Newsletter
on Kazakhstan

Internal policy

September 2, 2007. The first session of the Kazakh Parliament of the fourth convocation were held in Astana. Chairman of the Central Electoral Commission Kuandyk Turgankulov opened the joint session. 47 senators and 106 out of 107 majilismen (deputies of the Lower House of the Kazakh Parliament) participated at the session.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister of the country Karim Massimov and a number of members of the Government took part in the work of the session as well.

During the speech Head of the State Nursultan Nazarbayev said: “It is necessary to make maximal use of the opportunities “Nur Otan” party gained winning the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan this August”. ”It is a great chance to adopt all the necessary laws to speed up the economic and political modernization of the country”, President Nazarbayev pointed out.

The Head of the State suggested adopting the law “On administration of the public assets”. This document will be a basic law regulating the legal platform, principles and provisions of administrating the domestic public assets. Head of the State Nursultan Nazarbayev also ordered to form five highly developed world service centers in various spheres of Kazakh economy, as well as to strengthen the system of the public fiscal control.

President

September 5, 2007. Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the tactical maneuvers “Kamal-2007” by the presidential security division and the republican guard.

The participants of the maneuvers demonstrated the combat equipment, close fight abilities and strategy of preventing the terrorist attacks to the Head of the State. President Nazarbayev highly estimated the combat training and noted that the military men were responsible for providing security in the country.

Government

September 2, 2007. At the first sitting the newly elected deputies of the Kazakh Majilis unanimously voted confidence in the Government.

Following the voting, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov expressed gratitude to the Majilismen for the credence given to the Government and assured that the Cabinet is ready to cooperate with the Majilis in implementation of large-scaled reforms in our country.

Foreign policy

September 7, 2007. President of the House of Councillors of the National Diet of Japan (Chairman of the Higher House) Satsuki Eda received Kazakh Ambassador in Japan Akylbek A. Kamaldinov.

During the talks, parties stressed that co-operation between Kazakhstan and Japan reached a high level of political dialogue, interaction on international arena, as well as demonstrates huge potential for enhancement of trade and economic collaboration.

Kazakh diplomat noted the importance of inter-party interaction in the development of constructive dialogue in the framework of bilateral relations, as well as on international scene.

President of the House of Councilors expressed his agree with Ambassador’s opinion and noted that closely co-operation between Parliaments of Japan and Kazakhstan would provide further deepening of beneficial co-operation on the wide range of issues of inter-governmental relations. Japanese politician rated highly the results of recent elections to the Majilis of the Parliament.

Vice - President of the House of Councillors Akiko Santo also took part in the meeting.

September 7, 2007. National Economic Chamber of Kazakhstan and Atameken Union organized a two-day forum “Business Bridge: Kazakhstan -Turkey” in Astana city.

Kazakh Industry and Trade Minister Galym Orazbakov, chiefs of public agencies and national companies, representatives of Turkish and Kazakh companies took part in the conference.

Its aim is to attract direct investments, contribute to initiating joint ventures, exchange practice with the Turkish companies and export of Kazakh goods to the foreign markets.

September 5, 2007. The Institute of World Economy and Policy under the Foundation of the First President, China Studies Center under the Institute and Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan will organize international conference: “China and Central Asian countries in contemporary geopolitical realities”, to be held on September 12 in Almaty.

Purposes of the conference are to define factors allowing to change the course of co-operation. Program of the event includes research of the current state and prospects of development of partnership between China and Central Asian states.

Representatives of scientific circles and expert communities of Kazakhstan, foreign experts, representatives of higher educational establishments and many others will participate in the event.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister of Bulgaria Ivailo Kalfin declared that the business circles of his country were ready to discuss various forms of Kazakh’s participation in Burgas-Alexandropoulis project.

According to Mr. Kalfin, Burgas-Alexandropoulis pipeline that will give an  opportunity to pump the Kazakh oil to Europe is of great interest for Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and other participants of the project.

Economy

September 5, 2007. The state agency on competition protection will be created in Kazakhstan. Our country are paying special attention to development of competition in all commodity markets. Three stimulators have been already created and the work in this direction is proceeding.

Social development

September 5, 2007. Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov made the strategy of the government on social and economic development public during the round table for business circles: «Way to Steady Development».

The government will continue realization of the administrative reform (to construct the mobile and highly professional machinery of state, working on the principles of corporate management, transparency and accountability to the society). The work on the economy diversification, as well as improvement of quality of education and public health services will be continued.

In the sphere of social policy the government plans to continue the work on development of housing construction and strengthening of support of socially disadvantaged population.

Oil-and-Gas

September 7. The second Eurasian energy forum: «KazEnergy» took place on September 6-7 in Astana. Karim Masimov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and Timur Kulibayev, Chairman of the Association KazEnergy opened the work of the forum.

The purpose of carrying out KazEnergy forum is discussion of pressing questions of development of oil-and-gas and power branch: the review of the analytical information, development of proposals and recommendations, coordination of uniform approaches to creation of effective legislative mechanisms and practical tools of activity of key sectors of the economy.

The strategy of development of oil-and-gas and energy branches was considered on the plenary session. Vladimir Shkolnik, Vice-Chairman of the president' administration, Sauat Mynbayev, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan, Marat Tazhin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the representatives of foreign departments and the companies took part in the forum.

The second day of the forum was devoted to the issues of export routes of transportation of the Kazakh hydrocarbons, preparation of experts for oil-and-gas and electro power branches, increase in the Kazakh maintenance in oil-and-gas projects, energy economy. The representatives of the Ministries of Transport and Communications, the Industry and Commerce, Energy and Mineral Resources, Environment Protection, Labor and Social Protection, Education and Sciences of Kazakhstan, as well as the companies - members of association KazEnergy participated in the sessions of the working groups.

The I Eurasian energy forum KazEnergy took place on September 6-7, 2006 in Astana. More than 200 delegates: representatives of the state bodies, the chairmen of the oil-and-gas and energy companies, leading experts and analysts from different countries of the world will took part in its work.

Agriculture

September 6.  Kazakhstan expects to increase the profits of grain twice in the current marketing year.  The export earnings from crop of the last marketing year made $1.2 billion. The Ministry of Agriculture is certain that the crop of 2007 will be higher than in last year. At the present moment, 6.7 million tons have been collected, 33 % have been threshed.

This year the area under crops in the Republic has made 18 915.5 thousand hectares, that is by 2.9 % more than last year. In 2006, grain yield in Kazakhstan made 18.5 million tons in bunker weight, 16.2 million - after refinery.

Other

“Nokian Tyres” confirmed it is in talks about setting up a new production plant in Kazakhstan, but that no agreement has yet been made. The company aims to finalise negotiations before the end of the year. “Nokian Tyres” plans to build a car tyre plant there similar in size to one it opened in Vsevolozhsk, near St. Petersburg, in 2005. Nokian Tyres was in talks with senior Kazakh government officials about the proposed plant, which is estimated to cost around 350 mln. euros to build and would have an initial production run of some 4 mln. tyres a year.

“Nokian Tyres” currently makes around 6 mln. car tyres a year at its factory in Nokia, Finland, and around 4 mln. tyres in Vsevolozhsk.

A bio fuel association has been set up in Kazakhstan. The main aim of establisment of Kazakh Bio Fuel Association is to unite interested companies and create favourable conditions for Kazakh’s bio fuel industry development. The association unites 7 Kazakh companies and is based upon the principles of openness, independence and transparency.