Latest Syrian peace talks in Astana focus on humanitarian issues
ASTANA – The Oct. 29-30 latest round of Syrian peace talks in Astana, the seventh in what is known as the Astana Process meant to supplement UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva, focused on humanitarian issues and resulted in another joint statement by the three guarantor states of the process – Russia, Turkey and Iran. Participants…
Kazakhstan’s association of businesswomen presents gender budgeting project
ASTANA – The Association of Businesswomen of Kazakhstan presented a project to introduce gender budgeting in the nation at the Oct. 25 roundtable involving representatives of the Kazakh National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy, deputies, state bodies, international organisations and NGOs. Funded by the Civil Initiatives Support Centre and supported by the Kazakh…
OECD Eurasia Week in Almaty, first in region, focuses on openness and diversification
ASTANA – OECD Eurasia Week under the theme Openness for Shared Prosperity took place in Almaty Oct. 23-25 for the first time outside the organisation’s headquarters in Paris. The forum gathered high-level officials from OECD, its member states and partner countries in the Eurasian region, including OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria and Kazakh Prime Minister Bakytzhan…
Central Asia a crucial partner in promoting nuclear safety, says leading expert
ASTANA – Eddie Maier, deputy head of unit at the European Commission Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development’s Instrument for Stability and Nuclear Safety, discussed nuclear safety and the regional projects and activities of the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC) in Central Asia in a recent interview with The Astana Times. Representing the union…
Kazakh privatisation programme sells 291 entities worth $337.5 million
ASTANA – The national privatisation programme for 2016-2020 has seen the sale of 291 of 887 entities earlier slated for sale for 112.7 billion tenge (US$337.5 million) through Oct. 1, reported Kazakh Minister for Finance Bakhyt Sultanov during the Oct. 17 government session. He noted the sales include 23 state-owned entities for 8.3 billion tenge…
EU, Kazakhstan launch second dual use goods export control project
ASTANA – The European Union, the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC) together with the Kazakh Ministry of Investments and Development launched Oct. 12 the second project on export control of dual use goods and technologies, marking another step in strengthening the long-term partnership and cooperation between the two sides. The EU-funded project seeks to…
Kazakh investor Kenges Rakishev developing blockchain smartphone
ASTANA – Sirin Labs company chaired by prominent Kazakh investor and businessman Kenges Rakishev is developing a smartphone and PC running on blockchain technology. Founded in 2014 by Rakishev together with Israeli entrepreneur and investor Moshe Hogeg and Tal Cohen, the company seeks to become the world’s leader in “secure open source consumer electronics for…
First pictures of light rail train system in Astana revealed
ASTANA – The construction of a new light rail transport (LRT) system in Astana is underway and LRT Construction company, a subsidiary of the Astana city administration running the project, presented Oct 3. the first pictures of the LRT design. The construction of the LRT is part of a comprehensive modernisation of the capital city’s…
Energy Minister explains recent petrol price hike in Kazakhstan, gets reprimanded
ASTANA – Over the recent weeks, people in Kazakhstan have been witnessing an increase in prices for petrol that resulted in heated public discussions. Kazakh Minister for Energy Kanat Bozumbayev explained the petrol shortage and the subsequent hike in prices during an Oct. 10 government meeting, citing declining import volumes of Russian petrol and launch…
Development Bank of Kazakhstan updates strategy, seeks expansion of private investment
ASTANA – The Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) announced Sept. 29 immediate changes to its development strategy for 2014-2023 which establish expanding private business projects and private funding sources among its key priorities along with expansion of its lending activities and development of new financial instruments, according to the bank’s press service. Established in 2000…
S&P expects Kazakhstan’s GDP to grow 3 percent in 2017-2020
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s real GDP growth is projected to reach 3 percent in 2017-2020, according to the recent S&P Global Ratings report. The implementation of government infrastructure development programmes and expanding oil production at the Kashagan oilfield, one of the world’s largest fields discovered in the past 40 years, are cited as main drivers of…
First Astana Media Week takes place in capital
ASTANA – The first Astana Media Week kicked off in the capital city Oct. 4, bringing major media corporations and production companies together to set up partnerships and draw attention to salient issues in the nation’s media industry. Organised by the Ministry of Information and Communication, the three-day event incorporating talks, meetings and seminars is…
Inflation to remain in 6.9-7.5% targeted corridor in 2017, says Kazakh NB governor
