Central Asian region seeks to be main transit connecting East-West, North-South routes
ASTANA – Delegations from across the region gathered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan March 15 for the first Central Asian Economic Forum (CAEF). Government representatives discussed prospects of mutually beneficial logistics and trade. The geolocation of the Central Asian states provides an excellent opportunity to serve as the main transit area to connect West and East. The…
AIX targets more Kazakhs to participate in financial market
ASTANA – Approximately 20,000-30,000 Kazakh investors are active in the stock exchange. The Astana International Exchange (AIX) plans to expand the retail investor base in the next 12-18 months, said AIX CEO Timothy Bennett at a March 15 press conference. Retail investors provided 66 percent of the exchange’s securities trade turnover for Kazatomprom. Company shares…
Routes Silk Road forum to be held this summer in Astana
ASTANA – Routes Silk Road 2019 approved the Kazakh capital as the next forum venue to discuss and develop air routes for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The forum will gather 250 aviation company delegates July 15-17 to address challenges and opportunities in the market during…
Spanish cinematographers to make film about Karlag labour camp
ASTANA – Spanish film and television production company called Plano a Plano is currently in negotiations with Kazakh Novyi Mir Production to make a movie about the events at the Karlag labour camp in Karaganda from 1940-1950, Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Muhamediuly announced March 11 on his Facebook page. Karlag, one of the…
Kazakh finance ministry amends draft budget plan, increases funds to social welfare
ASTANA – The Ministry of Finance proposed increasing the guaranteed transfer from the National Fund to 2.7 trillion tenge (US$7.13 billion) at a March 12 governmental meeting. The change translates to an additional 250 billion tenge (US$660.26 million) to finance President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s new initiatives this year. The 2019 national budget revenues, excluding transfers, are…
Altyn Adam World exhibition tour continues, next stop Tatarstan
ASTANA – Kazakh National Museum will present the Great Steppe: History and Culture exhibition featuring Altyn Adam (Golden Man) March 15-April 15 in Kazan, Tatarstan. The display is part of the Altyn Adam World project seeking to familiarise foreign audiences with rich Kazakh historical and cultural heritage. A museum in Minsk, Belarus, hosted the first…
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan form Central Asian Triathlon Association to engage more people in region
ASTANA – Swim, bike, run. The national Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan triathlon federations joined to form the Central Asian Triathlon Association (CATA) at the March 3 meeting in the capital chaired by Kazakh Triathlon Federation President Karim Massimov. The parties signed a memorandum of cooperation and mutual understanding to develop and popularise the multi-race sport…
Kazakh tennis player Bublik wins fifth ATP Challenger Series tournament
ASTANA – Kazakh professional tennis player Alexander Bublik won March 3 the inaugural Teréga Open Pau-Pyrénées in the singles final in the city of Pau, France. This is his second trophy of 2019 season and the fifth in his career on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tours. In the final match, Bublik beat…
Kazakh Foreign Ministry presents book about young diplomats, supports their professional growth
ASTANA – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a book called “New Faces of Kazakh Diplomacy” at the March 5 meeting with its contributors and the Institute of Diplomacy of the Public Administration Academy under the President. Presented as a part of events during the Kazakh Year of Youth, the book collects 26 interviews of…
Mama Pro empowers socially-vulnerable women, presents first trainees’ results
ASTANA – In conjunction with the upcoming International Women’s Day, capital-based Mama Pro public fund presented the results March 1 of its inaugural one-month intensive training course launched in January for socially-vulnerable women. Mama Pro is a small centre that makes big efforts to support the professional growth of women who are stay-at-home mothers, have…
Pavlodar to open Investor’s House to boost regional economy
ASTANA – The regional administration of Pavlodar will open an “Investor’s House” to operate as a one-stop shop for potential investors by the end of the year, Pavlodar Region Akim (Governor) Bulat Bakauov announced at a Feb. 15 meeting with regional residents. The Investor’s House will provide potential investors with the full range of project…
