C/ -16 4 (47) expanded Government …€¦ · ASTANA – President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev reviewed...

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No 4 (47) www.astanatimes.comWednesday, february 26, 2014

Us$ 1 = 184.51 KZT 1 euro = 253.96 KZT 1 Rouble = 5.21 KZT

-13°C / -16°C

naTIonGovernment Strives to Guarantee Gender Equality a2Life Expectancy Grows to 70 Years Though Key Problems in Healthсare Remain a2

economy & BUsInessEuropean Investment Bank Extends First Loans to Kazakh Banks a4Agriculture Expanding in Atyrau a5

edIToRIalNation Should Stay Focused on Progress in Global Business Rankings a6

opInIonsKuRisHBaYev: Kazakhstan Poised to Become Global Agro Player a6OsHaKBaYev: Eurasian Economic Integration Must Go through a7

naTIon & capITalIdea of Dropping ‘Stan’ from Kazakhstan Generates Domestic, Int’l Discussion B1Government, UNDP Work to Modernise Housing and Utilities Services B1

Brazilian ambassador Upbeat about Ties with Kazakhstan

By Jan Furst

ASTANA – Thousands of kilom-eters, eight time zones and tens of degrees Celsius on a thermometer separate Brazil and Kazakhstan, but the newly appointed ambassa-dor of Brazil in Astana in a recent interview noted numerous similari-ties between the two countries and a good number of reasons to be optimistic about the future of rela-tions in areas ranging from trade and economy to cultural exchanges.

Ambassador Demétrio Bueno

Carvalho, who also serves as his country’s top envoy to Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, has had a long diplomatic career that has taken him to New York, Moscow, Bonn, Mex-ico and, most recently, London and Paris. And he has been able to master the languages of most of the places he has served, including English, Span-ish and French. He is now brushing up on his Russian and is already able to handle basic conversations. His next language is going to be Kazakh, he told The Astana Times.

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Astana Urges Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Entry

into Force at Int’lConference

By anuar Fazylov

NaYaRiT, MeXiCO – Kazakh-stan’s delegation at a major inter-national conference in Mexico on Feb. 13-14 urged that the Compre-hensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) enter into force as soon as possible, calling such a ban an im-portant step toward global nuclear disarmament.

“We believe that one of the most important steps toward that goal [of global nuclear disarmament] would be the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” Roman vassilenko, ambassador-at-large at Kazakh-stan’s Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, told representatives of 140 countries and dozens of interna-tional organisations at the second International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, held in Nuevo vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico. “And we would like to urge, yet again, the eight countries on whose signature and ratification its entry into force de-pends to do so promptly.”

China, Egypt, Iran, India, Is-rael, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Pakistan and the United States have yet to sign and/or ratify the treaty, which has been signed by 183 countries and ratified by 161

so far. Addendum II to the treaty lists more than 40 countries with nuclear weapons or nuclear en-ergy capabilities on whose sig-natures and ratifications the entry into force of the treaty depends.

vassilenko said Kazakhstan was not only promoting the CTBT entry into force, but also working to support this process by highlighting the plight of nu-clear weapons testing survivors in Kazakhstan and elsewhere. Furthering this goal is Presi-dent Nursultan Nazarbayev’s initiative, the ATOM Project, an education and online petition campaign. It seeks to galvanise global public opinion toward action against nuclear weapons testing and ultimately nuclear weapons themselves.

The first international Confer-ence on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, with the participation of 130 countries and numerous international bodies, was organised and hosted by Nor-way in Oslo in March 2013. The conferences focus on highlighting the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use, either in war or in testing, and seek to cre-ate global momentum toward nu-clear disarmament through such a focus.


expanded Government meeting Reviews progress on Kazakhstan 2050 strategy, efforts to sustain High economic Growth

By Julia mager and Rysty alibekova

ASTANA – President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev reviewed what still

needs to be done to implement the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy at the Feb. 14 government meeting as ministers reviewed the economic situation and

socioeconomic development plans in light of the Feb. 11 readjustment of the tenge exchange rate.

The President stressed that amid

volatility in world markets, Ka-zakhstan’s economy grew by 6 percent in 2013. This year, howev-er, will be challenging, he said, and concerted action will be needed to meet those challenges.

“In October 2013, I gave 33 or-ders, only 11 of which were fully executed,” Nazarbayev said. “The government and the National Bank have not proposed steps to at-tract resources from development institutions, pension funds and financial organisations for public-private partnership projects. Prac-tically nothing has been done to reduce the shadow economy; there is no clear vision in replenishing of local government revenue sources; agriculture and many more ar-eas were not attended to, without which there is no proper fulfilment of instructions given in my state-of-the-nation address.”

The correction of the tenge ex-change rate announced by the Na-tional Bank three days prior will ensure 6 percent economic growth, the main indicator in the achieve-ment of all major goals and tasks, the President said, and, given the trends in the global economy and the domestic situation, preventive measures are very important for maintaining macroeconomic and social stability.

The economy and the people must be supported, Nazarbayev said. The government should en-sure stable prices for basic essen-tials, fuel and medicines, and pre-vent shortages of products and the unfair growth of monopolists’ tar-iffs. He instructed the government to raise public employees’ monthly wages by 10 percent from April 1, primarily for those working in education, science, health care, culture, sports and social welfare.


Rare earths: a Rare opportunity for KazakhstanBy pavel pribylovsky

The global market for rare earth elements used in the production of cell phones, flat screens, electric cars and other technology is val-ued at $3-5 billion and demand is expected to double by 2020. And some say Kazakhstan is in a prime position to capitalise on this rising global market.

Rare earth elements (Rees), or rare earths for short, are divided into two subgroups – Heavy Rare earths (HRees) and Light Rare earths (LRees). Both are com-monly produced from uranium tailings, byproducts of uranium mining. And Kazakhstan happens to be the world’s largest uranium producer.

“According to our estimates,” said vladimir shkolnik, chair-man of the board of Kazakhstan’s state-owned company Kazatom-prom, one of the most significant producers of nonfuel mineral commodities in the country, “Ka-zakhstan’s resource base is rich in heavy earths. The global demand for heavy earths will remain high

and that gives us a competitive advantage.”

It is not only Kazakh industry experts, however, who are opti-mistic. Jack Lifton, a founding principal of Technology Met-als Research LLC, senior editor at InvestorIntel and one of the world’s leading authorities on rare earth elements agreed that Kazakhstan could be in a strong position to capture significant market share.

“Kazakhstan already produces uranium. A lot of it. They should be able to recover heavy earth from uranium residue,” said Lift-on. “After all, it is not about the pounds in the ground but about our access to these pounds in the ground. If you can extract and separate elements economi-cally, it’s practical. Otherwise, it’s not.”

If Kazakhstan can produce large volumes of rare earth elements, says Lifton, who consults, writes and lectures on the market funda-mentals of Rees, then they will be well positioned to meet demand,

particularly coming out of East Asia.

Economic growth “is not com-ing from mature economies where everyone has a cellphone and a car,” said Lifton. “Econom-ic growth is driven by consumer demand in East Asia. China, In-dia, Korea, the Indonesian archi-pelago – that’s two billion people without a cell phone.”

Lifton notes that there is no sin-gle market for rare earths. Rather, there are multiple specialty mar-kets that are highly susceptible to advances in technology and shifts in consumer demand. Even though they often come from the same ore concentrate and some-times have overlapping end us-ers, the markets for rare earths are very distinct.The two billion con-sumers in East Asia whose even-tual economic status will allow them to acquire a smartphone are the end-users of rare earths. Given that fact, it is not a surprise that global demand for Rees is fore-casted to double by the year 2020.


Vladimir shkolnik, chairman of the board of Kazatomprom (r), and Toru Furihata, representative director and senior managing executive officer of Sumitomo Corporation (l), cut the ribbon to symbolically open a new SARECO plant in stepnogorsk in november 2012. The plant is set to produce up to 1,500 tonnes of rare earths oxides in 2014, with a potential increase to 3,000 tonnes in 2015, and to 5,000-6,000 tonnes in 2016-2017.

national Bank denies small Banks’ Insolvency Rumours, prosecutors say perpetrators Found

By merey Kabiden

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Na-tional Bank held a briefing on Feb. 18 to deny rumours of the alleged imminent bankruptcy of three sec-ond-tier banks.

Bank Chairman Kairat Kelim-betov issued an official statement

at the briefing to mitigate concerns that had been swirling as a result of mobile text messages about the financial conditions of the banks.

“The National Bank confirms that this information is false, spec-ulative and misleading and is tar-geted at destabilising the country’s banking system,” Kelimbetov said.

According to Kelimbetov, all Kazakhstan-based banks have suf-ficient funds both in national and foreign currencies. And if neces-sary, the National Bank will pro-vide appropriate liquidity support to banks.

Kelimbetov also noted that in ac-cordance with the country’s legisla-

tion, the deposits of individuals in any currency are guaranteed by the state.

Following the wave of text mes-sages that spread the misleading information indicating the immi-nent bankruptcy all three banks is-sued a joint statement.


president nursultannazarbayev held several meetings recently instructing the government and regional akims to keep a close watch over the economic situation and do what is necessary to mitigate the consequences of the tenge devaluation for the population.

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Wednesday, february 26, 2014

NATIONnaTIonal

news In BRIeFGovernment strives to Guarantee Gender equalityBy merey Kabden

ASTANA – Kazakhstan has been working vigorously to promote gen-der equality and the country’s efforts have ranked it 32nd out of 136, ac-cording to the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum.

The country’s success, the high-est in the Commonwealth of Inde-pendent States (CIS), in this sphere can be attributed to the state’s im-plementation of carefully planned gender policy aimed at equalizing the status of women and men in society.

Since independence, Kazakhstan has made aggressive steps in inte-grating gender policy. The country’s gender projects are unique compared to other nations and are generally initiated by the state, which takes preventive and proactive measures to address gender issues.

The main tools used in advanc-ing gender equality have been the elaboration and implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy in Ka-zakhstan for 2006-2016, as well as the adoption of two laws – “On Do-mestic violence” in 2009 and “On the Prevention of Offences” in 2010.

In order to improve the legal framework for anti-domestic vio-lence legislation and to assist do-mestic violence victims, President

Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the law “On Amendments and Addi-tions to Some Legislative Acts of Kazakhstan on Combating Domes-tic violence” on Feb. 18.

Introducing the bill, Senator Ly-udmila Poltorabatko said the legisla-tion carries amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences aimed at improving the effectiveness of anti-domestic violence laws.

“The main purpose of the bill is to amend existing legislation on state and social control, social services and the prevention of domestic vio-lence,” Poltorabatko noted.

The bill raises the stakes for of-fenders, who can now be banned from living with the victim if the perpetrator has somewhere else to

live. According to members of par-liament, the current legislation is not effective in preventing domestic violence and is often paid for by the family. Because of this, parliamen-tarians have proposed administra-tive arrest as a solution.

According to Poltorabatko, these two laws mandate that safety and se-curity arrangements be made for the victim in case the threat of physical or mental harm is present. Thanks to the adoption of these documents, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is-sued over 55,000 protection orders in 2013 alone. At the request of law enforcement, the courts set 4,915 special requirements and 46 people were put under administrative re-sponsibility for violation of the con-ditions of a protective order.

“In 2013, these measures reduced domestic violence related crime. Over the past seven years, the num-ber of such crimes has fallen by half,” Poltorabatko noted.

In 1995, with the aim of improv-ing policies for women, children and the sanctity of the family, President Nazarbayev established the Coun-cil for Women, Family and Demo-graphic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan. In 1998, it was trans-formed into the National Commis-sion for Women and Family Affairs and given more powers and auton-omy.

Until recently, Gulshara Abdykha-likova headed the National Com-mission before her appointment to Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakh-stan in November 2013.

Today, Kazakhstan is the only country in the CIS with a family and women’s affairs apparatus of its class that has received positive evaluations from the international community.

Under the Gender Equality Strat-egy, the National Commission has attained positive results in ensur-ing gender equality in all spheres of social and political life in the republic.

To date, every fourth member of the lower house of Parliament and local representative bodies is a woman. The number of female man-agers in the executive branch is also growing. Now, every tenth political civil servant and every seventh civil servant of the newly created mana-gerial elite is a woman.

A programme supporting wom-en’s entrepreneurship is also in place. Over the last 10 years, the ra-tio of women in SMEs has increased to 52 percent. About 40 percent of Kazakhstan’s gross domestic prod-uct is women-generated.