ASTANA – Kazakh National Bank Governor Daniyar Akishev said during an Oct. 3 government meeting that inflation is projected to remain in the targeted corridor of 6.9 percent to 7.5 percent until the end of the year. Akishev noted inflation reached 4.2 percent in the first nine months of 2017 and that Kazakhstan seeks…
Astana hosts national tourism meeting, addresses acute issues
ASTANA – The capital was the site for the national tourism meeting organised by the Ministry for Culture and Sports Sept. 27 that brought together representatives of the ministry, companies and NGOs working in the field to review the acute issues currently facing the industry. The session was part of the Astana Leisure 2017 exhibition…
Kazakhstan needs to establish Kazakh school of Islamic studies, says minister
ASTANA – Kazakh Minister for Religions and Civil Society Affairs Nurlan Yermekbayev spoke about the need to establish a Kazakh school of Islamic studies during a Sept. 18 Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) government hour. The ministry was established in September 2016 and he noted increasing religiosity among those in the population who have become…
More than 1,700 rural settlements to access broadband internet through Digital Kazakhstan
ASTANA – More than 1,700 rural settlements, home to approximately two million people, will gain access to broadband internet as part of the Digital Kazakhstan programme, said Minister of Information and Communication Dauren Abayev during a Sept. 26 government meeting. The government reviewed the progress of the programme that seeks to build an affordable digital…
Draft Latin-based Kazakh alphabet presented in Mazhilis, provokes heated public debate
ASTANA – Kazakh State Secretary Gulshara Adbykalikova, deputies, representatives of state bodies and the alphabet developers attended discussions in the Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) Sept. 11 about the draft of the Latin alphabet scheduled to enter in force by 2025. The idea of switching from Cyrillic script to Latin script was first voiced by…
Final de-escalation zone established as Syrian talks end in Astana
ASTANA – The sixth round of the international meetings on Syria ended Sept. 15 in Astana with the participants agreeing on a final de-escalation zone in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. It will be the fourth zone where no military activity would be allowed as envisioned in the May 4 agreement signed by Iran, Russia and…
St. Regis opens hotel in Astana
ASTANA – Astana is becoming an attractive tourist destination, as the young and vibrant city has been recently hosting numerous international events and the Aug. 21 opening of the St. Regis in Astana makes the city an even more appealing destination for sophisticated travellers. With the first flagship St. Regis opening in New York in…
First OIC Summit on Science and Technology takes place in Astana
ASTANA – Sept. 10 in the capital featured not only the spectacular closing of EXPO 2017, a major event in Kazakh history, but also the first Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit on Science and Technology, another important opportunity for the nation and the organisation’s 57 members. The summit adopted the Astana Declaration affirming the…
Kazakhstan imports $62.8 million in tea in six months
ASTANA – Kazakhstan imported 17,200 tonnes of tea worth $62.8 million in the first six months of the year. The world’s largest tea importers include Kenya, India, Russia, Sri Lanka and China. Sales rose 15 percent despite a 16-percent increase in coffee and tea prices and an average price of 2,900 tenge (US$8.53) per kilogram…
Astana hosts Global Islamic Finance Awards
ASTANA – The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) hosted Sept. 6 the Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA), a prestigious award honouring individuals and institutions that have contributed to the promotion of Islamic banking and finance. Established in 2011 by Edbiz Corporation, an international Shariah advisory firm, the award seeks to push Islamic banking and finance…
Kazakh energy sector investments to total $57 billion in 2017-2025
ASTANA – Investments in Kazakhstan’s energy sector will total 19 trillion tenge (US$57 billion) in 2017-2025 and 97 percent will be private investments, Kazakh Minister of Energy Kanat Bozumbayev told the Sept. 7-8 11th Kazenergy Eurasian Forum in Astana. The forum’s theme this year was Securing the Future of Energy. Highlighting the event was the…
Kazakh girls win Technovation Challenge in Silicon Valley, say will go on inventing
ASTANA – A team of Kazakh girls won the grand prize at the 2017 Technovation World Pitch Summit organised by Google Aug. 10. Girls aged 10-18 from more than 30 countries around the globe competed in 102 teams over the five-day event in Silicon Valley. Only six, including two teams from Kazakhstan, made it to…
Energy intensity drops 28 percent in Kazakhstan
ASTANA – The energy intensity of Kazakhstan’s economy has decreased by 28 percent since 2008, Kazakhstan’s First Vice Minister of Investment and Development Alik Aidarbayev said during a Sept. 5 press conference on the nation’s energy saving policies. Energy intensity is measured as the quantity of energy per unit of gross domestic product (GDP); as…
