Articles by Michelle Witte

ASTANA – Their equipment is donated. Their practice space is loaned. Not one of the men on the field, switching in and out of pads and helmets on the sidelines because there still aren’t enough to go around, dreams of a big NFL contract. It would be a stretch to even dream of local glory…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s $50 million scholarship programme for Afghan students is now almost five years old and, with 827 students having enrolled, nearing its final goal of educating 1,000 Afghan students in Kazakhstan’s educational institutions. Since the programme began in 2010, when the first 158 students landed in Kazakhstan on Sept. 28, only four students…

ASTANA – An industrial project to produce artificial gravel in Uralsk, supported by Astana’s Technology Commercialisation Centre (TCC) as well as several government agencies, is starting to gain interest from Europe and may soon see its products shipped around the world. The West Kazakhstan Building Materials Corporation project, run by Project Manager Sarsembek Montayev, makes…

ASTANA – One hundred sixty-seven billion tenge ($902 million) has been slated for investment into Kazakhstan’s airports, Director General of the Airport Management Group LLP Claude Badan announced on Jan. 29 at a Central Communications Service briefing. The investment will be made over the next five years, Badan said, with many large-scale projects to be implemented between 2015 and…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan is open and keen for tax reform, said Wayne Barford, senior advisor to the International Tax and Investment Centre (ITIC), who visited in early February to conduct a workshop with members of the State Revenue Committee on implementing risk assessment systems in the tax office and meet with other officials, including addressing…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan today is a mostly Muslim country, but the Silk Road that crossed it was an important conduit for religions, including Buddhism, and some of Kazakhstan’s historic carvings and monuments are neither Muslim nor animist, but homages to Buddhas, bodhisattvas and the monks who carried their teachings from India and China across the…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – A British journalist is hoping to rekindle interest in two early European travellers to Kazakhstan, retracing some of their 19th century journeys in the country and hoping to draw more attention to their pioneering trips to Central Asia. In 1848, Britons Thomas and Lucy Atkinson began a year-long journey across the territory…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – Astana’s newest gym bucks the city’s spa and health centre trends to focus tightly on exercise – and on the city’s underserved middle class. Founder Kevin Freake, a Canadian longtime resident of Kazakhstan, told The Astana Times on Jan. 21 that he opened Xpress Fitness “because I simply refuse to pay the…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – With the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) launching on the wave of a Russian recession and a tumbling rouble, some of Kazakhstan’s first actions within the union may be to protect its domestic producers. The country’s National Chamber of Entrepreneurs recently explained a list of measures it has suggested be taken to help…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) issued revised economic forecasts on Jan. 19, foreseeing a contraction in the Russian economy of 5 percent, rather than the 0.2 percent envisioned in September, and downscaling predictions for Kazakhstan’s growth from 5.1 percent in September to 1.5 percent, based largely on falling oil…

The long-awaited Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the single market for goods, services and labour uniting Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, has taken effect, though dire conditions in the union’s largest economy may be dampening some enthusiasm for the launch. The EEU agreement went into effect on Jan. 1 for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, with Armenia…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – Kazakhstan launched a new official tourism website, Kazakhstan.travel, in June, with information in English, Kazakh and Russian on the country’s culture, history and geography as well as detailed information on destinations in each of the country’s oblasts or regions. The website contains photos and descriptions of games, food, clothing and jewellery and…

ASTANA – Kazakhstan has sent $400,000 worth of aid to the southeastern regions of Ukraine weathering a humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the military conflict there, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry announced on Jan. 10. Canned meat, sugar, buckwheat and vegetable oil were delivered by rail to the town of Severodonestsk, on the Ukrainian-Russian border,…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – Kazakhstan’s film industry is one of the mechanisms the young country is using to define its own image on the international stage. Through scholarships and grants offered by the Kazakhfilm joint stock company, the country offers support for some young actors and directors and helps bring their work to domestic and international…

As Kazakhstan develops its medical competence, with advances in bariatric, cardiac and neurosurgery in the last few years, as well as laser eye surgery and general transplant surgery, a trickle of medical tourists are being drawn to the country. Until recently, it would have been more likely to see Kazakhs travel abroad for medical care,…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to provide a five-year loan of 10 billion tenge (US$54.7 million) to Kazakhstan’s Bank CentreCredit for on-lending to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in the country, the EBRD reported on Dec. 23. At least 60 percent of the loan will be earmarked for…

The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will lend the equivalent of $30 million in the local currency, the tenge, to Kazakhstan’s Eastcomtrans rail company to purchase rolling stock and other cargo transit equipment, the EBRD said in a press release on Dec. 10. Some of the loan will also be used for balance…

ASTANA – Stefano Ravagnan, Italy’s new ambassador in Astana, has plans to reinforce and formalise his country’s long-standing engagement with Kazakhstan, expanding the two countries’ traditional energy links into increased trade and richer cultural and people-to-people ties. The ambassador, who arrived at the end of August, acknowledges that energy is the base of the relationship.…

ASTANA – Twelve young football players from Astana travelled to Soria, Spain, from Nov. 1 – 10 to play in the first Spanish-Kazakh youth football tournament. The young players, all aged from 10 – 12, also took training sessions with top Spanish coaches. The four-team tournament was arranged through an agreement by FC Astana 1964…

ASTANA – Astana doesn’t lack for snow or cold weather, but with a paucity of slopes, one would be forgiven for thinking skating or cross-country skiing the only real winter weather option here. However, with some ingenuity, speed and slope lovers are making their own options in and around the Kazakh capital. The Astana Adventure…

GAITHERSBURG, MD – The International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC), a multigovernment nonproliferation programme established in 1992, is moving its headquarters from Moscow to Astana’s Nazarbayev University in 2015, at the invitation of the Kazakh government. The organisationis mainly funded by the United States, Canada, the EU, Japan, Norway and South Korea, as well as…

ASTANA – Publisher Marat Akmedjanov took his first steps in the industry with a magazine intended to draw tourists to his native Uzbekistan. Now he’s at the centre of a literary and publishing movement that brings Central Asian artists together and hopes to connect them with the world. Born in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan, to parents who…

ASTANA – Astana’s Technology Commercialisation Centre (TCC) announced its latest round of grant winners, which include projects Lead Expert Erik Azulay described as world class, at a Nov. 28 seminar for new grant winners at Astana’s Beijing Palace Hotel. The winners include projects in fields from medicine and veterinary science to agriculture, information technology and…

ASTANA – The Diplomatic Christmas Charity Bazaar , one of the biggest events of the holiday season, is just around the corner and bazaar Organising Committee Chairperson Jane Etienne is up to her ears in prize donations. Literally. At the French ambassador’s residence, next to a table laden with raffle prizes from around the world,…

ASTANA – Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) launched on Nov. 18 in Almaty and will run through Nov. 23. The week, begun in 2008, is intended to spark business ideas among young people and is now run in 140 countries. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has sponsored GEW in Kazakhstan for two years,…