In related news, the 57th Session of the UN Committee on Elimi-nation of Discrimination Against Women in Geneva on Feb. 18 heard

the third and fourth periodic reports on Kazakhstan’s implementation of provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Dis-crimination against Women.

Makhabbat Bekbosynova, Chair of the National Commission on Women and Family and Demo-graphic Policy under the President led Kazakhstan’s delegation and presented the report.

She told members of the UN committee of major developments and changes in social-economic and political spheres in Kazakh-stan. Bekbosynova said President Nazarbayev’s recent state-of-the-nation address aims at enhancing life standards and life expectancy, demographic growth, and achieving world standards in education and healthcare, as well as easing access to housing and civil protection from crime.

Nicole Emelina, an independent expert from France who chaired the meeting, underlined that Kazakh-stan’s delegation gave careful con-sideration to fulfillment of commit-tee’s recommendations. Committee members Ayse Acar and Patricia Schultz noted that Kazakhstan’s re-cent achievements provided a solid basis to conclude that the country implemented the set tasks and ful-filled its international obligations in the area of gender equality.

“The Ministry of Justice was selected as a developer to formu-late a draft entrepreneurial code,” Minister of Justice Berik Imashev announced on Feb. 20 at an ex-panded meeting of the ministry board. The government’s legisla-tive work in 2013 totalled 39 bills, which in comparison to 2012 is a 15 percent increase. Most impor-tantly, there is more content to the most recent set of bills,” Imashev said. According to him, four draft codes – criminal, criminal proce-dure, penal (criminal-executive) and the code on administrative offenses – were submitted to the legislative floors. “The 2013 plan was fully implemented. This was made possible thanks to good governmental and parliamentary cooperation and coordination,” he underlined. At the meeting, it was noted that on Dec. 31, 2013, the government approved a bill schedule for 2014; it includes 45 bills. The Ministry of Justice was named the developer of five bills. Imashev announced at the meet-ing that the Ministry of Justice is a key state body providing about 42 percent of public services. “In the past year, more than 11 million services were rendered, which is 28 percent more than in 2012. Over 78 percent of them, or more than 8 million services, were pro-vided electronically. Automation has significantly reduced the time it takes to render public services and has eliminated paper work,” Imashev said.

The Akimat (city administra-tion) of Astana and Gustave Roussy French institute of On-cology signed a memorandum on Feb. 13 on the development of oncology services in Astana by introducing international standards of diagnosis and treat-ment and the further training of specialists on modern methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer pathologies. Kazakhstan and France agreed to exchange experience in the field of innovative methods for the di-agnosis and treatment of diseases and hold joint seminars, work-shops and consultations with joint participation in scientific conferences and telemedicine. The document will help Astana oncologists introduce innovative technologies in chemotherapy treatment in accordance with in-ternational practice, improve the organisation of early stage can-cer screening programmes, de-velop new treatments, improve the quality of life of cancer pa-tients and implement training programmes for oncologists on new diagnostic and treatment methods.

At the end of 2013, the aver-age life expectancy in Kazakhstan stood at 70.3 years, the Ministry of Healthcare reported on Feb. 18. These figures exceed the goals set by Salamatty Kazakhstan State Healthcare Development Pro-gramme of achieving a 70-year life expectancy by 2015 and a 72-year life expectancy by 2020. Contributing to the increase are a reduction in maternal mortality by 1.4 times and a reduction in infant mortality by 1.3 times over the past three years. Levels of death caused by circulatory disease and some types of cancer have also fallen. Overall mortality fell by 4.6 percent, according to Kazakh-stan’s National Statistics Agency.

A ceremony for the signing of a memorandum on the establish-ment of a geological research centre in Kazakhstan was held at Nazarbayev University on Feb. 20. The memorandum was signed by Kazgeology National Company and the Nazarbayev university Research and inno-vation System. Assistant to the President of Kazakhstan Yerbol Orynbayev, Deputy Prime Minis-ter and Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Isseke-shev, Minister of Education and Science Aslan Sarinzhipov and President of Nazarbayev Univer-sity Shigeo Katsu took part in the event.

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Alliance, Center Credit and Kaspi sought to dissuade people from withdrawing money from their accounts. Withdraw money they did; however, not in amounts anywhere near close enough to destabilise the banks or affect their positions.

Kelimbetov said the National Bank has already appealed to the appropriate law enforcement au-thorities to prevent and stop such provocative actions.

He also urged Kazakh citizens not to surrender to panic and to remain calm since all three banks are members of the State Deposit Insurance Fund, which fully covers by state guarantee

deposits worth under $50,000. The police have already started searching for the initiator of the text messages. Kaspi bank has even announced a 100 million tenge (roughly US$540,000) re-ward for any relevant informa-tion about the perpetrators of the hostile rumour.

Within days, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced that the authors of these ru-mours have been identified and detained, adding only that some of these people worked at a law firm and at a bank. The prosecu-tors have not divulged any further information.

The fate of the 100-million tenge award so far also remains up in the air.

national Bank denies small Banks’ Insolvency Rumours, prosecutors say perpetrators Found

deputy prime minister Gulshara abdykhalikova

dariga nazarbayeva

life expectancy Grows to 70 years Though Key Problems in Healthсare Remain

By akerke Khassanova

ASTANA – Life expectancy in Kazakhstan has increased to more than 70 years on average as the government continues efforts to improve the healthcare system, the country’s Minister of Healthcare Salidat Kairbekova told a Mazhi-lis hearing on Feb. 17. Chair of the Mazhilis Committee on So-cio-Cultural Development Dariga Nazarbayeva levelled criticism in response, however, highlighting remaining problems such as the lack of quality healthcare in remote areas of the country and the qual-ity of available drugs.Kairbekova reported on the implementation of the state health development pro-gramme, Salamatty Kazakhstan, for 2011-2015 and said basic health and demographic indicators had seen improvement in recent years. Life expectancy increased from 69 years in 2011 to 70.3 years in 2013. The overall mortality rate in 2013 was 8.1 percent, 4.6 percent lower than in 2012. In 2013, more than 838.2 billion tenge (US$4.5 billion) was spent on healthcare, 14 percent more than in 2012 and reaching 2.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

As part of efforts to improve cancer treatment in Kazakhstan for 2012-2016, 2013 saw a phased ex-pansion of screening for oesopha-geal, stomach, liver and prostate cancer, the minister said.

The tuberculosis epidemiologi-cal situation was stabilised through Salamatty Kazakhstan. During the first phase of the state programme,

the number of new TB cases was reduced by 16 percent, from 86.6 cases per 100,000 people in 2010 to 73.5 cases per 100,000 people in 2013. TB mortality decreased by 24.3 percent during the same pe-riod, from 7.2 deaths to 5.6 deaths per 100,000 people.

An important issue is providing the population with quality drugs, the minister said, and explained that under the state programme about 139 billion tenge (US$751.5 million) was allocated in 2013 for providing a guaranteed volume of free medical aid. The list of drugs is optimised for free drug provi-sion, taking into account the con-tinuity of inpatient and outpatient care.

In 2013, the state paid to raise qualifications for more than 34,800 qualified practitioners. a compre-hensive action plan for developing healthcare manpower resources has been approved for 2013-2016. Thanks to measures taken in 2013, the number of employed specialists has grown to 2,721 people includ-ing 2,262 clinical specialities.

The Ministry of Healthcare also began exploring the introduction of compulsory health insurance, fol-lowing international health insur-ance practices, and a health analy-sis of the country's current system along with interested state bodies and public associations.

In her remarks at the hearing, Nazarbayeva welcomed the report but said that last year the Mazhilis sent a list of 21 recommendations to the government on ways to im-prove healthcare.

“Of these, only four are imple-mented,” she lamented. “Indicators of the Ministry of Healthcare re-ports did improve, while problems do remain.”

According to her, “the most burning question is geographical accessibility of hospitals and clin-ics for the population.”

“Under the 100 Schools, 100 Hospitals Programme, 71 health-care facilities were built,” Naz-arbayeva said. “Of these, only 25 were built in villages. The remain-

ing facilities are expected to be completed in 2016, and work has not even begun on 13 of those.”

She called the second problem, “the itch of innovation of the Min-istry of Healthcare.”

“The ministry is constantly intro-ducing different innovations in the delivery of health services to the population,” the committee chair said. “However, as practitioners

say, many innovations are imple-mented without a proper analysis of their effects and risks, without testing, without feedback to health facilities providing services direct-ly to citizens.”

The third problem relates to the certification and accreditation of healthcare professionals.

To upgrade the skills of work-ing professionals, the ministry has introduced two types of certifica-tion: mandatory certification every five years through electronic test-

ing and voluntary certification in order to reach a higher category and be promoted. “volunteers need to have an electronic test and in-terview with a panel of 30 people. Why not combine the obligatory and voluntary certification in one electronic test without any inter-views?” Nazarbayeva asked.

To improve service quality and patient safety, the Ministry of

Healthcare has also introduced the accreditation of medical institu-tions. “But world practice shows that accreditation bodies should carry out their work independent of state control. Our accredita-tion, however, is quite formal and directly involves the ministry,” the committee chair said.

The fourth problem Nazarbaye-va listed relates to the quality of medicine.

“The introduction of a unified distribution of drugs through SK-Pharmacy has not yet been de-cided and will not solve the prob-lems of the uninterrupted supply of our hospitals,” she said. SK-Pharmacy reduced purchase drugs in Kazakhstan by 3 billion tenge [US$16.2 million] and mangled domestic producers' trials. Terms of purchase of medicines change four times a year, creating favour-able conditions for corruption and theft.”

She also listed problems with doctors prescribing drugs not suit-able for patients and with the great distances some patients have to travel to buy drugs. Among other problems mentioned were man-agement inefficiencies and cor-ruption.

In related news, Gulmira Ig-eleuova, head of the Centre for social and Political Research strat-egy, announced that a recent poll showed that 47.7 percent of those polled believe the Salamatty Ka-zakhstan programme was “well designed but is poorly implement-ed on location.” According to Ig-eleuova, the people identified five specific problem areas: corruption, a lack of medical professionals, a lack of trust in the national health-care system, a lack of control over the programme’s execution and a lack of interest among the people themselves in maintaining their own health.”

salidat Kairbekova

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exTeRnalnews In BRIeF

eurasia&world

The situation in afghanistan remains volatile as the international forces proceed with their gradual withdrawal and the presidential election on april is approaching. Internal political reconciliation and coordinated assistance by the international community will be critical for preventing further deterioration and helping maintain a tentative, and still uncertain, course towards peace.


Kazakh-Brazilian relations were given an important boost during an October 2013 landmark visit to Brazil by Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov. That visit built on a trip to the South American country by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2007 and a visit to Astana by Presi-dent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2009.

As a result of the foreign minis-ter’s visit, an embassy of Kazakh-stan was opened in Brasilia and the two countries agreed to a visa-free travel regime for all citizens, especially relevant in light of the upcoming World Cup and plans by football fans from Kazakhstan to travel there in the summer. Ac-cording to Kazakhstan diplomats, Astana completed its domestic procedures for the visa-free agree-ment to enter into force, and now needs to be ratified by the Brazil-ian Parliament.

Among a few commonalities be-tween the two countries, Ambas-sador Carvalho noted the fact that both countries’ capitals were built from scratch. Brasilia was estab-lished as the new Brazilian capital in 1960 and has grown into a city of 2.4 million today.

“The architecture may be dif-ferent but the spirit is the same,” Carvalho noted as he spoke to this reporter in the ambassador’s of-fice in the Kaskad Business Centre with a great view of Astana City Circus and the Triumph of Astana residential complex. “The experi-ence is similar to Brasilia. Both were built from scratch, Astana in the steppe, Brasilia in the sa-vannah. They are different but the projects were unique, the projects

were to conceive a new capital, the new centre of power, and admin-istration around that power to en-large our horizons to increase our development geographically.”

According to the ambassador, Brasilia, despite having some in-dustrial sectors, is mostly a service centre in its region focusing on trade and hotels.

“At the same time, the region [around Brasilia] is starting to de-velop now with a well-established agricultural centre and the region is quickly becoming a leading agro-business centre in Brazil,” he underscored.

“Kazakhstan should be proud to have Astana – a comfortable, safe and well-organised city,” the am-bassador said, adding that he has felt very comfortable during his four months in Astana. “It is not just a project on paper, but a reality that came true in a very short time, it is impressive, and congratula-tions for what the country and the government have achieved.”