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 at the first meeting chaired by new Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin. “Our government should be the government of real action, aimed at concrete results,” said…
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 the entire cabinet. Mamin, who had been First Deputy Prime Minister, has been leading the interim government, after the President dismissed Feb. 21 the government led…
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 Unified System of Legal Information (USLI). The e-service will optimise the activities of legal advisers and lawyers, provide prompt public access to government information systems, minimise…
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 students from a monthly stipend for a “3” (the equivalent of “C” or “satisfactory”) grade during a Feb. 15 ministerial board meeting. The league members believe…
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. Now, their identities and very futures are also at risk, the journalist says. Kenzhetay tells The Astana Times that her work in war zones taught her…
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 and develop its research centres. The documents include a MOC signed Feb. 16 by regional Akim (Governor) Zhanseit Tuimebayev and Kazakhstan’s Trade Unions Federation. The number…
Kazakhstan to send second military unit to UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon
ASTANA – The Kazakh Ministry of Defence is preparing the second contingent of Kazakh soldiers to be deployed as peacekeepers in Lebanon. The troops are expected to be deployed at the end of April. “This is a matter of national importance, since it is the fulfilment by the Republic of Kazakhstan of its obligations to…
E-services transition in public procurement exceeds state budget plan, says Kazakh Minister of Finance
ASTANA – The Kazakh government is fulfilling 117.9 percent of budget revenues, according to the January monthly report presented at a recent government meeting. The main factor for timely fund disbursement is simplified public procurement procedures that have been fully converted to electronic format. Revenues exceeded the budget plan at all levels. State budget revenues…
Kazakh President decrees reshuffles in government and administration
ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed the heads of Syrbar Foreign Intelligence Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the new Secretary of the Security Council, the Ak Orda press service announced Feb. 13 on their Twitter page. According to the decree, the President reappointed Gabit Baizhanov as the Director of Syrbar Foreign Intelligence Service.…
Galysheva wins Kazakhstan’s first gold in Ladies’ Moguls at FIS World Championship
ASTANA – Kazakh professional freestyle skier Yulia Galysheva won the first gold of her career at the Feb. 9 International Ski Federation (FIS, Fédération Internationale de Ski) Ladies’ Moguls World Championship in Deer Valley, Utah (U.S.). Galysheva earned 79.14 points on one of the world’s most challenging venues. The silver went to Australian athlete Jakara…
From pipelines to apple orchards: Kazakh enterprise sees opportunity in managing diverse businesses
ASTANA – San Mir Astana represents a group of companies that at first glance have little in common. While one deals with repairing and rehabilitating oil and gas pipelines, another is in agroindustry producing organic crops and products, particularly Aport apples. “The ideas we use in one field, we can apply [to another] and create…
Sherkala captivates with ancient history, unearthly landscapes
ASTANA – Sherkala (also Shergala), a lone mountain with an unusual shape resembling a piala (small ceramic bowl) or gigantic yurt, is becoming the main tourist attraction of the Mangystau region. Some even see a sleeping lion who laid its huge head on his paws and the name means The Lion’s Castle in Turkmen. Sherkala’s…
Kokshetau will start Smart City transition with schools and busses, sees steady economic growth
ASTANA – Kokshetau’s transition to a Smart City will start this year by introducing e-tickets on public transport, the Smart School project in five schools and a pilot project to digitise the housing and utilities sectors. The town of approximately 130,000 is the regional centre of the Akmola region. The Smart City project is in…
Kazakh government envisions consolidating local exporters through engaging foreign buyers and state service support
ASTANA – The Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development has prepared a three-year comprehensive plan to assist export-oriented domestic enterprises in entering foreign markets. The ministry surveyed more than 300 local non-oil exporting companies and identified nearly 60 percent need financial support in terms of concessional lending, refinancing, subsidies, tax preferences and transportation cost reimbursement…
