Articles by Aidana Yergaliyeva

NUR-SULTAN – Russian designer-artist Alibek Koylakayev’s exhibit, Legends of the Turkic World, which presents psychological insights on well-known Turkic heroes, opened April 25 at the capital’s Kazakh National Museum. The show will continue through May 15. As an ethnic Nogai (a Turkic ethnic group), Koylakayev has always been curious about the history of his people…

NUR-SULTAN – Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) integration helps mitigate the potential effects of global trade wars, protectionism and sanctions, head of the Kazakh National Ministry of Economy’s international integration department, Indira Beisekeyeva, told the 2nd Congress of Eurasian Media, held April 24-26 in Konakovo, the Tver Region, Russia. “The integration allows us, in coordinating resources,…

NUR-SULTAN – The South African Embassy in Kazakhstan marked Freedom Day, their national celebration, with an April 26 lecture in the capital by former South African minister Sathyandranath Maharaj. He and Nelson Mandela laid the cornerstone for the country’s first free and just elections. April 27 represents the end to the unjust system of apartheid,…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Invest and a variety of Korean companies signed memorandums for $113 million in investment projects during the April 22 Kazakh-Korean Investment Forum in the capital. The projects cover a number of fields. K2AT will invest in plant construction to desalinate Caspian Sea water, produce organic fertilisers, begin smart farming near the Aral…

NUR-SULTAN – Central Asian countries working together to promote regional tourism would help increase the number of travellers who visit Kazakhstan for pleasure rather than business, said Director of the Kazakhstan Tourist Association Rashida Shaikenova at an April 10 press conference. Approximately 8.5 million people visited Kazakhstan last year, mainly for business, according to data…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are planning to open the Central Asia international centre for trade and economic cooperation on their shared border. The countries have set a goal to increase bilateral trade to $5 billion by the end of 2020, said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the April 15 press briefing summing up his…

NUR-SULTAN – After nearly a decade of inactivity, Dinatron-Kazakhstan, formerly the Irtysh Chemical Metallurgical Plant, smelted its first high-purity titanium ingot April 11. The bars weigh more than 150 kilogrammes, reported the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development press service. Re-opening the enterprise has created new jobs, which is extremely important for improving the East…

NUR-SULTAN – Bilateral cooperation has been gradually growing since Kazakhstan and Lithuania established diplomatic relations in the early 1990s. Cooperation in education has been the most vivid, said Lithuanian Embassy Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Adomas Davalga in an interview with The Astana Times. While indicators such as trade turnover are more volatile and fluctuations depend…

NUR-SULTAN –The Kazakh National Bank announced April 15 it would reduce the base rate to 9 percent with a corridor of +/-1 percent effective immediately. The base rate affects the level of inflation and the level of interest rates of loans and deposits of second-tier banks for individuals and legal entities. As of March, actual…

NUR-SULTAN – Almaty and Japanese officials recently planted the first of 100 cherry blossom trees along the Esentai River in Almaty as a symbol of friendship between the city and Japan. Tokyo Rope International President Sato Kazunori and Almaty Akim (Mayor) Bauyrzhan Baibek planted the first trees April 14, reported the city akimat (administration) press…

NUR-SULTAN – The Made in Kazakhstan label is given to agricultural products that are organic, affordable and high-quality. The Emil dairy products company meets all of those standards. The company was founded in 1993, just two years after independence, and, in the last few years has increased its product supply tenfold. It first won loyalty…

NUR-SULTAN – In response to the recent change in the Kazakh presidency, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK) organised a national extended meeting April 2 to redefine and discuss its agenda. The participants agreed to maintain its current course and involve more people in key national modernisation initiatives. “Today, we are entering a…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s modernised criminal law has mitigated punitive measures to better protect human rights in criminal processes. As a result, the number of people taken into custody has decreased 37 percent to 9,957 compared to 2018. The Law on Modernisation of Criminal Procedure entered into force in early 2018. In addition to strengthening human…

NUR-SULTAN – After considering the needs of domestic businesses, Toyota Financial Services Kazakhstan, the company’s representative branch in the country, is now offering operating leasing to its customers. The action will allow businesses to rent Toyotas for long-term periods with a full range of services. Renting a car through operating leasing has a number of…

NUR-SULTAN – Huawei, the Chinese multinational telecommunications manufacturer, is expanding its investment in Kazakh Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) university programmes by adding Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU) to its global network. The company will invite top performing students to an internship at its headquarters in Shenzhen and open a Huawei Authorised Information and…

NUR-SULTAN – Financing for Business Roadmap 2020, which supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through state allocated funds, increased 57 percent this year, said Minister of National Economy Ruslan Dalenov at an April 9 government meeting. As of Jan. 1, the number of operating SMEs increased 8.3 percent to 1.2 million. In the last four…

NUR-SULTAN – Although the Central Asian states still rely on extractive industries in attracting their biggest bulk of investment, the new reforms directed to diversify the economy have improved the business environment. In the next 10 years, the region has the potential to attract $170 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), including $40-70 billion in…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh hospitals expanded starting April 1 the nation’s free measles immunisation programme in response to an outbreak that occurred at the end of 2018 and in response to a more recent outbreak in Europe. The data of daily monitoring from Jan. 1 registered 4,670 cases of measles in Kazakhstan, reports the Ministry of…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh national airline Air Astana will launch Boeing 767 passenger flights to and from Tokyo in the second half of 2019, according to a March 26 announcement on the Facebook page of the Kazakh Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry for Industry and Infrastructure Development. The announcement follows a Jan. 30 directive from…

NUR-SULTAN – Dauren Baltabaiuly, an entrepreneur from the Saryagash district in Turkestan region, has aroused the interest of locals since planting 40,000 paulownia trees on two hectares. One of the fastest growing trees in the world, paulownias are often used in manufacturing. The business may seem like a slow effort, but it is a sure…

NUR-SULTAN – Russian artist Tatiana Vavrzhina will open her exhibition “Endless Love” April 2 at the capital’s Kulanshi Art Centre. The show will continue through May 10. The organisers – the Kulanshi, Rossotrudnichestvo representative office and the Russian embassy – promise to bring the city’s discerning public a very unusual art project. The Russian Centre…

NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh government recently added eagle hunting centres, volunteer coordination and self-defence courses to its Year of Youth initiatives. The programmes were added to the Year of Youth roadmap during a March 26 government meeting, which also included the addition of general vocational training and assistance for young journalists seeking to promote Kazakhstan’s…

NUR-SULTAN – Two people were killed and 27 were injured March 26 when three metropolitan buses, two passenger cars and an ambulance collided at the intersection of Kabanbai Batyr Avenue with Uly Dala Street in the capital. “I was driving in my car in the middle of the lane. At about 9.30 a.m., we were…

NUR-SULTAN  – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a decree allowing the capital city of Astana to be renamed Nur-Sultan in honour of the country’s founding President Nursultan Nazarbayev, akorda.kz announced March 23. The decree reads as follows: “In accordance with Article 9 of the Law of Dec. 8, 1993 ‘On the administrative and territorial…

ASTANA – In the wake of the surprise March 19 resignation of Kazakhstan’s founding President Nursultan Nazarbayev, experts on the country and region praised the former President and noted the stability Nazarbayev created and has now passed to the next generation. Nazarbayev resigned during a national televised address. Former Speaker of the Kazakh Senate Kassym-Jomart…