Another common vision the two countries share is a strong commit-

ment towards a nuclear-weapons-free world, Carvalho said, noting his country’s strong support for the objectives of the ATOM Pro-ject, an online petition campaign launched by President Nazarbayev in August 2012 in Astana during an international nuclear disarma-ment conference.

“Brazil has long ago self-im-posed at the constitutional level a prohibition to build or possess nuclear weapons,” the ambassador said. “We are siding with what the ATOM Project is aiming at, we support fully its objectives and I think there are a lot of opportuni-ties for both countries to consider especially on the threshold of the nuclear summit in The Hague [in March] this year.”

He further stated that both coun-tries should work together increas-ingly on many issues of interna-tional agenda. We both are among the world’s largest countries by land with Brazil being the fifth and Kazakhstan the ninth.

“This is a responsibility for us as we possess vast natural resources. We have a special responsibility in managing those resources, and we are also, which is important, large providers of commodities to the world markets. So we have a keen and common interest that those markets function in a balanced and efficient way. This is something that brings us closer and makes us natural partners in the construction of global regimes such as in the field of sustainable development,” the ambassador said.

Another similarity he mentioned was that both countries have long borders with many countries and play a pivotal role for peace and stability in their respective re-

gions. “That is why Kazakhstan has all the credentials to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Carvalho said.

According to the ambassador, “both Kazakhstan and Brazil are developing countries, and we have the common challenge to eradicate poverty and improve the living conditions of our peoples. Brazil has some important experiences in this respect and is ready to share them with Kazakhstan to aid in any possible way, and there are many things Brazil could learn from Kazakhstan as well. Brazil is also a plural and multicultural country,” he said.

“Brazilians were very impressed by Kazakhstan during the London Olympics in 2012. People were saying, ‘Look at Kazakhstan, we didn’t manage to get so many medals!’ This was a common com-ment I remembered about Kazakh-stan even before coming here, so we have something to learn from Kazakhstan in the field of sport as we prepare for the next Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janei-ro,” the diplomat noted, sipping a strong coffee.

“It is always important to know each other better culturally, be-cause we are obviously different cultures, but that is what makes it more interesting to each other. There is a growing curiosity among Brazilians about the natural beau-ties of Kazakhstan and the interest is growing about the opportunities of eco-tourism in this country and in Central Asia at large. Brazilians really enjoy this kind of tourism,” the ambassador said.

Economically, the two countries have established a solid partner-ship in the air industry. Air Astana

has leased several Embraer E190s from the Brazilian air plane manu-facturer since 2011 that have re-placed propeller-driven Fokker 50s and is now flying them on do-mestic flights from astana and to neighbouring countries.

“Our economies complement each other largely. During the visit of Minister Idrissov, a Kazakh-Brazilian business seminar of great importance was held in Sao Paulo under his chairmanship, and now we start harvesting the results of this initiative and will have good news coming soon,” the Brazilian ambassador said. “Both our coun-tries take part in economic inte-gration processes in our regions. We can envisage for the future an interaction between the Eurasian Customs union and the MeRCO-suL by means of a specific trade agreement. In addition to that, we fully support the candidacy of Ka-zakhstan to become a member of the WTO. So, my assessment is that our new relations are getting traction and accelerating rapidly.”

“The eXPO 2017 may also provide an excellent opportunity to Brazil to show its advances in the field of green energy. We have extremely important experience in using hydro power and the use of biofuels,” Carvalho added.

“The eXPO 2017 and the FiFa World Cup this year offer an op-portunity in learning from each other about our difficulties and achievements in organising such big events,” the ambassador said.

“But we are not favourites for the World Cup,” he was quick to add, smiling, “because favourites never win it.”

FM Idrissov, UN Representative Jenča Discuss Regional security, cooperation on afghanistan

By merey Kabiden

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Min-ister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Id-rissov met with special Repre-sentative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the Ashgabat-based United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Di-plomacy for Central Asia Miroslav Jenča on Feb. 10.

The diplomats discussed prob-lems of regional security, the ra-tional use of water and energy resources, as well as the coopera-tion of the UN Centre for Preven-tive Diplomacy with Central Asian states.

Idrissov noted that Kazakhstan strongly supports the Joint Plan of Action for the Implementation of the UN Global Counter-terrorism Strategy in Central Asia. He also emphasised that cooperation with Central Asian states is a foreign policy priority of Kazakhstan.

During the meeting, the coun-terparts also discussed reconcili-ation in and the rehabilitation of Afghanistan.

“Kazakhstan makes vast con-tributions to international efforts aimed at stabilising Afghanistan and provides humanitarian assis-tance on an annual basis, including food and fuel. Training for young Afghans in Kazakhstan’s univer-sities is also provided,” Idrissov said.

According to the country’s For-eign Ministry, Kazakhstan, as an active regional player, is making its own contribution to the devel-opment of Afghanistan, internally and outside of its borders. Ka-zakhstan also provides substantial economic and humanitarian assis-tance.

Besides food and fuel supplies, as well as an educational pro-gramme for 1,000 young Afghans, the Kazakh government has been implementing other initiatives aimed at Afghanistan’s recovery.

Taking into account the impor-tance of regional cooperation in Afghan stabilisation, Kazakhstan advocates constructive and re-sponsible partnership in the global efforts to rehabilitate that country, including those prescribed by the

Istanbul process. As an active par-ticipant in this process, Kazakh-stan hosted its third Ministerial Meeting in Almaty in April 2013, at which six plans for confidence-building measures were adopted.

With the aim of supporting the international community’s joint ef-forts in resolving Afghan issues, Kazakhstan has already offered initiatives such as the creation of a regional uN office in almaty. it will focus on sustainable economic

development in the region, includ-ing humanitarian and economic as-sistance to Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan has also been work-ing on setting up transit facilities to store humanitarian aid destined for Afghanistan. The Almaty ad-ministration has already allocated required buildings and territories. according to officials, this will help provide targeted assistance to Afghanistan and its vital needs and will encourage a constant supply of

food aid, as well as promote effec-tive technical assistance planning.

Broadening regional economic cooperation and increasing Afghan involvement in transportation, lo-gistics and other projects in Cen-tral Asia are important to Afghani-stan’s reconstruction.

In this context, Kazakhstan sup-ports regional and international initiatives to expand the region’s transportation infrastructure. Ka-zakhstan has completed its part of

the railroad that will connect Af-ghanistan to other countries in the region. The Kazakh government hopes that Turkmen and Afghan partners will promptly complete their segments of the route.

Kazakhstan has also been con-tributing to the “Western Europe – Western China” international transit corridor that is expected to significantly increase trade turno-ver between Europe, China and Central Asia.

Brazilian ambassador Upbeat about Ties with Kazakhstan

Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nigmatulin visited Azerbaijan on Feb. 19-21 to promote parliamen-tary ties and cooperation between the two countries generally. He met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Feb. 20, who praised bilateral relations and said the two Turkic-speaking countries were actively cooperating both in the bi-lateral format and in international organisations. Nigmatulin also met Parliamentary Speaker Ogtay Asadov and discussed promoting Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan interparlia-mentary ties. “The friendship rela-tions between our countries have an ancient history. The legislative bodies also make a significant con-tribution to the development of bi-lateral relations,” Nirgmatulin said ahead of his visit. Both countries are Caspian littoral states and have a common maritime border. About 130,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Kazakhstan now. More than 90 bi-lateral agreements are in place now. More than 700 enterprises with Azerbaijani capital work in Ka-zakhstan, while 35 Kazakh-owned companies work in Azerbaijan.

A delegation from Kazakhstan headed by Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Sci-ence Aliya Galimova visited Cuba on Feb. 10-14. The Kazakhstan-Cuba talks resulted in the signing of a memorandum between the Ministry of Education and Sci-ence of Kazakhstan and the Min-istry of Higher Education of the Republic of Cuba on cooperation in education. Cuba has become the first country in Latin america to conclude such an agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Educa-tion. During the stay in Havana, the Kazakhstan delegation also participated in the ninth Interna-tional Congress on Higher Edu-cation, “University 2014.” More than 2,900 people from 56 coun-tries participated in the congress. Galimova addressed the plenary session and held bilateral meet-ings with First Deputy Chairman of the Council of State of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel and with the heads of delegations taking part in the congress, including the Eu-ropean Commissioner for Educa-tion, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth androulla vassiliou; Depu-ty Director General of UNESCO for Education Qian Tang; Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Sci-ence and Technology of the Do-minican Republic Rafael Gonzalez and others. Rectors of some of Ka-zakhstan’s universities who were part of the delegation also met with the leadership of the Univer-sity of Havana and other leading universities in Cuba. As a result, the Aktobe State University and the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Cuba signed a protocol of intent to establish mutually beneficial coop-eration, in particular in the study and teaching of Kazakh, Russian and Spanish languages through the exchange of teachers and students.

Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) Askar Shakirov and Representative of the uN Chil-dren’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kazakh-stan Jun Kukita signed a memoran-dum of understanding in the field of protecting and promoting chil-dren’s rights in Kazakhstan on Feb. 18 in Astana. According to the om-budsman’s press service, the parties summed up the fruitful cooperation that has developed in recent years between the Commissioner for Hu-man Rights and uNiCeF. On a sys-tematic basis, with the involvement of international experts, research on violence against children in resi-dential institutions and secondary schools was conducted, a manual for monitoring children’s institu-tions was elaborated and train-ings and seminars were held. The memorandum for 2014-2015 was concluded in order to implement international human rights treaties and the state-of-the-nation address. According to the signed document, the sides will continue cooperat-ing in such areas as improving the child-friendly system of justice, improving the access of vulnerable groups of children and young peo-ple to human rights mechanisms and the independent monitoring of children’s institutions.

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Given the additional increase, by July 1, 2015, their wages will have grown from between 36 to 52 per-cent. Pension payments are to be raised by 14 percent, social ben-efits by up to 12 percent, targeted social assistance by 12 percent and student scholarships by 10 percent. The government was also ordered to review and, if necessary, correct the budget.

The National Bank and the gov-ernment were tasked with averting a surge of inflation. To reduce infla-tion to 3-4 percent in the medium term, the National Bank and the government will work out steps for the transition to an inflation target-ing regime by March 15 and define a policy for regulated prices and tariffs by the end of this year.

“We also lack drastic measures to revive the stock market. The Peo-ple’s IPO has no follow-up. The creation of a single pension fund is long overdue,” Nazarbayev said.

The government needs to radi-cally revise the permit system and simplify administrative pro-cedures, he said. Non-performing banking loans must be addressed, and the government and the Na-tional Bank have been ordered to work out ways by March 1 to re-purchase bad loans from banks. The share of non-performing loans in second-tier banks must fall to 15 percent by Jan. 1, 2015, and to 10 percent by Jan. 1, 2016. The Presi-dent asked to allocate 1 trillion tenge (US$5.4 billion) from the National Fund in 2014 and 2015 to provide the economy with credit resources.

Stability and openness must be another area of focus, Nazarbayev said, and state involvement in the economy must be reduced. All companies partially owned by the state will be reviewed and a list drawn up of those to be transferred to the private sector. A clear list of terms and procedures will be made for a possible state share in private companies. All in all, by 2020, the state share in the economy should be brought to the level of the OECD nations – 15 percent of gross domestic product.

Improving the investment cli-mate is also crucial, the President said. The government was in-structed to cut down administra-tive procedures in foreign trade and customs in particular.

“Measures to reduce the shadow economy are to be worked out by March 15. Investment climate needs improvement too. Investors are interested in stability of con-tracts and of the legislation, social stability, good infrastructure, en-ergy, transport, labour resources, easy visa regime. We have all that, but it does not work properly, and if it does, it is not in favour of the investors,” the President opined.

The government was tasked with ensuring the stability of in-vestment agreements and contracts and building the transport-logistics sector of the international level and pool national logistics assets to forge alliances with partners through the Kazakhstan Temir Zholy national railway company.

The third focus is developing competitive advantages through economic diversification in the medium and long term. “The aim of industrialisation is not to collect disparate projects, but to develop a strong manufacturing industry. The government should get down to work with leading companies producing oil and gas and mining and agricultural machinery to seek out investors willing to open plants in our country and support them in every way,” Nazarbayev said.

