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The Kazakhstan National Security Committee has made a bid to host the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Astana in 2017, KazEnergy Association Executive Director Ramazan Zhampiisov said on April 19. Zhampiisov told a meeting of the Council of Associations of Oil-Gas and Energy Sector of KazEnergy that Houston in the United States was also bidding…

The third Ministerial Meeting of the Istanbul Process on Regional Security and Cooperation for Secure and Stable Afghanistan will take place in Almaty on April 26. The process was launched on Nov. 2, 2011 at the foreign ministers meeting in Istanbul. Its first ministerial conference was held in Kabul on June 14, 2012. The third…

The 20th anniversary Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan 2050: one nation – one country – one destiny” under the chairmanship of President Nursultan Nazarbayev is to take place on April 24 at the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. The event will bring together members of the Assembly from all regions, the chairmen of…

• A conference entitled “Building a Green Economy in Kazakhstan” will be held on April 12, Central Communications Service Spokesman Altay Abibullayev said. Cabinet members, ambassadors and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development officials are expected to speak there, he added. The conference will provide a platform to discuss sustainable economy developments in the context…

A three-day exhibition on modern building technology in Astana was held at the Korme complex in Astana from March 27 to March 29. It displayed construction techniques, finishing materials, ventilation, heating and sewerage systems, gas, water and energy conservation, construction machinery and equipment, construction and road materials from companies in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, China and…

President Nursultan Nazarbayev paid an official visit to China on April 5 and held talks with new President Xi Jinping. They discussed the strategic partnership between the two countries and bilateral cooperation in the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Conference of Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). President Nazarbayev gave…

On April 3, Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov reported to President Nursultan Nazarbayev on the country’s development in the first quarter of 2013. The president said the country needed to maintain its pace of development and prepare for the spring sowing campaign. He said the major railway and road-building programmes needed to be completed rapidly. “Our…

Kazakhstan’s trade with its two Customs Union (CU) partners Russia and Belarus exceeded $1.6 billion in January, a rise of 7.7 percent on January 2012, the Kazakhstan Statistics Agency said. The KSA said minerals accounted for 42.2 percent of exports to the other CU countries, metals and metal goods comprised 24.3 percent and chemical goods…

Kazakhstan will reimburse the fuel and lubricant shortages due to tolling operations in China, Prime Minister’s Serik Akhmetov’s official website announced on March 20. “We agreed on the need to transport 1.5 million tons of crude oil to China for processing at the production facilities of the Chinese Dushanzi refinery within the tolling operation,” director…

Rapil Zhoshybayev, executive secretary of the Foreign Ministry and commissioner in charge of EXPO 2017, met with Chinese Deputy Foreign Ministers Cheng Guoping and Si Hanshen, director of the Administrative Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Li Chao during his working visit to Beijing on March 18-19. The two sides discussed increased bilateral cooperation and…

President Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a decree on March 23 for the convocation of the 20th Session of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan in Astana. The session is scheduled to meet on April 24. The session will be on the theme of “Kazakhstan – 2050: one nation – one country – one destiny.” The government…

Kazatomprom Managing Director Valery Shevelev said a new factory to make wind turbines would be built this year in Kazakhstan. The new wind turbines will be available for private purchasers. He also said the Kazakhstan Government has settled on building a new atomic power station in Aktau, on the Caspian Sea shore. The selection of…

The festival of Nauryz will be celebrated from Thursday, March 21 to Saturday, March 23. Since Saturday is on the weekend, the last day of the holiday will be moved to Monday, March 25. Kazakhstan delegates participated in a meeting of the International Union of Lawyers in Moscow. IUL Chairman Andrey Trebkov said the organisation…

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has sent a telegram of congratulations to Cuban President Raul Castro on his re-election. “I believe that dynamic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Cuba based on mutual trust and understanding will grow stronger in the future for the good of our people,” Nazarbayev said. Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to China Nurlan Yermekbayev has received an…

Verny Capital, a Kazakhstan investment company, said on February 20 that in partnership with Kazzinc it had acquired the Raygorodok gold deposit, located in the Akmola region and the Komarovsky gold deposit in the Kostanay region for 30 billion tenge ($200 million). Verny Capital will own 10.5 percent of the mines and Kazzinc will control…

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) has predicted that, in 2013, the Kazakhstan economy will grow by six percent, confirming its forecast of October 2012. In 2012, Kazakhstan’s GDP increased by five percent. The bank said the start of commercial production in the Kashagan oil field in the North Caspian Sea will boost…

Kazakhstan has allocated 1 billion tenge ($6.7 million) for people needing organs transplants abroad this year, Azhar Tugaliyeva, director of medical aid organisations at the Health Ministry, said. “Our citizens go abroad only for transplantation of organs and tissues. These are the serious patients who failed to find their donors and for whom there is…

Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov spoke on the phone with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Feb. 19 to discuss bilateral relations, the upcoming talks over Iran’s nuclear programme in Almaty as well as the continued cooperation in stabilizing Afghanistan. A Russian space official said lease agreements for some launch facilities in Kazakhstan could…

The working population of Kazakhstan will grow to 9.5 million by 2017, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said in a statement. However, the ministry said the working population of the Akmola, Kostanay, North-Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan regions of the country would fall in the next five years. “The most significant growth in the…

Kazakhstan may join the World Trade Organisation this year, WTO director general Pascal Lamy said. “Kazakhstan is at an advanced stage of its accession negotiation. My guess is that this could be doable this year,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Gaidar Forum, an economic conference in Moscow. Kazakhstan applied to join the…

Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas has bought a 24.5 percent stake held by U.S. energy major ConocoPhillips in the Nursultan offshore oil block in the Caspian Sea. The block holds an estimated 270 million tonnes of recoverable oil reserves and commercial production at the field is expected to start in 2016. With the…

World powers have proposed holding a new round of talks with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme in the week of February 25 in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said. However, Ashton’s team, which co-ordinates diplomatic contacts with Iran on its nuclear programme on behalf of the United States, Russia, China,…

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has received Agriculture Minister Assylzhan Mamytbekov who reported on the agricultural sector results for 2012 and main approaches to its further development until 2020. “The state provides comprehensive support to agriculture. Every year, the funding is growing. The main goal of the country’s agro-industrial complex is to provide up to 80 percent…

The Government of Kazakhstan will hold an extended meeting chaired by President Nursultan Nazarbayev on January 23. The president will announce important changes in national policies in light of the…