Singapore investors to build international schools in Kazakhstan
ASTANA – Singapore-based Pegasus Education Group will invest in educational institutions based on the Singapore continuing education system in Astana, Almaty and Shymkent, reported Jan. 19 the press service of Kazakh Invest national company. According to the project, a network of international educational centres will be created in the country. The company plans to build…
Nomad culture, ethno-sports key to drawing tourists to Central Asia, says Nomad Games organiser
ASTANA – Central Asian countries are paying ever more attention to controlling their own national brands. The Astana Times spoke with Maksat Chaki, former Kyrgyz vice minister of culture, information and tourism and now World Nomad Games organiser, about the importance of nation branding and the World Nomad Games. “It is important to promote national…
World Bank forecasts Kazakhstan’s growth to ease to 3.5 percent in 2019
ASTANA – The growth rate of Kazakhstan’s economy will decrease to 3.5 percent this year as oil production growth levels off and further fiscal consolidation efforts continue, according to the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects: Europe and Central Asia Darkening Skies report. Global growth is expected to slow to 2.9 percent. “International trade and investment…
Kazakh national programme provides housing for 40,000 people
ASTANA – Approximately 40,000 Kazakh citizens received housing in the past year and every fourth loan was issued as part of the Nurly Zher national programme, reported Housing Construction Saving Bank of Kazakhstan Chairperson Lyazzat Ibragimova at a Jan. 17 press conference. “The bank issued and provided housing for approximately 100 billion tenge (US$264.5 million)…
Free Kazakh healthcare policy underway, national screening campaign brings results
ASTANA – Kazakhstan saw an increase from 40 to 46 percent last year in the number of private medical organisations participating in the guaranteed free health care programme, according to the Ministry of Healthcare press service. Since July 2017, deductions and contributions by employers and entrepreneurs for compulsory social health insurance has reached 133 billion…
Kostanai region foreign investments increase two-fold
ASTANA – The Kostanai region has developed 40 investment projects totalling more than 2.1 trillion tenge (US$5.5 billion) to implement in 2018-2025, reported Kazinform. Fourteen projects have been launched since 2017 and four projects worth 20 billion tenge (US$52 million) were executed last year. The region has worked hard in recent years to attract investments.…
Kazakh employment, training programme bring positive results, focuses on competencies for Industry 4.0
ASTANA – More than 500,000 people were employed in an 11-month period in 2018, including more than 368,000 for permanent positions, as part of the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development Programme 2017-2021, reported the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. More than 632,000 individuals participated in the programme. Approximately 40,200 enrolled in professional and…
Kazakh manufacturing labour productivity grows 1.2 times, third five-year plan focuses on export-oriented enterprises
ASTANA – Labour productivity in manufacturing has increased 1.2 times during the current industrialisation plan, First Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Roman Sklyar reported Dec. 29. The third five-year plan will be game changing for the country’s ecological economies and manufacturing industry. The concept of the industrial-innovative development programme is being developed to…
Mama Pro fund supports mothers of children with special needs, offers entrepreneurship courses
ASTANA – Mama Pro, a public fund which helps vulnerable children and their families, received the Tanym award this year. Launched in 2017, the organisation makes an invaluable contribution in addressing the challenges faced by mothers of children with disabilities. One participant recently noted that thanks to this project, she emerged from an eight-month journey…
Astana Invest contributes to foreign investment growth, focuses on PPP projects
ASTANA – Fixed investment in the capital reached 854 billion tenge (US$2 billion) in an 11-month period in 2018, reported the Astana Invest press service. Foreign investments represented 23 percent, or 197 billion tenge (US$530 million). The city is demonstrating steady growth in all major indicators of socio-economic development. The investment structure is changing. The…
Astana Opera House stages “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake” ballets in Italy
ASTANA – Astana Opera Ballet Company presented Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” Dec. 20-23 at the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa. “The audience is amazing. They gave us a warm welcome. When we performed on the first day, the children screamed and asked for an encore. Children are the most sincere audience. They believed in the…
West Kazakhstan region approves 12 investment projects worth $107 million
ASTANA – A $6 million export-oriented feedlot for nearly 20,000 cattle will be built in the Kaztalovski district in the West Kazakhstan region, the regional press service reports. More than 100 new jobs will be created during construction. The first phase of the facility, expected to be completed by the end of 2019, will house…
Programmes seek to attract more medical tourists to Kazakhstan