The President expressed con-

cern about insufficient investment in geo-exploration and pointed to the need to significantly intensify technological policy in the oil and gas sector. In Kazakhstan, the oil recovery index is about 30-35 per-cent, while it is 50 percent else-where in the world. Kazakhstan should reach 50 percent by 2020, he said, and develop concepts for developing gas, fuel and other en-ergy sectors. More research must also be done on using renewable water, land and biological resourc-es, the head of state said.

Finally, investment must be drawn to agribusiness. The gov-ernment will develop and adopt a by-the-region specialisation map for the optimal use of agricultural lands.

Reporting on the socioeconomic development of the country, Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said that the volatile economic situation in the world led to a drop of 4.6 per-cent in Kazakhstan’s exports. Un-employment held at 5.2 percent, however, and investment in fixed assets rose by 6.5 percent, he said.

The government’s priority is laying the groundwork for meet-ing the long-term objectives of the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy. The seven priority areas are the mod-ernisation of the economy, the

development of infrastructure and energy, the development of enter-prise, balanced regional develop-ment, social modernisation and employment, state management and the development of interna-tional integration and economic cooperation.

The main objectives of the gov-ernment in trade policies are com-pleting the process of accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and preparing the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union.

National Bank Chairman Kairat Kelimbetov reviewed monetary policy in the wake of the exchange rate adjustment. The measure, he said, will promote growth, primar-ily for Kazakhstan’s exporters, such as those in the petroleum and mining and metallurgical busi-nesses. It will also stimulate other sectors of the economy, which in turn will accelerate GDP growth and bring more revenues to the state budget. The improved trade balance through the increase of exports and decrease of imports will then positively impact GDP growth.

No sharp surge of inflation is ex-pected, Kelimbetov vowed, but the bank does not rule out the forma-tion of inflation expectations due to excessive demand for certain

commodities in the consumer mar-ket. These effects will be short-lived, he said.

it is inflation, not the exchange rate, that affects peoples’ welfare, Kelimbetov said. He proposed tightening controls over monetary and non-monetary factors in pric-ing, and said Kazakhstan needed to avoid an oversupply of money in the economy.

Economy and Budget Planning Minister Yerbolat Dossayev said that in the wake of the exchange rate adjustment, GDP was still projected to grow by 6 percent. Nominal GDP is set to grow by 6.5 percent to reach 41.1 trillion tenge (US$222.7 billion).

According to Dossayev, the ex-isting risks prompted the follow-ing priorities in 2014: sustaining economic growth at 6 percent; fis-cal policy and planning, including a package of amendments to the Budget Code; further improve-ment of the state planning system; increasing the efficacy of public administration; strengthening the financial autonomy of local gov-ernments and increasing local authorities’ responsibility for end results.

Regarding labour and social pro-tection, state support will focus on the integrated development of vil-lages with high potential and the creation of new jobs there.

According to Minister of La-bour and Social Protection Tamara Duissenova, in 2015, 80 percent of budget funds allocated to the regions will be distributed to the population and 20 percent accord-ing to the results of the given re-gion’s progress. Forming a new generation of professionals is among the priorities for the coun-try. New professional standards are being created and the qualifi-cation system updated. The pen-sion system is also being upgraded and will be finished in september 2014.

The President instructed region-al authorities to help villagers start their own businesses and to pro-vide microloans for them.

Akims (governors) of the Man-gistau region Alik Aidarbayev, East Kazakhstan region Berdybek Saparbayev, North Kazakhstan region Samat Yeskendirov, and Almaty region Ansar Mussakh-anov also reported on the current socioeconomic situations in their regions.

expanded Government meeting Reviews progress on Kazakhstan 2050 strategy, efforts to sustain High economic Growth

The government of Kazakh-stan has set fixed prices on bread wheat, the country’s Prime Min-ister Serik Akhmetov said on Feb.17 in Astana at a meeting ad-dressing recent orders given by President Nursultan Nazarbayev at an expanded government meet-ing on Feb.14. Ways of preventing a bread price hike were discussed at a state commission meeting last week, according to the prime minister. “The decision to pro-vide the regions’ flour mills with food grain using state resources at fixed prices was made. We have set the price of food grain at 30,000 tenge (US$162) per tonne,” the prime minister said. It was earlier reported that on Feb. 11 the National Bank of Ka-zakhstan stated that the tenge had devalued by around 19 percent. Nazarbayev issued an order at the Feb. 14 government meeting en-acting measures to prevent staple foods from rising in price. Dur-ing the meeting, Akhmetov also emphasised the need to assure the stability of staple food and basic good prices such as lubricants and pharmaceuticals. He also stressed the need to prevent product short-ages and the unjustified growth of tariffs from major monopolies. Additionally, tariffs on communal services will be frozen until May 1 across Kazakhstan. “Concrete measures have already been for-mulated and now it is time to im-plement them and establish tight control over their application,” the prime minister added.

End-use borrowers of Develop-ment Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) funds under the State Programme of Industrial and Innovative De-velopment (SPAIID) will likely not face the risks that borrowed money generally carries as long as DBK loans to commercial banks for financing industrial pro-jects are not tied to the exchange rate, the DBK press service re-ported on Feb. 20. DBK granted five local commercial banks (Ka-zKom, Bank CenterCredit, Sber-bank, Alfa Bank and Tsesnabank) loans totalling 45 billion tenge (US$243 million) for lending ac-tivities. “The bank grants loans to commercial banks in tenge. Accordingly, it was decided that our partner banks would extend credit to end-use borrowers under the same conditions. End-use bor-rowers are of special importance to DBK. They should not bear currency risks,” acting Chairman of the Board of DBK Askar Dosti-yarov said.

On Feb. 18, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the law “On ratification of the agreement be-tween the Government of the Re-public of Kazakhstan and the Gov-ernment of the socialist Republic of vietnam on encouragement and mutual protection of invest-ments,” reported the press service of the President. That agreement was signed on Sept. 15, 2009 in Astana. Its purpose is to improve the investment climate in relation to mutual investments by provid-ing guarantees to investors in ad-dition to those provided by the applicable legislation. The agree-ment is not applied to taxation, public procurement, subsidies or grants issued by the contract-ing party, and services provided for implementation of state func-tions by the body or agency of the contracting party. According to the document, each contracting party shall encourage and create favourable conditions in its terri-tory for investments of investors of the other contracting party and admit such investments in accord-ance with the national law of the country. Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev noted when submitting the document to Parliament, “The agreement also contains provi-sions which regulate in detail the procedure for the formation of an international tribunal established for resolving disputes between the parties.” Dossayev reported that investment cooperation in the oil and gas sector between Kaz-MunayGas and Petrovietnam is especially promising.

european Investment Bank extends First loans to Kazakh lenders

By merey Kabiden

ASTANA – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a signing ceremony Feb. 18 to celebrate the first loan agreements between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) and between EIB and a Kazakhstan subsidi-ary of Russia’s sberbank. in total, 120 million euros are to be given by EIB to DBK and another 100 million euros to Sberbank in Ka-zakhstan.

The Brussels-based EIB is the European Union’s long-term lend-ing institution and is owned by its member states. It makes long-term financing available for in-vestments that help fulfil eu pol-icy goals. The two EIB loans are aimed at Kazakhstan’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the country’s midcap companies. Most of these compa-nies are involved in environmental protection and countering climate change.

Following the signing ceremony, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ka-zakhstan Erlan Idrissov noted that cooperation with the EIB is new to Kazakhstan’s investment policies and to the State Programme for Accelerated Industrial and Innova-tive Development (SPAIID).

“We attach great importance to the development of mutually ben-eficial cooperation and fruitful dia-logue with the EIB. The Foreign

Ministry makes every effort to ful-fill the President’s orders to attract foreign investment,” the Kazakh minister said.

eiB vice President for Kazakh-stan lending operations Wilhelm Molterer said the EIB will foster private sector development by im-proving SME and midcap compa-ny access to long-term financing. These loans will assist projects

that increase the diversity of the Kazakh economy.

“At the same time, EIB funds will facilitate the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy, which aims to develop a sustainable and efficient economic model capable of propelling Ka-zakhstan into the 30 most devel-oped countries in the world,” Mol-terer noted.

Funds provided by the EIB will

contribute to increasing the share of GDP generated by small and medium-sized enterprises, which is currently 18 percent. In Kazakhstan, SMEs employ some 2.5 million peo-ple or 28 percent of the workforce.

These loans help fulfil the objec-tives of the EIB External Lending Mandate, which is focused on the development of the local private sector, as well as social and eco-nomic institutions. Entities focused

on climate change mitigation and adaptation are also targeted by the loan programme. In keeping with these objectives, half of all loans will be dedicated to financing cli-mate change management and climate adaptation projects found eligible for funding under the EIB Climate Change Mandate.

Participants of the signing cer-emony also included acting chair-man of DBK Askar Dostiyarov and Deputy Chairman of the sub-sidiary bank of Russia’s sberbank Eldar Tenizbayev.

Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev met with Wilhelm Molterer on the same day, telling him Kazakhstan views its cooperation with the EIB as an important element of the compre-hensive development of ties with the European Union, the country’s larg-est trade and economic partner. Dos-sayev added that cooperation will stimulate foreign investment and business activities in Kazakhstan.

The current loan agreements come on top of the Framework Agreement between Kazakhstan and EIB that was signed in Brus-sels in April 2010 and entered into force in April 2011, and a memo-randum of understanding between the Samruk Kazyna National Wel-fare Fund and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan on the one hand and the EIB on the other, providing for EIB to invest up to 300 million euros in projects in Kazakhstan.

eIB Vice-president for Kazakhstan lending operations wilhelm molterer (l) exchanges documents with acting chairman of DBK Askar Dostiyarov (r) on Feb. 18 as Kazakh and European officials look on.

The government and the akimats are tasked with making sure there are no price hikes for main food staples and other goods in light of the 19-percent correction of the tenge versus dollar exchange rate on Feb. 11.

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“increased use of HRees in growing green and high-tech ap-plications and the consuming high-tech appetite of the expanding global middle class (set to double over the next 25 years) will put up-ward pressure on HRee demand and prices”, says David Abraham, a New York–based metals consultant.

Dudley Kingsnorth, a professor at the Centre for Research in en-ergy and Minerals Economics at Curtin University in Perth, Aus-tralia and an analyst at Industrial Minerals Company of Australia (IMCOA), a rare earths consult-ing company, expects the average market price for Rees in the long-term to increase to $50-70 per kilo-gramme from the current averages of $30-40 per kilogramme, driven by a strong demand for heavy earths. Lifton agrees that HRRes like dysprosium and neodymium, which are used in the production of permanent magnets and wind turbines will “maintain strong de-mand and associated pricing.”

Part of that increased demand and another reason Kazakhstan may be in a strong position to capitalise on the rare earths mar-ket is that China’s share in rare earths’ global supply and demand has been steadily declining. China is still very much in control of the market, accounting for 85 percent of global production and 65 per-cent of global demand, according to IMCOA. But China announced in 2010 that it would curtail its pro-duction of rare earths and cut ex-port quotas by as much as a third. As a result, global prices skyrock-eted and 90 percent of small mines went out of business.

Prices leveled slowly in 2012. China’s export cuts, however, pre-sented challenges for importers of rare earths like Japan (the world’s largest importer of Rees), but also created opportunities for other mar-kets. As a result, output from the rest of the world will increase tenfold by the year 2016, projects IMCOA. The increase in output outside of China will come from mineral-rich countries like Kazakhstan.

“The Chinese are running out of heavy earths, and they really want the rest of the world to develop their rare earth sources,” said Lifton.“The problem is the lack of supply chain components outside of China. In fact, at the present moment, China is the only coun-try with a toll supply chain from the mine to the product assembly line. The Chinese are very open to the idea of a toll supply chain es-

tablished outside of China.” And, Lifton continued, “for political and historical reasons, they would pre-fer it not to be in Japan. Kazakh-stan, given its geographical prox-imity to China and rich resource base, is in a great position to build this vertical supply chain. It would raise its economic and political profile in the region. They should not do it in isolation, however.”

Kazakhstan most certainly has not done so in isolation. In No-vember 2012, Kazatomprom and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation opened a facility in Stepnogorsk, an industrial city 170 kilometres north of Astana, to produce rare earth oxides with a projected ca-pacity of 1,500 tonnes a year.

Kazatomprom is planning to establish a Rees-based vertically-integrated production chain at this state-of-the-art facility designed by Kazakh, Japanese and Europe-an engineers.

