Articles by Assel Satubaldina

ASTANA – The sixth International Festival of Contemporary Ethno Music, known as the Spirit of Tengri, will kick off June 2 in Almaty, reported Tengrinews. The two-day open-air event, starting 5 p.m. in Abai Square in front of the Republic Palace, will feature a rich programme culminating in the performance of ethno music bands coming…

ASTANA – First Vice Minister of Agriculture Arman Yevniyev indicated six key problems in the country’s agricultural sector during a May 29 government meeting. The issues include low labour productivity, low product competition, poor technical equipment, lack of knowledge, expertise and qualified specialists, low profitability and high overhead expenses. Yevniyev noted the need to develop…

ASTANA – Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova won the prestigious Best Female Actress award at the 71st Cannes Film Festival for her role in “Ayka” directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy. The 34-year-old actress walked on the stage as Cate Blanchett, heading the jury of this year’s Cannes, announced the winner. Born in 1984 in Petropavlovsk in northern…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s SCAT airlines based in Shymkent launched May 27 a new Astana-Vilnius, Lithuania service. The four-hour-and-40-minute Boeing-737 flights depart Thursdays and Sundays with economy return fares starting from $233. “A new route is first and foremost good news for our business community. Economic ties between Lithuania and Kazakhstan are getting stronger year by…

ASTANA – Israeli artist Regina Shafir unveiled a charity exhibition called Sweets May 23 at the Has Sanat Art Gallery in the Kazakh capital. Organised with the help of the Dara Charity Foundation, all proceeds will go to orphanages and children with physical challenges. Established in 2005, the foundation has been implementing projects to assist…

ASTANA – The eleventh Astana Economic Forum kicked off in the Kazakh capital May 17, welcoming 5,000 participants from 111 countries and more than 500 speakers, including former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former French President Francois Hollande and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Organised in Astana since 2008, this year’s event focuses on global trends and…

ASTANA – The ninth Astana Process talks on Syria ended May 15 in the Kazakh capital with three guarantor states – Iran, Turkey and Russia – reaffirming their commitment to maintaining a ceasefire regime and four de-escalation zones established in the war-torn country based on the agreement the three states signed in May 2017. A…

ASTANA – The Filia Association of Greek Communities, uniting 17 groups throughout Kazakhstan, is marking its 25th anniversary. Founded in 1993 after the merger of communities in Almaty, Shymkent and Zhambyl, the organisation has been working to foster intercultural ties and preserve Greek culture and traditions. The Greek diaspora, totalling seven million worldwide, is one…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan National Geographic Society, or QazGeo, is close to starting this year’s two big expeditions. The organisation will head to the Aral Sea May 10 and the East Kazakhstan, Karaganda and Pavlodar regions May 17 to study sacred places. QazGeo Project Manager Nurzhan Algashov spoke about the expeditions’ goals and the organisation’s future…

ASTANA – Young Kazakh psychologist from the Kyzylorda region Symbat Abdrakhmanova is helping young children with speech and language difficulties and their parents overcome those challenges. Abdrakhmanova is among the 102 winners of the nation’s 100 New Faces project to recognise people with exemplary experience and merits contributing to the nation’s development. Abdrakhmanova works in…

ASTANA – More than 14,000 people from 38 countries gathered April 22 in Almaty to take part in the Almaty Marathon, the largest sporting event in Central Asia. Over the past seven years, the event has grown from 2,500 participants in 2012, when it was first organised. The participants could choose between distances of 42…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan needs to increase its livestock population, according to First Vice Minister of Agriculture Arman Yevniyev. The ministry expects the new cattle farming development programme will raise the population from seven million to 15 million heads. He noted cattle farming is a “most optimal element” for agricultural production due to its relatively low…

ASTANA – This year is a milestone for global nuclear non-proliferation efforts with a much-anticipated meeting of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late April, the first since 2007, and the U.S.-North Korea summit preliminarily scheduled for May. Though their outcomes are yet to be known, the willingness…