ASTANA – Medical tourists from 45 countries come to Kazakhstan annually, reported Deputy General Director of the National Centre for Health Development Aiman Iskakova. Ninety percent of them are citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), mainly from Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan while other visitors come from China, Iran and Turkey. Overall, 1,604 foreign…
Kazakh government takes measures to reduce utility costs
ASTANA – Utility costs will be reduced in all regions beginning Jan. 1, said Vice Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin at a Dec. 20 press conference in the capital. The action comes in response to a task set by President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Security Council meeting to reduce costs and enhance tariff setting…
Construction launched on Saryarka gas pipeline
ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev launched construction on the Saryarka gas pipeline during Astana’s Industrialisation Day, Dec. 11. “It is an ambitious and large project, but we are able to implement it in a short period of time. I believe that the gas pipeline will reach our capital and other regions next year. It…
First private employment agency opens in Akmola region
ASTANA – The Akmola region Chamber of Entrepreneurs has launched Kásip-kz, the first private employment agency, reported the regional city administration Dec. 6. The agency, in cooperation with its strategic partners, will hold a job fair in January in Shymkent. The regional administration signed memoranda of cooperation with the regional Chambers of Entrepreneurs of Shymkent…
Morocco seeks Kazakh tourists, tourism agency partnerships
ASTANA – Morocco sees the potential for cooperation in the Kazakh tourism market, said the country’s first Ambassador to Kazakhstan Abdeljalil Saubry at the Dec. 5 inaugural Moroccan tourism day in the capital. The event gathered approximately 50 local tour agencies, five Moroccan tour operators and representatives of the Moroccan National Tourist Office and Royal…
East Kazakhstan region students win WorldSkills Kazakhstan Championship
ASTANA – The East Kazakhstan region took first place in the fourth WorldSkills Kazakhstan Championship Dec. 3-7 in the capital. The 27 participants who won seven gold medals will participate in the 45th international championship Aug. 22-27 in Kazan, Russia. Beginning next year, business representatives will collaborate with WorldSkills Kazakhstan to train qualified personnel, said…
Kazakh driver Sultan Ibragimov makes impressive Formula 4 test debut
ASTANA – Fourteen-year-old Sultan Ibragimov will take part in the 2019 Formula 4 South East Asia Championship after completing the first test on the Sepang International Circuit Nov. 26-28 in Malaysia. He ran with the MERITUS.GP team during three days of testing. The test races became the first stage to prepare for the new season…
Karaganda region opens first major distribution and logistics centre
ASTANA – The inaugural stage of Alfarukh, the first wholesale distribution and logistics centre, has been completed in the Karaganda region as part of the Plan of the Nation, said Akim (Governor) Yerlan Koshanov at a Nov. 29 press conference in the capital. “It is a completely different approach to trade and logistics. The cluster…
Seven agreements worth $480 million inked at Almaty Invest Forum
ASTANA – Seven agreements worth $480 million were signed as part of the sixth Almaty Invest Fоrum. A favourable investment climate, highly developed human capital and tourism make the city attractive for investors. Trade and services contributed 86 percent and small and medium-sized enterprises 40 percent to Almaty’s economy, said Akim (Mayor) Baurzhan Baibek during…
West Kazakhstan region supports small businesses, productivity growth
ASTANA – The West Kazakhstan region ranks third in the country with a 40-percent share of the medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the gross regional product. This indicator was achieved by increasing the number of operating SMEs to 40,000 enterprises with more than 115,000 people working in this sector, the region’s Akim (Governor) Altay Kulginov said…
Language policy programme brings positive results, considers Kazakh terminology update
ASTANA – The state programme on language development and functioning is in full swing throughout the country. More than 42,000 people have attended language courses at the training centres and 52,245, including 20,057 civil servants, passed the KazTest examination of their proficiency of the Kazakh language in a seven-month period, said Vice Minister of Culture…
Local pharmaceutical plants to provide majority of essential medicines, increase production
ASTANA – Local pharmaceutical plants will provide 1,144 essential medicines for free in 2019, according to a Nov. 23 report by the Central Communications Service. The list includes drugs to treat arterial hypertension, diabetes, oncology, haemophilia, multiple sclerosis, heart failure, pneumonia, bronchial asthma and other diseases. “We concluded the contracts with domestic producers and held…
Kazakh PhD students in UK initiate collaboration, research exchanges to achieve SDGs in Central Asia
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s PhD Association in the U.K. will organise the second Central Asian Research Forum on Sustainable Development and Innovation March 18 in Loughborough and April 4 in the Kazakh capital. Loughborough University and Nazarbayev University will host the student-led initiative. As a preview, The Astana Times spoke with association founder and president Aliya…