“Our plan is to build a produc-tion plant for separating rare earth oxides and metals from ore con-centrate by 2016 and start pro-ducing Ree permanent magnets by 2018. That would represent a move from raw materials produc-tion to processing in line with the principles of Kazakhstan’s state programme of industrial-innova-tive development,” said Shkolnik.

In his recent state-of-the-nation address, Kazakh President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev emphasised the importance of bringing new tech-nologies to the country and coop-erating with the world’s leading companies operating in mining fa-cilities. “Kazakhstan needs to fully use the potential of foreign direct investment and bring foreign ex-pertise to develop its mining sec-tor,” said the President.

Both France and Germany have signed long-term strategic partner-ship agreements with Kazakhstan securing a source of rare earths for the countries’ industrial needs. The agreements cover not just pros-pecting and mining, but also in-clude plans for geological survey-ing and exploration.

There is no doubt that Kazakh-stan is well positioned to become a global player in Rees. The recent agreements with Japan, France and Germany will likely unlock other investment opportunities in the country, particularly if Kazakhstan proves to be a reliable supplier of materials and eventually finished products to outside markets. In-creasingly, customers around the world will be turning to technol-ogy that includes a little bit of Ka-zakhstan.

Industry Figures Indicate Growth in domestic auto manufacturing

By alla dementieva

Kazakhstan-made cars now con-stitute 21 percent of all new car sales in the country, according to the Kazakhstan Auto Business As-sociation.

In 2013, about 38,000 cars and 2,290 trucks were assembled in Kazakhstan.

“significant results in the de-velopment of the auto industry were achieved with state support, especially through programmes developed and introduced by the

Ministry of Industry and New Technologies. These programmes will give Kazakhstan’s automobile industry a better footing in both the Customs Union (CU) and in its accession to the World Trade Or-ganisation (WTO),” said Associa-tion President Andrey Lavrentiev.

Thanks to state support, in 2013, the auto industry began a number of strategic projects, in particu-lar, production of the Ssang Yong Nomad and Peugeot, as well as special vehicles from Hyundai. In Ust-Kamenogorsk, construction

of a full cycle plant has started. investments in the first phase of production (60,000 cars per year) are estimated at $233 million. Cur-rently, at Saryarka Auto Prom, the allur Group produces iveCO Power Daily commercial vehicles.

The association has indicated that it supports recent changes to tax legislation on the trade-in system (exchange of old cars for new ones), which allows vaT to be charged only on the difference between purchase price and sales price.

agriculture expanding in atyrau By Rinat Kulmagambetov

aTYRau ReGiON – state sup-port for agriculture is showing re-sults in the atyrauagroOnіmderi farming partnership, which is de-veloping successfully in many di-rections, from viticulture and horti-culture to bee-keeping and breeding sturgeon.

One of the projects recently launched by vladimir Rozmetov, head of the atyrauagroOnіmderi partnership, is a farm for breeding goats. The 150 animals brought from the Netherlands have already adapted to local conditions and be-gun to produce offspring.

“Goat’s milk is valued for its health-giving properties: it helps disabled children and the sick. And cheese made from goat’s milk is rich in calcium and vitamin D, which are also very useful for children,” said Zhangeldy Tokov, managing direc-tor of the farm.

The 600-animal farm is located near a processing plant where milk-ing machines and processing units are being installed. The dairy plant will process 1,000 litres of milk daily, Rozmetov said. initially, it will produce 10 products with dif-ferent fat contents, including goat’s milk, whey, cheese, cottage cheese, butter and cream. In the future, this range will be expanded to 40 types of products.

Sales are not expected to be a

problem: kindergartens and schools are eager to buy dairy products and the partnership also has a network of stores.

Projects like the AtyrauAgro-Onіmderi partnership not only satu-rate the market with high-quality local products at affordable prices, but also positively affect the social well-being of people employed in manufacturing by providing stable sources of income.

Tokov, for example, moved to the Makhambet district from Kyzylkogin in search of work. His wife, Gulbarshin Tokova, a former librarian, followed with their son. “The main thing is that we are to-gether and are busy,” she said.

“Our work makes us happy, be-cause we are confident in the future

and know that the opening of such a modern farm is possible due to the state programme supporting ru-ral areas and agro-producers. The partnership gives us everything we need: a good salary, vegetables and fruits that we grow and get for free. We’re also provided with housing,” said Tokov.

Today there are more than 300 workers on the atyrauagroOnіmderі farm. They grow vegetables, grapes and apples; farm fish; breed sheep, goats and cows and do other work.

In the near future, more farmers will appear in the region. Among their plans is the launch of a dairy complex, a poultry farm for the pro-duction of broiler and goose meat and the opening of a sturgeon-breed-ing farm.

Rare earths: a Rare opportunity for Kazakhstan

French iveCO Bus compa-ny and Kazakhstan astana LRT signed an agreement in February on the delivery of 350 natural gas powered iveCO buses to Kazakh-stan’s capital Astana. Currently, about 700,000 people travel by bus in Astana every day, but the exist-ing municipal bus fleet needs about 400 more busses to meet the city’s demand. “The factory is located in France; Astana has bought 350 buses for the city,” Talgat Ardan, chairman of the board of Astana LRT said. These cutting edge ve-hicles have been adapted for Asta-na’s harsh winter conditions and come with a full set of service ap-plications. The 350 vehicles pro-cured by the contract include 270 12-metre buses and 80 18-metre buses. Both of these models are high-capacity vehicles. “We will provide the most advanced natural gas fuel busses,” Pierre Lahutte, president of iveCO Bus compa-ny said. Passengers will enjoy first-class comfort, quality and safety. There will be an entrance ramp, places for handicapped people and an information system. “The same buses are used in France,” Lahutte added. Two hundred buses will be delivered by August and 150 more by October. This will allow signifi-cant improvements to passenger transportation and help improve the ecological situation in the city.

In Almaty region, 30 invest-ment projects totalling 26.5 billion tenge (US$143.1 million) will be implemented this year. According to the Akim (governor) of the Al-maty region Ansar Musakhanov, gross agricultural output reached 381.5 billion tenge (US$2.06 bil-lion). The planted acreage for ag-ricultural crops totaled 910,900 thousand hectares. Thanks to new technologies, the volume of pro-duction of many agricultural crops increased. Figures show that 1.15 million tonnes of grain crops have been produced, including 389,500 tonnes of corn and 57,500 tonnes of rice. The number of all types of livestock and poultry also in-creased. Statistics read that 312,300 tonnes of meat has been produced, as well as 670,000 tonnes of milk and 8,000 tonnes of wool. A total of 115 farms for 5,600 thousand heads of cattle have been built under the Sabyga Programme, feed yards for 4,600 heads of cattle have also been built as part of this programme; also 3,300 heads of foreign cattle have been purchased. A total of 30 investment projects totalling 26.5 billion tenge (US$143.1 million) are being implemented around Almaty under the Food Belt Pro-gramme. Nine of them totalling 7.8 billion (US$47 million) tenge were launched in 2013.

The National Chamber of Entre-preneurs of Kazakhstan launched a unique online project called the Register of Problems for entrepre-neurial Support on Feb. 19. The updated website of the National Chamber www.palata.kz was also presented. This project is also to be launched on the chamber website. Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Chamber of Entrepre-neurs Gulnar Kurbanbayeva and developer of the project, director of the chamber IT department Nurlan Omarov took part in the presenta-tion. The register is an online plat-form where businessmen can leave messages about barriers faced at work. All submitted problems will be reviewed and entrepreneurs will receive chamber assistance.

Kazagro financed 346 projects amounting to 237.5 billion tenge (US$1.28 billion), Chairman of the Board of KazAgro Dulat Aitzhanov said at a Feb. 18 Central Communications Service (CCS) briefing summarizing Kazagro’s 2013 operations. “In total in 2013, 346 projects amounting to 237.5 billion tenge (US$1.28 billion) were financed by the investment programme. Of these, 290 projects have already been completed and 68 projects were launched this year,” he said. Aitzhanov noted that 42 applications totalling 29 billion tenge (US$156.6 million) were currently being considered. He stated that there are plans to implement another 75 develop-ment projects this year.

Gulbarshin Tokova and her husband Zhangeldy Tokov are betting their farm will bring benefits both to them and to the local community.

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Kazakhstan poised to Become Global agro player

By akhylbek Kurishbayev

The agro-industrial complex is one of the most promising sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy. Few states have comparable potential for agricultural development, and it is already clear that with the growth of the world population, only countries capable of export-ing food will be able to be major players on the world market.

Kazakhstan’s government is paying attention to agriculture, including through funding in-creases and the development of new programmes and instruments of state support. Statistics show that gross output is growing, as are investments in the industry, and new agricultural facilities are being commissioned. Imports of agro-products are also growing and food prices are rising – yet the structure of export has not changed. Why?

The fact is that the lion’s share of domestic agricultural products are not competitive on the world market, mainly because of the outdated technology used in their production. The solution, there-fore, is not to increase subsidies to agriculture, but to restore the scientific aspects of the indus-try. We should bear in mind that after Kazakhstan’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the government will have to reduce state support to agri-business that falls into the WTO’s “yellow box” or limited category, while public investments in sci-ence fall into the “green box” cat-egory and are not subject to such restrictions.

That’s why today we need a

qualitative leap in technological modernisation: effective innova-tions for agriculture, best agricul-tural technologies, high-yielding varieties and hybrids, high-yield-ing animals and high-perfor-mance machines and equipment.

For example, in Australia, where environmental conditions are harsher than in Kazakhstan, the wheat yield is nearly double ours. The secret is that Australia has formed one of the world’s best research systems in agricul-ture.

Australian scientists are con-tinuously improving biotech-nologies, allowing them to create exceptional crop characteristics. scientific achievements in the field of genomics have consid-erably reduced the cost of crop breeding.

Another problem is livestock improvement. Countries like the U.S., France and Canada are improving their livestock not by importing breeding cattle from abroad, but by systematically im-proving their breeds through gene selection.

In France alone, gene selection has led to an increase in annual milk yields from four tonnes to six tonnes per cow over the past twenty years.

The Netherlands is another ex-ample of successful agricultural in-novation. The country one-fifth the size of our Almaty region exports agricultural products at almost $50 billion a year and is the world’s second-largest exporter in this in-dicator after the United States.

Economic and technological policy in the agrarian sector of the Netherlands is formed mainly by the Wageningen University and Research Centre. all key decisions are prepared by scientists based on expertise and specific problems of practice. The Wageningen Uni-versity is a model of a successful national agro-innovation cluster. it is called the Food valley of the Netherlands, echoing the famous silicon valley in the united states. Combining in one complex an ed-ucational centre, research institute and technology park, the university generates the Dutch agro-miracle.

As evidenced by numerous studies, investment in agricultural science is many times more effec-tive than direct investment in the industry. Even in 1992, Canadian scientists found that every dollar invested in agricultural research brought a performance gain of $40.

A common feature of the strongest agricultural powers in the world, then, is the dominant position of agricultural science, which supports not only agricul-tural production, but also public policy in general. That is why, in his recent state-of-the-nation ad-dress, the head of state stressed

the need to develop the national agricultural research system and agribusiness through agro-inno-vation clusters.

In agricultural research, we have fallen far behind leading world powers and lost many valu-able professionals and entire re-search areas. We need to create in Kazakhstan a new, modern, scientific school. But we cannot solve this problem by ourselves. For this, it is necessary to devel-op partnerships with leading re-search centres and attract famous foreign scientists to work with talented youth, as the Nazarbayev University does. This will allow us to quickly create our own com-petence for solving urgent prob-lems in the industry.

Global experience shows that today, the optimal form of organi-sation of agricultural science and higher education is the research university. Only research univer-sities can synchronise research processes with training and intro-duce results in practice. Research universities provide an opportu-nity to prepare specialists able to apply the latest innovations in practice.

We believe that the research agricultural university should be-come the nucleus of a new agro-innovation cluster in Kazakhstan.

On the President’s instructions given at the meeting of the For-eign Investors’ Council in May 2013, we have already begun the transformation of the Kazakh Saken Seifullin Agro Technical University and we believe that only the strategic development of the intellectual potential there will allow Kazakhstan to create its own fertile Food valley.

The author is rector of the Kazakh saken seifullin agro Technical University and a for-mer minister of agriculture of Kazakhstan.

agricultural Reform Requires spectrum of changes

By Bauyrzhan yereshev

To become a major regional exporter of agricultural prod-ucts, Kazakhstan must provide domestic farmers with direct ac-cess to long-term financing and markets. This should be sup-ported by an effective system of loan guarantees and insurance. The government was instructed to adjust its agricultural devel-opment planning in the Agri-business 2020 programme. The focus in this document is on the development of industries that can be potential players in the domestic market of agricultural commodities.

