive the wider ecosystem of the southern Lake Balkhash region. An adult female Amur tiger named Umit, meaning “hope”…
With Azerbaijan, Central Asia Seeks Greater Geopolitical Weight
ASTANA – The leaders of Central Asia and Azerbaijan gathered in Cholpon-Ata on July 31 for an informal summit aimed at translating years of improving political ties into practical regional integration, as Azerbaijan expands the grouping’s reach across the Caspian and Kazakhstan pushes for an action plan for a landmark cooperation treaty. The consultative format…
What CPC Disruptions Reveal About Energy Security, Kazakhstan’s Balanced Foreign Policy
ASTANA – The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports around 80% of Kazakh oil, has been shut down for a week following Ukrainian drone attacks on July 17 and 19. The recurrent attacks renew questions about the country’s energy security, export dependence and the growing challenge of preserving its balanced foreign policy. The tankers Asia and…
Kazakhstan’s Dairy Output Rises as Cheese and Ice Cream Lead Growth
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s dairy manufacturing output rose 11.9% in the first half of 2026. The growth is concentrated in cheese, butter and ice cream while production of processed liquid milk remained nearly unchanged, according to the latest release from the Bureau of National Statistics. The value of manufactured dairy products reached 414.9 billion tenge (US$887.4…
ADB Vice President Says Kazakhstan Can Benefit as Investors Rewrite Map of Opportunity
ASTANA — Global certainty is not stopping investment. It is redrawing where capital goes and Kazakhstan can benefit from this shift, said Asian Development Bank Vice President Fatima Yasmin in an interview with The Astana Times. “Global uncertainty is making investors more selective, but it is not stopping investment,” said Yasmin, who visited Kazakhstan last…
