Articles by Dana Omirgazy

ASTANA – Swedish traveller Christian Bodegren recently announced the release of a documentary about his 2016-2017 Mongolia-Kazakhstan camel expedition, posting Jan. 7 the video on his Facebook page. “I am working on the series now, and there is currently no date for the premiere. The idea is that there will be a series of seven…

ASTANA – Kazakh filmmaker and scriptwriter Sharipa Urazbayeva will take part in the 68th Berlin International Film Festival Feb. 15-25. Her first full-length project “Rys” (“Lynx”) was selected for participation in the Talent Project Market 2018. According to Urazbayeva, the film tells the story of a strong woman who is looking for her son after…

ASTANA – The allocation and payment of targeted social assistance began from Jan. 1, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Labour and Social Protection Tamara Duissenova said Jan. 16 during a weekly government meeting. Over the past three years, significant work has been done on ensuring the adequate provision of social assistance. In late 2017, social agreements on…

ASTANA – Chess is the best sport to exercise the most complex and important organ in the body – the brain. In Kazakhstan, it became the beloved intellectual game among children and adolescents. In an exclusive interview with The Astana Times, Kazakhstan Chess Federation (KCF) Executive Director Irina Grishchenko talked about 2017’s key activities, ongoing…

ASTANA – Zulfiya Gabidullina, Kazakhstan’s first-ever Paralympics gold medal winner, is one of the country’s 100 New Faces. The inspirational story of the 52-year-old international class Master of Sports in swimming, silver and three-time bronze medallist in the 2013-2015 World Championships, 2014 Asian Para Games winner and 13-time world record holder motivates and encourages people…

ASTANA – The inflation rate in December 2017 reached 0.7 percent compared to the previous month and 7.1 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the Statistics Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy. In the previous month, food prices rose 1.1 percent, non-food products grew 0.5 percent and prices for…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan celebrated its 26th anniversary of independence Dec. 16 this year. During the period, the country made the leap from the economic and political disruption of the early 1990s to a modern social state with a dynamically developing market economy, democratic system, political stability and ethno-confessional peace and accord. The prime minister’s press…

ASTANA – Kazakh artist and Honorary Ambassador of The ATOM Project Karipbek Kuyukov took part in the Dec. 10 ceremony in Oslo, Norway where the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017.   ICAN is a Geneva-based global civil society coalition made up of 468 partner…

ASTANA – Nazarbayev University graduates have developed a device to extend the working capacity of transformers, the press service of the city administration reported recently. The project, named Remote Monitoring of Transformers, implies a cloud system with registered algorithms on the servers. According to manager and member of the start-up team Adlet Zaurenbek, data from…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s national Employment 2020 Programme helped 413,000 citizens get a job over the last 12 months. Of those, 279,000 were permanently employed, Kazakh Minister of Labour and Social Protection Tamara Duissenova said during a Dec. 20 government meeting. The programme includes 527,000 participants so far. More than 50 percent are inhabitants of rural…

ASTANA – UNESCO recently included the traditional Kazakh game Asyk Atu on the organisation’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity. The inclusion came during the 12th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the ICH on Jeju Island, South Korea. The session featured an exhibition dedicated to the…

ASTANA – Almaty resident and Paralympic athlete Serik Yesmatov, 19, is one of Kazakhstan’s 100 New Faces. Despite his young age, he has already achieved numerous victories and has great plans for the future. As a member of the National Paralympic Volleyball Team, Yesmatov participates in the Paralympic movement and studies at Kazakh Academy of…

ASTANA – The Kazakhstan volunteering concept was presented at a Dec. 5 first national forum in the capital devoted to International Volunteer Day. The event was held under the Youth Corps Development Project implemented by the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science and the World Bank, reported tengrinews.kz. The forum was part of the Ruhani…

ASTANA – Speaking at the recent Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable, Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev reiterated the importance of the Kazakh Invest national company for boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the national economy. Having overseas agents is an important idea, noted company representative for France François Marque. “I think that the way Kazakh Invest was…

ASTANA – Eleven agreements and memoranda worth more than $3 billion were signed at the Dec. 5 Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable, which gathered investors from more than 30 countries in advance of Industrialisation Day in the Kazakh capital. In particular, agreements were reached on the Big Almaty Ring Motor Road and public-private partnership (PPP) project…

ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met Dec. 1 with the participants in the 100 New Faces project. The project includes 102 exemplary individuals from all over the country, whose sustained efforts could inspire other citizens of modern Kazakhstan. “I have read your stories, your life. You live in this society, you work and you…

ASTANA – In an exclusive interview with The Astana Times, Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) Chairman of the Management Board Kanat Alpysbayev spoke about the national logistic operator’s priorities, its development within the Digital Kazakhstan programme and the ways to make Kazakhstan more attractive for transit cargo traffic, an area that has seen remarkable changes as Kazakhstan’s…

ASTANA – Kazakh poet and founder of the Nevada-Semey international anti-nuclear movement Olzhas Suleimenov received Nov. 28 the Order of the Rising Sun, one of Japan’s most distinguished national decorations. Ambassador of Japan to Kazakhstan Ichiro Kawabata congratulated and thanked Suleimenov for helping enhance the relationship between Japan and Kazakhstan in their common quest for…

ASTANA – Dogs have long been known to have a positive effect on a person’s mental and physical health. Karaganda-based Lapa Pomoshchi (Paw of Help) canine therapy centre uses that understanding to provide rehabilitation procedures for families raising a child with limited abilities. The centre, featuring new and unusual procedures, was opened in 2008 by…

ASTANA – Amendments to Kazakh vehicle registration procedures were introduced Nov. 27, tengrinews.kz reports. According to the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs, amendments and additions were introduced to the rules of state registration and registration of certain types of vehicles according to identification number approved by the Ministry Dec. 2, 2014. According to the changes,…

ASTANA – Young Kazakh film director Olzhas Akhmetov is set to release his debut work “Nedelimoe” (“Undividable”), shot in famed US director Quentin Tarantino’s style, Dec. 14. The shooting of the movie lasted only two weeks, though work on the script took almost half a year, informburo.kz reports. Akhmetov’s first film is a darkly funny…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan is intending to supply Tajikistan with 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil as humanitarian aid. The 128.68 million tenge (US$387,712) in assistance will be allocated from an emergency reserve in the 2017 government budget, according to a Kazakh Ministry of Defence and Aerospace Industry press release. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is instructed…

ASTANA – The Diplomatic Christmas Charity Bazaar, initiated by the Ambassadors’ Spouses Association (ASA), will gather the capital diplomatic community and city residents Dec. 3 from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. for a shared moment of goodwill benefitting those in need through entrance fees, raffle tickets and sales. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the event has…

ASTANA –Astana Opera House principal soloist and Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan Sundet Baigozhin will soon be signing a contract with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, reported the theatre’s press service. The well-known opera singer underwent a rigorous audition process and will become the first Kazakh soloist to perform in one of Europe’s most famous opera…

ASTANA – An international forum on developing Kazakh pilgrim tourism and popularising sacred places is planned for next year near the Turgai geoglyphs, said deputy head of Kostanai regional department of entrepreneurship and industrial-innovative development Roza Goryannaya. “At the Kostanai Invest 2017 Regional Investment Forum held in September, the Ministry of Culture and Sports supported…