Articles by Kamila Zhumabayeva

ASTANA – President Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated all the people of Kazakhstan on Defender of the Fatherland Day and the 71th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War victory. The latter was marked with commemorative events held throughout the nation. “For centuries, the motherland defenders have always been an embodiment of honour and prowess, courage and bravery…

ASTANA – More than 700,000 containers per year will be transported along the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran transnational railway by 2020, Vice President of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Kanat Alpysbayev recently announced. The announcement followed a recent meeting in Beijing of more than 130 transportation and rail professionals along with government officials from China, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The event…

ASTANA – The main trends and challenges of global economic development and ensuring long-term economic growth in new reality conditions will be discussed May 25-26 at the 9th annual Astana Economic Forum (AEF) to be held under the theme of “New Economic Reality: Diversification, Innovations and Economics of Knowledge.” Experts from the monetary community, politics,…

ASTANA – Kazakh Armed Forces Major Akylbai Kussainov and Captain Rustem Suleimenov returned from Côte d’Ivoire where they served as UN military observers for one year, according to the Kazakh country’s Ministry of Defence. They inspected military units, conducted surveillance, patrolled and performed other tasks during the mission. An acute political crisis occurred in the…

ASTANA – BI Group employee Aidyn Kasen recently became the undisputed champion of the fifth Almaty charity marathon. He covered the race in 2 hours, 42 minutes and 58 seconds and the victory was his first at the 42-kilometre distance. Kasen, who has been interested in running for quite a while, previously participated in different…

ASTANA – More than 1,500 people participated in the 24th annual session of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of the country’s independence. Members and veterans of the assembly from all regions, chairs of national and regional ethno-cultural unions, deputies (members) of Parliament, heads of central executive bodies, political…

ASTANA – South Kazakhstan is full of ancient towns, historic monuments and sacred places. Thousands of tourists flock to the region located among vast steppes and mountain masses. Shymkent is a city of authentic Kazakh culture, people and landscape, while Turkestan is a historic, architectural and religious town. Shymkent is the capital city of South…

ASTANA – Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and National Geographic Fellow travel writer Paul Salopek set a goal to walk the global trail of first humans who migrated out of Africa in the Stone Age. He is now in Kazakhstan to continue his 21,000-mile foot journey, the “Out of Eden Walk” that started in Ethiopia in…

ASTANA – Well-known among the capital’s fans, 21-year-old Ghanaian striker Patrick Twumasi, who plays for the Kazakh Premier League club FC Astana, has more than 10 matches and scored goals behind him. He is persistent, determined and positive and has supportive family and colleagues, but stresses the need for good fan support that Kazakh football…

ASTANA – Opened only five months ago, there is not yet a lot on the web about Kazakhstan’s only historic military museum. As it establishes ties and exchanges information with museums abroad and conducts its own research, its more than 7,000 unique exhibits combined with a display from the Swedish Army Museum are awaiting their…

ASTANA – McKinsey & Company in collaboration with the Almaty Tech Garden autonomous cluster fund has launched a Mining Industry Competence Centre in Almaty, Kazakhstan.   Being a part of the 100 Concrete Steps Plan of the Nation, this initiative is supported by the country’s government. The official signing ceremony took place on April 20…

ASTANA – Prominent public figure and statesman, scholar, journalist and ethnographer Alikhan Bukeikhanov devoted his vivid and versatile life to liberating and developing the Kazakh nation, said Kazakh Secretary of State Gulshara Abdykalikova. Her comments were made at a scientific conference dedicated to Bukeikhanov’s 150th anniversary held April 15 at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU)…

ASTANA – At 26, Kazakh-born, New York-based Alyona Subbotina is probably one of the hardest working, multifaceted and accomplished yet down-to-earth models and entrepreneurs the country has ever had. She is busy helping native models build their careers abroad, while developing her own and enjoying art projects as a hobby. “I treat my work with…

ASTANA – A massive bicycle race dedicated to the opening of the 2016 cycling season took place April 10 in Almaty. More than 3,000 city residents, guests, professional athletes and cycling lovers participated in the annual event. The race started at the intersection of Al-Farabi and Tattimbet streets. Cyclers had to pass through an overlapped…

ASTANA – Data indicates Kazakhstan reported among the highest number of suicide cases in the world last year. In an interview with The Astana Times, psychiatrist Yekaterina Mironova, the only suicide doctor in the country, shared suicide statistics, causes and prevention measures. “Our country is developing and it is natural that people go through a…

ASTANA – The country’s very own National Geographic presented its first two issues March 30 at a roundtable session in the capital’s Nazarbayev University. National Geographic Society Vice President of Explorer Programmes Alexander Moen and journalist and traveller Paul Salopek travelled from Washington, DC, to participate in the event.   “National Geographic is a unique magazine…

ASTANA – The Eurasian stage of Skolkovo Startup Tour 2016 has completed in Almaty, with Maxim Sanitskiy named the winner of the Almaty Tech Garden contest with his project of a full control system over location of objects in real time . He will now advance to the Almaty Tech Garden international acceleration in the…

ASTANA – A Bek Air Fokker-100 plane with 116 passengers en route from Kyzylorda (South Kazakhstan) to Astana made an emergency landing at the Astana International Airport on March 27 after its landing gear failed to deploy. None of the passengers or five-member crew were injured. After attempting to fix the problem in flight, the…

ASTANA – Kazakhs are tending to take fewer trips overseas due to decreased purchasing capacity due to devaluation of the national currency tenge and the fact many destinations have become less desirable. As travel agencies attempt to develop and promote the country’s own tourism, much work needs to be done by the government, said Meridian…

ASTANA – Twenty-year-old Almira Akhatova from the Atyrau region, who is a third-year student of the capital’s Medical University, won the final Kazakh Arui 2016 beauty contest held March 16 in Astana. Big career possibilities open for winners of such beauty contests, producer Bayan Yessentayeva says.   “Winning was not easy, I was selected first…

ASTANA – Tech Garden’s Startup Day will be held in Almaty March 30-31 as part of the Eurasian Skolkovo Tour, the event’s organisers said. The tour will include seminars, mentorships and pitch presentation contests, with the best projects to be presented at Startup Village in Skolkovo. “The southern capital, with support of Almaty Tech Garden…

ASTANA – Foreign observers from Austria, Italy, the UK, Serbia, Bulgaria and Lithuania all agreed that there were no breaches observed, voting sites were well arranged and people were “tuned” for voting during the nationwide poll in Kazakhstan on March 20. The presence of large numbers of young people was surprising for them. Walter Schwimmer,…

ASTANA – Plastic surgery in Kazakhstan is well developed and becoming more and more popular and affordable. Eyelid surgeries lead the list. The prevalence of the procedures was discussed by Dr. Daniyar Baibosunov, a plastic surgeon at Arumed Clinic of Aesthetic Medicine and Plastic Surgery in Almaty, in an interview with The Astana Times. He…

ASTANA – While the opening of a fast-food restaurant is not normally a big deal for most countries, in Kazakhstan, it became quite an event. The launch of the country’s first McDonald’s caused a big stir among capital residents at the site and on social media, and even politicians and government officials attended the official…

ASTANA – Kazakh actress and ambassador for Russia’s World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Kazakhstan Bibigul Aktan has called upon residents of Kazakhstan to take part in a programme to return Tugai deer (Bactrian deer) to Lake Balkhash area. The actress wrote about this on her Instagram page, the NewTimes.kz information agency reported. “Dear…