Nevertheless, the programme does not identify parameters for increased quality of life among the rural population and key in-centives for the lower layers of rural society.

Today, the industry’s realities are as follows: against the back-ground of steady growth in gross domestic product (by more than 16 times since 1999), the share of agro-indsutrial complex (AIC) in the structure of the national economy decreased by seven times. In particular, from 1991, its share fell from 29.5 percent to reach 4.3 percent in 2012. In two decades, Kazakhstan joined the group of countries with devel-oped urban economies, despite the fact that approximately 45.1 percent of the country’s popula-tion lives in rural areas.

Meanwhile, conclusions made by Ernst & Young in the study of Russia’s accession to the WTO indicate a depressive contrac-tion of high-tech sectors of the Russian agro industrial complex under WTO conditions. For Ka-zakhstan’s less diversified agrar-ian industry, the likelihood of this

is high. In this context, the Presi-dent’s instructions to adjust the programme are relevant as never before.

We believe that the desired fu-ture of the agricultural industry is inextricably linked with the appearance in AIC production of new, powerful players from the urbanised population, as well as the involvement of local me-dium- and small-scale farmers to be heard locally.

The Kazakhstan 2050 strategy sets the task for the industry to become a global player in the field of clean production. Clear-ly, the well-being of any com-pany depends not only on strong relationships with government agencies, but also on consumers’ preferences, because under WTO conditions, the state cannot help manufacturers.

All market participants should have a clear understanding that the owner of agricultural land today has been defined. Taking into account this determining factor, it is necessary to build a bridge between science, ag-ribusiness and the state in the form of project management, which will create a competition of applied projects oriented to

concrete owner of the farmland. In addition, inter-branch, indus-trial and packaging production should be united up to minimum business components which cor-respond to the latest international trading standards, including the Customs Union. The state must also directly participate in the commercial regulation of access to all foreign markets, including such non-traditional regions (for Kazakhstan) as Africa, Southeast Asia and India, which are not WTO members.

It also seems appropriate to unite in the market environment all institutes of development (in-cluding their structures and hu-man and material resources) and second-tier banks and determine a scientific regulator. This step will oblige banks to lend to agri-business at 1 percent and expand leasing opportunities to update the basic agrarian funds. In turn, second-tier banks will be respon-sible before the state for return of these funds to the national budg-et. Thereby, they will be moti-vated to finance real projects that generate a steady income.

Here, they can use their fi-nancing resources of the Islamic world, where more than $1.5 trillion has been accumulated. Taking into account the global crisis, we can buy new and exist-ing agricultural technologies and equipment on favourable terms.

For complete resource support of agribusiness by the state, ad-equate logistics for storing and delivering agriculture products to the final consumer are neces-sary. Commercial packaging, advertising and the infrastruc-ture for transporting goods to commodity markets play a no less important role. All this con-ditions the necessity of a new

modern transport system with long-term storage technology.

To further penetrate foreign markets, Kazakhstan needs a strategy of creating an interna-tional presence through the de-velopment of terminal-service infrastructure, not only inside the country, but also abroad, mainly on the trade routes between Asia, Indochina and Europe. Priori-ties should be developing a sales network of transport and logis-tics services, building or leasing terminal facilities at sea and at “dry” ports on the Caspian, Bal-tic and Black Seas and terminals in China, india, Russia, the eu and the Persian Gulf.

It is also clear that all these recommendations can be intro-duced with the help of science. Initially, it will be good to create the rules of the game, i.e., creat-ing an institutional environment and managerial levers. This will be possible through public-pri-vate and scientific partnerships.

Today, our state has a substan-tial margin of institutional, eco-nomic and financial reserves of growth. For example, state budget reserves alone are estimated at 10-15 percent of current expendi-tures.

The new AIC strategy must include measures aimed at the formation in the public con-sciousness of a new attitude to-ward agriculture as the sphere of successful people. This process should actively involve the full potential of culture: media, cin-ema, the Internet and even show business. I think that Agribusi-ness 2020 also must contain in-centives for internal reserves and increased market awareness in farmers.

The author is professor of the department of economic management of the academy of public administration un-der the president of Kazakh-stan, academician of national academy of natural sciences of the Republic of Kazakh-stan.

nation should stay Focused on progress in

Global Business RankingsHaving inherited moribund

economy and outdated pro-duction capacities from the Soviet Union and being gen-

erously endowed with natural resources, Kazakhstan faced a developmental conundrum: how to exploit the natural resources and at the same time avoid the detriments of the “Dutch disease”?

During the more than 20 years of in-dependence, Kazakhstan has set a path of a dynamically developing country with solid ambitions to firmly occupy its own place in the highly competitive and ever changing global environment. The country has set a course of development for the manufacturing, automobile and petrochemical industries. National pro-grammes have been developed aiming at attracting new technologies to various spheres of the economy. Among other prerequisites to sustainable development are financial sector development, small- and medium–sized enterprises support and administrative reforms.

Reforms in these sectors provide a ba-sis for the competitive advantage of the domestic firms, developing internal mar-kets and attracting foreign capital and know-how. How well has Kazakhstan done in creating favourable conditions for internal and external stakeholders?

Recent rankings provide a nuanced picture of Kazakhstan’s successes and areas for further development. The latest Doing Business 2013 ranking of the World Bank recognised Kazakhstan as having the most improved ease of doing business across several areas of regula-tion, such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting elec-tricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trad-ing across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Across these indicators, Kazakhstan has entered the top 50 countries with the most favour-able business conditions. The research recorded the procedures, time and cost for a business in the construction industry to obtain all the necessary approvals to build a warehouse in Almaty, the coun-try’s largest business city, connect it to basic utilities and register the property.

According to the report, Kazakhstan achieved particular progress in registering property and obtaining construction per-mits. In registering property, Kazakhstan improved by nine points rising from 27th to 18th in rank. In obtaining construc-tion limits, although good progress was achieved, this indicator still stands as a weak point among the indicators. Among other indicators dragging the country to low-performers are trade with related indicators such as trading across bor-ders, time and cost to import and export. Kazakhstan does relatively good in the taxation area. The ranking estimates the administrative burden of complying with Kazakhstan’s taxes and the volume of taxes paid. According to the ranking, on average, firms make seven tax payments a year, spend 188 hours a year filing, preparing and paying taxes and pay total taxes amounting to 28.6 percent of profit. Overall Kazakhstan stands at 18 in the ranking of 189 economies on the ease of paying taxes. The figure below visualises the progress of Kazakhstan in tax admin-istration reforms. as the figure shows, Kazakhstan is far ahead of the regional (Europe and Central Asia) average.

The Doing Business ranking analysis of the construction industry reflects a wider state of governance in Kazakh-stan. According to the World Bank’s Global governance ranking, governance consists of the traditions and institu-tions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected,

monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them. In the government effectiveness indicator, Ka-zakhstan improved from 17th to almost 40th place in the global ranking since 2002 (with the higher number indicat-ing the higher rank). In other indicators, including regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption, Kazakhstan has also made a notable shift forward.

Indicator year percentile rank (from 0 to 100)

Government effectiveness

2002 17.07

2007 32.522012 39.71

Regulatory quality

2002 23.53

2007 40.292012 37.80

Rule of Law 2002 13.882007 21.532012 30.81

Control of Corruption

2002 10.24

2007 18.452012 20.57

Earlier this year, the Heritage Founda-tion released its 20th annual Index of Economic Freedom, which evaluated countries in four broad areas of economic freedom with ten specific categories: rule of law (property rights, freedom from corruption); limited government (fiscal freedom, government spending); regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); open markets (trade freedom, investment free-dom, financial freedom). in this study, the Washington, DC-based think tank rated Kazakhstan as firmly improving its economic freedom ranking: the coun-try’s economic freedom score was 63.7, making its economy the 67th freest in the 2014 index. Kazakhstan’s score was 0.7 point higher than last year, with notable improvements in investment freedom, business freedom and monetary freedom.

It is worth noting that overall Kazakh-stan ranks 11th out of 42 countries in the asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is above the world and regional averages in this index.

Over the 17 years that Kazakhstan has been graded in the index, its economic freedom has advanced by 22 points, one of the 20 best improvements recorded by any country. This progress has been sup-ported by improvements in regulatory efficiency and market openness. scores for seven of the ten economic freedoms, including monetary freedom, trade free-dom, financial freedom, fiscal freedom and business freedom have increased by double digits. Once considered a “re-pressed” economy, Kazakhstan has risen to “moderately free” since 2008.

As a recommendation, Heritage Foundation suggests deeper structural reforms for overcoming challenges associated with the need to reduce dependence on the energy sector and achieve more diversified growth. Besides, better improvement is ex-pected in the area of property rights and freedom from corruption to maintain sustainable growth in the ranking.

Overall, few rankings avoid criti-cisms from various stakeholders. Some criticise the rankings for a biased ap-proach and conflicts of interest, such as financial credit rankings. Other rankings, including those discussed in this article, are criticised by some for erroneous methodology approach. Despite the criticism, the rankings are worth paying attention to for they provide consumers with information with certain data and dynamics. A critical analysis may shed light on how to proceed with further development.

source: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/~/media/giawb/doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/KAZ.pdf?ver=2

A7


opinions

eurasian economic Integration must Go through Thorough consideration

By alina Usmanova

The closer the date of signing of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) treaty determined by the three presidents of EEU member countries, the higher the degree of discussions in society, both about the need to create such a union and the principles of its creation, as well as what the union treaty should represent. Deputy Chairman of the National Chamber of entrepreneurs Ra-khim Oshakbayev discussed the state of negotiations and the draft document.

What is the status of the ne-gotiations process regarding the agreement on the formation of the EEU, and what are the prob-lematic issues of the current stage of integration?

This year marks 20 years since President Nursultan Nazarbayev gave a speech at Moscow State University where he introduced the concept of Eurasian integra-tion. Now this idea finds its real, practical implementation. We have passed three stages of inte-gration: first, the Customs union (CU), then the Single Economic Space (SES), now we stand on the threshold of the EEU – a very high degree of economic integra-tion. To be rightly understood, I want to explain our position. We, as a business, are interested in economic integration, access to markets of Russia and Belarus, and this is why we really need to make this integration associa-tion sustainable and competitive on the quality of its regulation. However, we are concerned about what happens in the stage of the legal framework of the EEU. First of all, it concerns the structure and quality of the developed, codified treaty which, in fact, constitutes a threat to the stability of this inte-gration association.

What are the problems?First of all, currently in a very

short period of time, we are try-ing to develop and agree on a draft treaty on the EEU, which should codify some 60 international agreements concluded within CU and SES. It includes a variety of topics relating to competition pol-icy, natural monopolies, transport, industry and others. In fact, it af-fects all sectors of economy, the entire GDP. Taking into account, firstly, deadlines, and secondly, that it will be a single document that will go to the ratification by three, and in the future, when Ar-menia and Kyrgyzstan will join the union, by five parliaments, it will be almost impossible to change this regulatory framework.

Why do you think so?This is evidenced by our experi-

ence. The Supranational Customs Code can be taken as an example, which I think was adopted in No-vember 2009. Actually, after its agreement before its entry into force in July 2010, it changed in 166 articles. Therefore, when the code was under ratification, the protocol on introducing changes to it was also ratified. after that, for four years no amendments have been introduced. On the con-trary, our tax code in the first four years after its entry into force was changed on average four to five times a year, and in 2012 it was amended nine times.

Today, the formation of the treaty on the EEU is extremely fast. To analyse 800 pages of vari-ous legal norms, 35 applications and assess their impact on the conditions of doing business with all the amendments to the treaty in the codification process is not possible. Often the annex to the treaty, which is an integral part of it, contains absolutely excessive details, which do not correspond to the level of the document to be adopted. For example, the parlia-ments under the agreement will be asked to ratify even the meth-odology of the interstate transmis-sion of electric energy (power) among member countries, which contains a very specific formula for determining components in-

cluded or not included in tariffs of natural monopolies.

