Articles by Assel Satubaldina

NUR-SULTAN – The Asia–Europe Foundation (ASEF) attaches great importance to its work with Kazakhstan, ASEF Executive Director Toru Morikawa said in an interview to The Astana Times. ASEF is an intergovernmental and not-for-profit organisation, part of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) tasked with promoting cultural, intellectual and people-to-people contacts between the two regions.  The ASEM was…

NUR-SULTAN – The Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan met with the Civil Aviation Committee and representatives of Kazakh airlines to explore the current situation in the nation’s aviation industry, the Aviation Administration press service reported.  The Aviation Administration was created in August 2019 to conduct the regulatory activity which was done by the government and to…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chevron CEO Michael Wirth explored the company’s prospects in the country’s oil and gas sector during a video conference call, the Akorda press service reported. Tokayev and Wirth focused on Chevron’s activities in Kazakhstan and it’s projects in the country’s hydrocarbon sector amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan is planning on increasing women’s representation up to 30 percent in the management of companies with state participation, said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during the fourth meeting of the National Council of Public Trust, the Akorda press service reported.  Tokayev noted that women are still underrepresented in top management. Women currently hold…

NUR-SULTAN – The Kazakh and UK capital hosted the virtual Kazakhstan Global Investment Forum 2020 which was meant to facilitate Kazakh-British investments, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry’s press service reported. More than 500 heads of state bodies and companies in the processing industry, agriculture, chemical, mining, and financial sectors, as well as metallurgy, alternative energy, logistics…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev chaired the Oct. 22 first meeting of the Сouncil on Reforms, the Akorda press service reported. The Сouncil was created in September and is meant to serve as a supreme body for finalizing and adopting the nation’s reform plans. The goal of the new body, announced by Tokayev in…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree scheduling Majilis elections for Jan. 10, 2021, reported Akorda press service. Majilis is the lower chamber of the Kazakh Parliament consisting of 107 deputies, who are elected for a five-year term. The previous elections were held in March 2016. Six political parties participated in the elections…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan will reduce the number of international flights in an effort to address the surge in coronavirus cases globally and prevent the rise of coronavirus cases in the country, reported Kazakh Prime Minister’s press service.  The decision was made by the government commission on preventing the spread of coronavirus infection on Oct. 26. …

NUR-SULTAN – The government commission to prevent the spread of coronavirus met Oct. 26 and made a decision to reopen movie theatres after nearly a seven-month halt, the Kazakh Prime Minister’s press service reported.  Beginning Oct. 26, movie theaters will be able to operate at 30 percent capacity and following strict distancing rules and the…

NUR-SULTAN – Farkhat Sharipov’s “18 Kilohertz” won a grand prix at the 36th Warsaw International Film Festival that took place in Warsaw Oct. 9-18 despite the coronavirus outbreak. The film narrates the realities of teenage life in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty in the 1990s amid a rising drug problem and depicts the problems young people…

NUR-SULTAN – The majority of Kazakh citizens comply with the new COVID-19 regulations, said Kazakh chief sanitary doctor for transportation Sadvakas Baigabulov. According to the new COVID-19 regulations in effect since Oct. 6, passengers arriving in Kazakhstan must present a COVID-19 test result taken no more than 72 hours prior to the flight. Kazakh citizens violating…

NUR-SULTAN  – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Oct. 16 who was on an official visit to Kazakhstan, the Akorda press service reported.  Tokayev and Shoigu discussed strengthening military and technical cooperation between the two countries.  “The military and technical spheres have a very important role in our strategic…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with resident Abai scholars during his working visit to Semey city in eastern Kazakhstan and praised their important work in preserving national values, Akorda press service reported. “In the 1960s, our writers and poets helped to revive the spirit of the nation. During the thaw period (an unofficial…

NUR-SULTAN – World Bank called for greater investment in human capital development, as it recently presented an update to its Human Capital Index. In the updated report, Kazakhstan is performing relatively well, said World Bank’s Country Manager for Kazakhstan Jean-Francois Marteau. The HCI is an international metric launched in 2018 as part of the Human…

NUR-SULTAN – Two Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins launched on the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft Oct. 15 from Baikonur bound for the International Space Station, reported the Roscosmos press service.  The launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan took place at 11.45 a.m. Nur-Sultan time (1.45 ET time).…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi addressed a high-level conference dedicated to World Day and the tenth anniversary of the International Commission against the Death Penalty and spoke out against death penalty, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service reported. The meeting gathered heads of foreign ministries, United Nations representatives and human rights experts from…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan has recently taken over the chairmanship in the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) from Tajikistan, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry press service reported. Kazakhstan was elected as the organization’s chair in September and will serve in that role for two years.   The CICA is an intergovernmental forum aimed…

NUR-SULTAN – The COVID-19 outbreak has changed the lives of millions and brought with it dire fallout, including increased mental health issues.  As the world marked the Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, it also reaffirmed the growing importance of addressing mental health, said head of the World Health Organization (WHO) office in Kazakhstan Dr…

NUR-SULTAN  – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently attended the first comprehensive peacekeeping exercise in the history of the Kazakh Armed Forces, reported Akorda press service. More than 1,000 military officers, and more than 100 military units and special equipment participated in the training.  In the training center, Tokayev was briefed on the activities of the…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan plans to attract nearly five trillion tenge (US$11.6 billion) of investments in agriculture in the next five years in an effort to boost export potential and saturate the domestic market, said Kazakh Agriculture Minister Saparkhan Omarov at an Oct. 6 government meeting.  The nation’s plan to saturate its market with domestic food…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan can and should escape the stringent nationwide lockdown, said Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at a meeting that focused on the country’s fight against the virus, reported Akorda press service.  During the meeting, Tokayev warned Kazakh officials to prepare for the second wave of coronavirus as the world witnessed a surge in COVID-19…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party summed up the results of the first stage in the party’s primaries held between Oct.1 and Oct. 4, the Nur Otan press service reported.  Nearly 10,000 people participated in the primaries, 37 percent of them women and 29 percent young people under 35 years of age. Seventy percent…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan has improved its performance in the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators project that measures good governance in more than 200 countries since 1996. The report covers six dimensions of governance – voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. These…

NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan introduced new regulations for arriving passengers in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, said Almaty Chief Sanitary Doctor Zhandarbek Bekshin at an Oct. 5 online press briefing.  Testing before flight has become a new normal now. Foreigners planning to travel to Kazakhstan must have a negative COVID-19 PCR test result…

NUR-SULTAN  –  Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, announced it would extend the operating hours of cafes and restaurants and open theatres at a limited capacity from Oct. 6 as part of a next step to ease COVID-19 restrictions, according to the latest decree of the city’s chief sanitary doctor Zhandarbek Bekshin.  Businesses providing contactless services, such…