Articles by Meruyert Kabdenova

Kazakhstan has been a reliable energy partner of the EU for a decade, Aurelia Bouchez, head of the EU delegation to the Kazakhstan, said at the 21st KIOGE 2013 Kazakhstan International Oil and Gas Exhibition held on Oct. 1-4 in Almaty. Addressing the event, Bouchez said that the EU is Kazakhstan’s largest trading partner and…

Over the past several months, very interesting and quite telling developments have been taking place on the political scene in Kazakhstan as the government has been takingsteps to increase budget revenues while decreasing budget expenditures in the next few years. In the spring, the country was abuzz with the much debated pension reform law that…

Kazakhstan has approved a $23 billion project to expand production facilities of the Tengiz oil field, Kurmangazy Iskaziyev, deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas, said at the 21st Kazakhstan International Conference KIOGE-2013 on Oct.1. The project will bring oil field production to 38 million tons a year, the official said. “A…

The grain harvest is forecast to reach 18.5 million tons this year, Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Assylzhan Mamytbekov said at a CCS media briefing in early October. “Taking into consideration the results of the harvest, we have raised the grain harvest volume outlook to 18.5 million tons. Accordingly, the export volume outlook will be…

On Sept. 22, during a visit to Kyzylorda region, President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to pay special attention to forming flexible enterprises of 10-20 employees along the Western Europe-Western China highway. The 8,445-kilometre highway, which crosses three of the world’s 10 largest countries by area, will be the fourth longest highway in the world when completed.…

Members of the Mazhilis or lower house of Kazakhstan’s Parliament planted a new poplar alley along Turan Avenue in Astana as part of their volunteer Saturday work on Sept. 21. Along with poplars, the Mazhilis representatives planted ash trees and maples. The planting stock for the alley was brought from the forest nursery forming the…

In 2000, David Brooks, a prominent New York Times columnist, wrote a book called “Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There,” in which he chronicled the emergence of a new upper class of bourgeois bohemian (hence bobo). In that bestselling work of satirical sociology, Brooks coined a new word to…

The Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, a forum widely recognized by the international community, has become a true trademark of Kazakhstan and evidence of the efforts of our country and its first President Nursultan Nazarbayev in promoting the ideals of peace, harmony, humanism, tolerance and religious tolerance. All of these…

Kazakhstan’s business community will now be able to obtain a British business visa in two to three days following an announcement by the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy, Charles Hendry. Hendry made the announcement at the 17th Session of the Kazakh-British Trade and Industry Council. “We are introducing a pilot programme to issue business visas…

On Sept. 23, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov left for a working visit to Sochi (Russian Federation) to participate in the next session of the Collective Security Council (CSC) of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The heads of delegations from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia discussed a wide range of issues on…

Some 8.1 million square metres of affordable housing will be introduced in Kazakhstan by 2020, Deputy Finance Minister Ardak Tengebaev said at a recent international conference “10 years of the Housing Construction Savings System in Kazakhstan: Results and Further Prospects.” The deputy finance minister also said the funds from the budget for provision of preferential…

Kazakhstan plans to introduce differentiated tax rates on real estate owned by individuals, Minister of Economic Affairs and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev said on the sidelines of a government meeting on Aug. 28. “We believe over 150 square metres of housing per person is a large piece of real estate … the minimum floor area…

In a very symbolic development for Kazakhstan, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked it 50th out of 148 countries in its global competitiveness rating of world economies for 2013-2014. Kazakhstan…

Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline, symbolically launched by the presidents of Kazakhstan and China on Sept. 7, runs through Mangystau, Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan regions. Its total length is 1,477 km. The project encompasses the building of two gas compression stations in the villages of Bozoi and Karaozek. Completion of the 1,143 km long Bozoi-Shymkent Pipeline will…

Oil production at the giant Kashagan oilfield started on Sept. 9, KazMunayGas Chairman Sauat Mynbayev said. “We are expecting the start in two days. That is the first, so-called pilot. It should reach a certain level for us to announce the start of commercial production,” Mynbayev said on Sept. 7. At the same time, he…

The ninth-largest country in the world, Kazakhstan has made its geographic location work to its advantage, revitalising its role on the traditional Silk Route through the development of the Western Europe-Western China highway and other multinational projects. Located between the trading powerhouses of China and Europe, Kazakhstan’s multivector foreign policy has guided both its diplomacy…

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated India on its 67th Independence Day on Aug. 15. The Kazakhstan President sent messages of congratulations to India on the country’s Independence Day. In his message to President Pranab Mukherjee, he wrote: “I note with deep satisfaction the bilateral relations developing between our countries on the basis of mutually beneficial…

In July 2013, 8.6 million people in Kazakhstan were actively engaged in employment. This represents an increase of 56,400 since July 2012 or 0.7 percent. Of this total, 5.9 million (69.1 percent) are employees, while the rest are self-employed. On the other side of the coin, almost 468,000 people were registered as unemployed, resulting in…

When Kazakhstan became independent in December 1991, a lot of people both within and without doubted that it would exist for very long. And for good reason; in fact, for many reasons, ranging from lack of experience in managing an independent nation to the heavy legacy of Soviet nuclear weapons testing, an environmental catastrophe in…

On Aug. 13, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the Korme exhibition centre where he got acquainted with scale models of the EXPO 2017 exhibition complex. The president was presented with the works of about 50 architects from different countries of the world participating in the contest for the best design of the EXPO 2017 pavilion.…

The state will subsidize half of the APR on car loans for Kazakhstan citizens to purchase Kazakhstan-made cars, Tengrinews.kz reported, citing Andrei Lavrentiyev, Head of the Association of Car Making Businesses. According to him, about half of the APR will be subsidized after a borrower has been approved by a bank as eligible for a…

This is a question of power. Local elections of akims (mayors in Kazakh) in villages, towns and cities of regional importance will raise the level of legitimacy and transparency within Kazakhstan’s government. Akims, who are the heads of akimats, similar to mayors of municipalities, will be elected for the first time in the history of…

Astana celebrated its 15th anniversary as the capital of Kazakhstan on July 6. And what 15 years it has been… When President Nursultan Nazarbayev first presented the idea of transferring the capital from the tree-lined megapolis of Almaty in the picturesque foothills of the Tien Shan mountains to the mosquito-infested dusty town of Akmola in…

Civil society is a popular term in academia and Western media. But sometimes ideas and concepts can be lost in translation. Terms with political slants fall through the cracks of the tongue and can be completely missed or worse, misunderstood. When talking about civil society, it makes sense to identify some solid landmarks that cannot…

The Astana Times’ Yelden Sarybai sat down with Prasad Bhamre, Deputy General Director of Samruk Kazyna Invest, to talk about his views on Kazakhstan’s economic development, diversification efforts, agriculture, as well as a few secrets for getting to know this country better. Could you tell us a bit about your background? I’ve been to Kazakhstan…