So I think that almost immedi-ately after the entry into force of this treaty there will be a need to finalise some of its provisions, and possibly entire sections. Thus, taking into account, firstly, tight deadlines, and secondly, the fact that by the time of ratification (by the time of creation of this union) some provisions will either lose relevance or will not properly match the economic realities, a paradoxical situation will occur. We see this in the functioning of the basic agreements. If they con-tradict the economic interests of the parties, they are not enforced despite the fact that they have the status of treaties. I have two examples to this. One is a basic agreement on transport, which in-volves application of the so-called unified tariffs by all parties since 2013. These unified tariffs are not applied so far, which is a direct violation of the achieved agree-ments. This is disadvantageous for the parties. The second example is a basic agreement on agriculture under which the parties committed themselves to limit the volume of support for agricultural producers. Nevertheless, there is no proper control over the implementation of these commitments and we see that subsidies and unfair competi-tion continue to occur.

Correct me if I am wrong, but today there are two approaches to the draft treaty: the first is to spec-ify in detail all the agreements concluded, ratified, and even not yet concluded and not yet rati-fied. And the second approach is to make it a framework, i.e. to de-fine some general principles. Will other aspects be identified within the agreement?

Yes, now there are two ap-proaches. The first approach is quite simple: they take all treaties and try to merge them into a single document. As a result, it will be large and cumbersome, will be rat-ified, and as i said, will not change.

The essence of the second ap-proach is the following: we are convinced that we must, as Presi-dent Nazarbayev says, follow the principle of economic pragmatism, i.e. if now it is clear that some pro-visions of the basic agreements of the CU are outdated and do not correspond to economic interests or are irrational in their content, they should be changed. Not just rewritten, but changed. If we de-cided that we do not need unified tariffs, then we should reject them and need to change the basic agree-ment and consider this at the time of codification. at the same time in the negotiation process, in the Eurasian Economic Commission (eeC), the Russian side says it is a deviation from the basic agree-ment, from common understand-ings, “you are overreacting,” etc. This position reflects a misunder-standing of the process of codifica-tion. What our Russian colleagues are referring to is called “incorpo-ration” – mechanical incorporation of agreements into a single docu-ment. Codification means not just the transfer of existing norms, but their processing and, if necessary, cancellation of obsolete provisions and filling gaps.

This means if we extremely sim-plify the situation, the following will happen. The first option is not to implement the agreements that do not meet the changing econom-ic situation. And the second option means that there are real conditions of life, and the regulatory frame-work needs to be adjusted for them to make it executable and observe mutual agreements. About sixty existing agreements, each one ratified by the parliaments of three countries, will be included in the EEU treaty. Almost all sectors of the economy: competition, natural monopolies, technical regulation, industrial, macroeconomic policy, services, which constitute more than a half of Kazakhstan’s GDP, will be regulated by the treaty.

In the national legislation, such problems are solved by amending certain legislative acts, however, in case of adoption of the treaty, these

amendments shall be adopted by three, and eventually five parlia-ments. Each time, when the treaty will be reviewed on a particular issue, there will be attempts to in-troduce additional norms in other parts of it and protocols. Thus, any change to this treaty will become a banal bargaining. it will be diffi-cult to introduce any changes to it, not only because of the ratification procedure complexity, but also due to the blocking of these changes by separate parties as a way to lobby their own interests.

Can you discuss the lobbying in detail? What is it about? Can you explain the problem with a simple example?

It’s about details. For example, the three of us decided to intro-duce some changes to the annex of the treaty on technical regula-tion. But since we have a compre-hensive treaty, the Russian side may say, “We also have propos-als on a ‘single sky,’ let us also include them.” And Belarusians, for example, will comment on the oil products market. And that’s it, we leave for two to three years with an unknown outcome. Any amendment can be blocked, not just because it does not suit any side, but because one side has an-other interest that it also wants to insert in the treaty.

We need to bring this simple idea: that in order for integration to be competitive and stable, a regu-latory framework must be properly constructed, it must be flexible. if it does not happen and the treaty is not adopted in such a comprehen-sive edition, it will very quickly become obsolete, will not meet the economic interests and will not be applied.

We already see the practice when national authorities adopt their regulatory acts that are con-trary to a supranational regula-tory framework, but in general all agreed that this is normal. We can give examples of decisions of Russia’s Federal Customs service, which are also contrary to the ba-sic principles, the Supranational Customs Code. And the practice of such “exceptions” will expand. In such circumstances, we are com-pelled to urge the development of this practice in Kazakhstan if the rules do not correspond to any eco-nomic interests. There is nothing personal, I repeat, as the President said, economic pragmatism only. What will we get as a result? The supranational database of the in-tegration association will increas-ingly become contrived, will exist only on paper.

To summarise, I will say that ap-proach we agitate is that the codi-fication of all agreements by the basic provisions of the treaties, the basic principles such as the condi-tions and the scope of provision of the national treatment, most fa-voured nation treatment, common approaches to implementation, shall be specified in the treaty. That is, to make them “inviolable” and pass ratification. and the rest – all industrial and functional annexes governing the functioning in detail, shall be transferred to another level where decisions are made faster, facing fewer conflicts, and where for the qualitative study of issues

industrial experts without regard to political terms will be involved.

Who proposed the idea of a codified law in such a way? EEC?

I don’t know the authorship of the idea. It is legitimated by the de-cision of the heads of three states on the need for codification. But we are quite sure that the presi-dents, when they made their deci-sion, had in mind the codification for the creation of a sustainable economic integration for the pur-pose of attracting investments and entrepreneurial activity.

Now, I will discuss another dis-turbing moment that we have. Ka-zakhstan over its independence created a system that allows for a checking of proposed legislative provisions with the interests of the business community and the inter-ests of society as a whole through various mechanisms: scientific ex-pertise, legal monitoring, exami-nation of legal acts concerning the interests of entrepreneurship. If we take the applied tools altogether, in my opinion, the more practical one is still the examination of projects through accredited associations. The National Chamber Atameken and our other colleagues and oth-er business associations over the years have provided their sugges-tions. There is a mechanism of ex-pert tips, in which standard regula-tions of their work are prescribed in each state agency and local authority. As a result, there is a mechanism where we create a reg-ulatory framework, laws, codes, government decrees, and they, at least publicly, undergo examina-tion and a formal conclusion is formed about them. If it is the law, the conclusion of an accredited as-sociation is a compulsory part of the package, which is submitted to the parliament. Thus, these filters allowed us to get the legislation more or less corresponding to the economic realities. Certainly, there are many reasons for criticism, but the EEC does not have even that. When we talk about it with col-leagues in the Commission, they state the Commission usually ap-peals to the three institutions that they have currently.

The first is advisory committees that were created in almost every department. Accordingly, the com-mittees have own regulatory acts. We are included somewhere, or not included.

How many committees exist now?

About 17 committees were cre-ated. The National Chamber par-ticipates in three or four. Moreo-ver, subcommittees are created in these committees. When the sub-committee on agriculture is held, I, as a member of the committee, am not invited, and I don’t receive the materials because this is a sub-committee and I am a member of the full committee, so I’m not supposed to be there. State agen-cies’ representatives prevail in the committees, the status of the com-mittee’s decisions is not clear and business is represented sporadical-ly, not representatively. In general, it is good that business community representatives have a platform for discussion of industry issues with the EEC, but advisory commit-

tees should not be considered as an institution that fully takes into ac-count the interests of the business of the three countries.

The second tool is public dis-cussion of technical regulations. The technical regulations shall be posted on the EEC website 60 days prior to adoption. As a re-sult, the practice is as follows: a version of technical regulations is posted and offered for public dis-cussion, however, this version is also being finalised. The eeC de-partment coordinates it and holds other procedures, and after some time the regulation takes a com-pletely different look. But publicly the old version is discussed and is still online. All proposals received are summarised, not taken into ac-count and just informatively re-ported as just being received.

The third tool, which is usu-ally used by the Commission, is an advisory council for coopera-tion with business dialogue, with the business community of the three countries in which Atameken in the current form is presented. Within two years of its existence, only two committee meetings were held. During the first organisation-al board meeting, we came to an agreement, asked the commission in the first place to develop the as-sessment mechanism of the regula-tory impact on the drafts of legal acts. Since then, this mechanism has not been developed. Thus, we have a very big gap. We have relatively efficient filters on the na-tional legislation, but they do not exist on the supranational level.

Are there other problems in the interaction with the EEC?

First of all, it is a matter of tim-ing with the draft documents. As the practice shows, the EEC does not fulfil even its own decisions. For example, Paragraph 10 of the eeC regulations specifies the tim-ing needed to draft documents to the participating parties for their consideration and approval. We did the analysis in our chamber since the beginning of its opera-tion, in October, November, De-cember, and January. The analysis was conducted on the time of the receipt of documents that come to the National Chamber from the Ministry of Economy, from the Prime Minister’s Office, through which the draft decisions of the EEC and other regulatory acts are forwarded. As a result, the average term of execution of the document, i.e. from the receipt to the time when we need to give the consolidated position of the business community – minus two days to the Prime Minister’s of-fice, four days to the Ministry of Economy. This is the average time in calendar days, not work days. The conclusion is that our govern-ment is under heavy pressure from the EEC. We accepted their rules of the game, the system of accel-erated review of draft documents. When the public and the business community ask for the opportunity to participate in the discussion, its meaning is emasculated by unreal-istic deadlines.

I would like to emphasise that there is a very important and fun-damental point; based on the codi-fied treaty in a compact version, it is needed to immediately prescribe where the boundaries of our inte-gration are. This is conceptually a very serious aspect. That means we have to responsibly declare and prescribe that integration does not go into the sphere of fiscal policy, monetary policy, security, educa-tion, science, etc.

As far as I understand, it was specified and this has been re-peatedly mentioned, including by the heads of states?

That’s right. But in practice, we see constant attempts by the EEC to expand its sphere. In general, we see a completely unambigu-ous tendency for us that the EEC, on the understandable rules of bureaucracy, strives to expand its area of influence. Through regula-tions of regulatory acts of various levels, the commission is trying to take credit for additional powers.

Competition and industry are given. Let’s take competition. The EEC wants to have supranational control. It will be a supranational body of control to protect com-petition in cross-border markets. Penalties that will be imposed on entrepreneurs who will violate the norms prescribed in the annex sec-tion “Competitive policy on cross-border markets” are calculated in roubles. They are disproportionate-ly high, and they were also set by the EEC. In terms of transport, if you are a major consignor, in order to get a reduction factor in some di-rection you should turn to the EEC.

That means the Commission is working in strict accordance with the known Parkinson’s laws.

Within the CU and the SES, two spheres were unequivocally passed to the Commission: the customs and tariff regulation and technical regulation. For both areas we can unequivocally state that we received much worse quality of regulation than we had in Kazakhstan. And no major improvements are happen-ing. If we are talking about customs regulations, we have repeatedly cited an example that Kazakhstan from year to year in the ranking of Doing Business on the component ‘international trade’ impairs its positions. We are now three slots from the bottom in the world, from among 189 countries, we are 186th. The President clearly stated that the unrestrained expansion of suprana-tional technical regulation is con-trary to the objectives of improving the business climate in Kazakhstan.

Summing up, we gave two spheres to the supranational level and got a very poor quality regula-tion and no prospect of improve-ment. So we need to hold back within integration, to be very con-servative, to give to a supranational jurisdiction only those areas that are objectively necessary and that will ensure implementation of four free-doms of movement: goods, servic-es, assets and labour force. All other areas should be left to the national jurisdiction because our national legislature and the government are much more flexible and much more progressive than the Eurasian.

Much has been said about new members joining the EEC. Re-cently, in addition to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, they started talking about Turkey. How can the EEU be made really attractive?

If we take the European Un-ion, why do the countries strive to become its members? Because there they get access to better in-stitutions and better regulation, as well as rule of law and low level of corruption. Therefore, the only reliable way to make Eurasian in-tegration attractive, is to dramati-cally and fundamentally improve the quality of supranational regu-lation, make it very comfortable for business, investment and entre-preneurial activity, and really take into account the national economic interests of the parties in decision making.

Is the problem in unskilled per-sonnel working in the EEC or in the wrong representation of the participating countries in it?

The basic problem is the speed of integration. If I said before that the speed of integration exceeds the adaptive capacity of integra-tion entities to these rules of the game, now I am convinced that the speed of integration exceeds the cognitive abilities of an average person. In the terms that they set, it is impossible to read, understand and track changes being made. We are all in the process of some strange race. The race goes from day to day.