ASTANA – The people of Hungary and Kazakhstan, who share a nomadic past, are almost like relatives, said Hungarian Cultural Centre Head Aleksandr Papp. In a recent interview with The Astana Times, he marked common roots and historical circumstances among the key factors explaining their similarity. Uniting the small diaspora of 457 Hungarians in Kazakhstan,…

ASTANA – Thinking of Kazakhstan would bring Almaty, Astana or Shymkent to one’s mind, yet there is a place of equally significant importance to the young Central Asian nation. Baikonur, in the country’s south-western area near the Syrdarya River, once a secret location used by the Soviet Union to build the world’s first and to…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan is seeking to make greater use of the private public partnership (PPP) mechanism that has commissioned 140 projects since 2006 and reduced the burden on the national budget by 90.6 billion tenge (US$281.7 million), reported Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov. To date, 78 more objects are being constructed. “The experience shows…

ASTANA – The Astana Ballet recently launched its tour of performances in Kyzylorda, Almaty, Taldykorgan and Aktau and will present the Astana Ballet Gala programme it previously brought to the world’s prominent stages. The ballet troupe performed April 7-8 in the Kyzylorda Regional Music and Drama Theatre and will visit Almaty May 4-6, Taldykorgan May…

ASTANA – Dutch company Farm Frites, one of the world’s largest potato processing companies, will build a potato processing plant in the Almaty region. The cost of the project is forecast to be $165 million and the construction is expected to begin next year. Founded in 1971 as a family business, Farm Frites is now…

ASTANA – The Kazakh Ministry of National Economy projects the nation’s real GDP will reach 3.8 percent this year, which is 0.7 percent higher than the previous projected indicator voiced in August 2017. The ministry also projects per capita GDP will rise to $9,200, Economy Minister Timur Suleimenov told an April 3 government meeting. “Nominal…

ASTANA – The Kazakh inflation rate has reached 1.8 percent since the beginning of the year, reported Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov during an April 3 government meeting. At the same time, the rate remained within a 5-7-percent range. The rates demonstrated a downward trend in prices for food products (2.2 percent) and non-food…

ASTANA – Aktobe city in western Kazakhstan is one of the nation’s rapidly growing cities. Founded in 1869 as a fortress to protect the then Russian Empire, the city is now home to more than 417,000 people, making it the fifth largest city in Kazakhstan after Almaty, Astana, Shymkent and Karaganda. Major enterprises are based…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s robot surgery and transplantology centre based in the city hospital in Ust-Kamenogorsk recently performed the nation’s first robotic surgery, removing gallbladder of a 50-year-old woman, reported inform.kz. Italian surgeon and D’Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara Professor Stefano Gidaro managed the operation and Kazakh surgeons Nartai Turakhanov and Rinat Muzdybayev assisted. Robotic surgery refers…

ASTANA – Schools in Kazakhstan will receive more than 15 billion tenge (US$47.25 million) in 2018 to access broadband Internet and to provide technical equipment for school information systems, said Social and Cultural Development Committee Chair Gulnur Iksanova during a March 19 session in the Mazhilis (lower house of the Parliament). Sixty-two percent of schools…

ASTANA – Astana Business Campus, project  of the Nazarbayev University Research and Innovation System (NURIS), seeks to develop the knowledge-based economy in Kazakhstan by equipping entrepreneurs with facilities, resources as well as a community of support, said NURIS Head Aidar Zhakupov. The Astana Business Campus has a 50-hectare campus near Nazarbayev University, the nation’s leading…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan will more than quadruple its budget to $837 million in the next five years to fight terrorism and extremism, said National Security Committee Deputy Chair Nurgali Bilisbekov during a March 6 government meeting. The 2018-2022 funding is four times the $202.8 million the country spent on its 2013-2017 counterterrorism programme. The additional…