Terms shall not be converted into a fetish. I want to reiterate that the business community in Ka-zakhstan is interested in economic integration, in an economic union. It’s enough to just look at a map. Russia is the largest country in the world, an enormous open area, a big market. We are very interested in it. And we are really lucky to be involved in this area and have an opportunity to have our own sov-ereign national regulation.

Rakhim oshakbayev

A8


eurasia&world


The world’s five officially recog-nised nuclear weapon states – Brit-ain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. – have so far chosen not to send representatives to the conferences, a point stressed by numerous speakers as preventing more productive and meaningful discussions.

“We strongly hope there will be even more countries participat-ing in the next conference, at least five more countries,” vassilenko said, welcoming the announcement made one day earlier by Austria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sebas-tian Kurtz that it would host the third such conference already in the autumn of this year.

Such statements were echoed by many others, including Angela Kane, uN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, who said “stigmatising nuclear weapon states in their absence will not achieve the disarmament goals; we need a mean-ingful dialogue.” India and Pakistan, two nuclear weapon states, sent representatives to both Norway and Mexico. On the other hand, Israel, which is believed to have nuclear weapons but has neither acknowl-edged nor disavowed statements to this effect, has not sent representa-tives to the conferences.

in Mexico, vassilenko and his colleagues also reported on Ka-zakhstan’s efforts to rehabilitate ar-eas affected by nuclear tests. Roman vakulchuk, a Kazakh national and currently a researcher with the Nor-wegian institute of international Re-lations (NUPI), also presented a joint report by NUPI and two research institutions from eastern Kazakhstan on the lingering long-term health and environmental effects of the 40 years of Soviet nuclear weapons testing on the region and its people.

“We are grateful to the interna-tional community for recognising

the severity of the problems left be-hind by decades of Soviet nuclear weapons testing in Semipalatinsk,” vassilenko continued. “already, beginning in 1997, the UN General Assembly has accepted six resolu-tions on international cooperation and the coordination of activities in rehabilitating the people, the envi-ronment and the economic develop-ment in the Semipalatinsk region. In view of ongoing state programmes and international assistance coor-dinated by the UN Development Programme, we can say there is al-ways a need for a more coordinated approach and more active participa-tion by the international community in this process.”

“We strongly support all the statements made at this confer-ence calling on nuclear weapon states to engage in more vigorous activities toward fulfilling the goal of nuclear disarmament, including as prescribed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the Kazakh diplomat said. “As a country that re-nounced one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, which we inherited from the former Soviet Union, we will continue to work with all our partners in urging more progress to-ward global nuclear disarmament.”

Regarding the aTOM Project, vassilenko added that close to 80,000 people from more than 100

countries have already signed its on-line petition to the governments of the world urging the entry into force of the CTBT.

“But we can and must achieve greater results, as we believe the voices of people throughout the world must be heard more clearly and more loudly,” he added. “And we will continue with this quest, working together and in full under-standing with like-minded global initiatives such as the Internation-al Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), Parliamen-tarians for Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) and many others.”

Conference participants were shown a brief documentary pre-pared by ICAN with the support of the ATOM Project dedicated to the tragic consequences of the use and testing of nuclear weapons and the need for a total ban on nuclear weapons in the world.

as vassilenko noted: “We believe the more nations adhere to such prin-ciples of human relations as dialogue, mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation and follow the exam-ples of countries that have already renounced nuclear weapons, the overwhelming majority of countries in fact, the greater chance we will

all have of breaking the vicious cy-cles of war, conflict and mistrust and reaching the ultimate goal of build-ing a safer world, a world without the threat of nuclear annihilation.”

conference brings together governments and civil society, calls for actions to achieve

a nuclear weapons free world

The conference reflected the evolving cooperation between gov-ernments and civil society, as many think tanks and nongovernmental organisations were not only pre-sent but were given equal time to speak at the event. Organisers have sought to achieve this balance from the beginning.

“It is important to deepen our understanding of the effects of nu-clear weapons by approaching the global and long-term consequences of a nuclear detonation, accidental or deliberate, from the perspec-tive and variables of 21st century society,” the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement prior to the event. “Governments, international organisations and civ-il society are invited to participate with multisectorial delegations, at the expert level, with specialists in areas such as public health, human-itarian assistance, environmen-tal issues and civilian protection, among others, as well as diplomats and military experts.”

Along with representatives from nations, the conference was attend-ed by experts from the UN and UN organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Organisation for Mi-gration (IOM), the UN Institute for

Disarmament Research (uNiDiR), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), as well as leaders from Mayors for Peace and research and non-governmental organisations from the U.K., Norway, Switzerland and other countries. International Committee of the Red Cross vice President Christine Beerlie and Mexican Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade Kuribrena opened the conference.

During the event, participants reviewed such issues as the chal-lenges of a nuclear weapon detona-tion to national, regional and global economic growth and sustainable development; the impact of such a detonation on global health; and the risk of nuclear blasts and other effects of the detonation of nuclear weapons. A summary of the con-ference, presented by its Mexican chair, outlined reasons for banning nuclear weapons completely and specific approaches to further ad-vancing the process of nuclear dis-armament in the world.

“The wide range of damage and negative impact in the likelihood of a nuclear explosion, as well as the vast resources allocated to maintain and modernise nuclear arsenals, make the mere existence of these weapons absurd, question the argu-ments in their defense and ultimate-ly are contrary to human dignity,” the summary said.

“Actions such as the entry into force of the Compehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty as a core element of the nuclear disarmament and nu-clear non-proliferation regime and the achievement of a comprehen-sive outcome in the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, together with the discussions on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, are mu-tually reinforcing processes,” the document said.

“The Chair warmly welcomes the Austrian offer to host the Third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons,” it continued. “This offer has been re-ceived with great support from par-ticipants as a follow-up to Oslo and Nayarit, to deepen the momentum, anchor these conclusions and take them forward. As it was expressed by many delegations, the Confer-ence reiterates the invitation to nu-clear weapon States and States non-parties to the NPT to participate in the Third Conference, in Austria.”

“In doing so, we need to take into account that, in the past, weapons have been eliminated after they have been outlawed. We believe this is the path to achieve a world without nu-clear weapons,” the Mexican chair said in the summary. “In our view, this is consistent with our obliga-tions under international law, includ-ing those derived from the NPT as well as from Common Article 1 to the Geneva Conventions.”

“The broad-based and compre-hensive discussions on the humani-tarian impact of nuclear weapons should lead to the commitment of States and civil society to reach new international standards and norms, through a legally binding instru-ment,” the summary continued. “It is the view of the Chair that the Nayarit Conference has shown that time has come to initiate a diplomatic process conducive to this goal. Our belief is that this process should comprise a specific timeframe, the definition of the most appropriate fora, and a clear and substantive framework, making the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons the essence of dis-armament efforts.”

The summary concluded, “It is time to take action. The 70th anni-versary of the Hiroshima and Naga-saki attacks is the appropriate mile-stone to achieve our goal. Nayarit is a point of no return.”

astana Urges nuclear Test Ban Treaty entry into Force at International conference

nation marks 20 years of accession to npT, calls for Treaty’s Universality

By George d. Gleboff

ASTANA – Kazakhstan calls on all countries to work to strengthen the global nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament regime and to reaf-firm their commitments to key trea-ties in this area, and says it is ready to work with partners on developing a convention prohibiting nuclear weapons, the country’s Foreign Min-istry said in a statement on Feb. 17.

The statement was issued to mark the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state. It was at the White House on Feb. 14, 1994, that President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev presented the coun-try’s NPT ratification document to U.S. President Bill Clinton, one of the depositaries of the treaty.

The NPT entered into force in 1970 and is considered the cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. Yet not all of the commitments of the treaty, which was extended indefi-nitely in 1995, have been fulfilled, including the obligations of the five recognised nuclear weapon states – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – to disarm their nuclear arsenals. Additionally, four countries critical to the nonprolifera-tion regime remain outside the treaty – India, Pakistan, North Korea and israel. The first three are known to have nuclear weapons, while Israel is believed to have them, although it has never recognised nor rejected statements to that effect.

“In order to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, Kazakhstan calls upon all states parties to reaf-firm their commitment to the NPT and to their commitments under the Treaty, to the decisions of the NPT Review Conference and to practi-cally implement the agreements, as well as to ensure the universality of the Treaty,” the Foreign Ministry in Astana said in its Feb. 17 statement.

“Strengthening international nu-clear disarmament and nonprolif-eration and its basis – the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons – has been one of the pri-orities of Kazakhstan’s foreign pol-

icy,” the ministry said. “The threat of nuclear proliferation, as well as of materials and technologies re-quired to create it, especially in the face of the rising terrorist threat, is one of the most serious threats to international security.”

Calling the NPT “a time-tested most important international instru-ment providing global and regional stability,” the ministry said, “it is important to achieve an effective and balanced implementation of the trea-ty in line with its three components: nuclear disarmament, nonprolifera-tion and cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy.”

Kazakhstan is actively involved in international efforts to build a world free of nuclear weapons and ensure nuclear safety. “During the 20 years of participation in the NPT, our country through practical actions has made a significant contribution to achieving the objectives of the treaty,” the ministry noted.

It listed concrete steps such as the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in August 1991, the with-drawal of the world’s fourth largest nuclear weapons arsenal from its territory by 1995 and the elimina-tion of its entire supporting infra-structure, as well as the creation, with four other regional countries, of a zone free of nuclear weapons in Central Asia by 2009.

Another step has been the adop-tion by the UN General Assem-bly, at Kazakhstan’s initiative, of a resolution proclaiming August 29, the day of the closure of the Semi-palatinsk test site, International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

“We believe this will contribute to the objectives of peace, banning nuclear tests around the world, raise awareness and educate the public on issues of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. We call on all countries and international organi-sations to observe the International Day against Nuclear Tests,” Kazakh-stan’s Foreign Ministry stated.

“Kazakhstan initiated the ATOM Project (Abolish Testing. Our Mis-sion.), an international petition cam-paign designed to unite public opin-ion around the world against nuclear

testing, which has already received tremendous support from the world community,” it added.

Kazakhstan is also preparing to host the IAEA International Bank of low-enriched uranium and is cur-rently finalising talks with this uN agency on a host nation agreement. “We believe the development of multilateral approaches to nuclear fuel, including the creation of guar-anteed nuclear fuel reserves, will promote the peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” the Foreign Ministry noted.

In 2013, Almaty hosted two rounds of talks between the six nations – the five permanent members of the uN Security Council plus Germany – and Iran over its nuclear programme, during which the foundation was laid for further progress in these talks.

Kazakhstan has actively partici-pated in the two nuclear security summits held in Washington, DC, in 2010 and in Seoul in 2012, and is planning to participate in the upcom-ing summit in The Hague in March 2014. “We consider it important to achieve a common understanding of the threat posed by nuclear terror-ism and to take measures to ensure that nuclear facilities, material and technology are invulnerable and do not fall into the hands of terrorists,” the ministry noted.

Kazakhstan is a party to all inter-national instruments regarding the nonproliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The country also actively participates in the activ-ities of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Code of Conduct Against Ballis-tic Missile Proliferation (the Hague Code), the Zangger Committee, the Proliferation Security Initiative, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) and the Global Partnership on Nonproliferation.

In addition to calling for strength-ening the NPT, the Foreign Ministry also called on states not party to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) or which have not yet ratified the treaty to do so to en-sure its early entry into force. “We believe it is necessary to strengthen the CTBT verification mechanism as one of the most effective tools to en-sure nonproliferation, disarmament

and nuclear security in the world,” the ministry said.

Kazakhstan also stands for the be-ginning of negotiations and the early development of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) which would be an important step towards nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

Kazakhstan also joins other countries in campaigning for the development of a convention pro-hibiting nuclear weapons.

“An important step to achieve this goal should be a Universal Declaration of a Nuclear Weapons Free World, initiated by Kazakh-stan at the United Nations, to ex-press the commitment of all states to move successively toward the ideal of a world without nuclear weapons,” the ministry said and urged international support for the adoption of the declaration.

Kazakhstan also supports the

establishment of nuclear-weapons free zones, including the establish-ment of such a zone in the Middle East. It further believes that the United Nations should play the key role in resolving global problems and meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

“If entrusted by UN member states and elected a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, Kazakhstan is ready to take re-sponsibility and to promote nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation at the UN Security Council,” the min-istry said.

Roman Vassilenko (c) is flanked by representatives of Kenya and Jordan as he prepares to deliver his statement at the conference.

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nation&capitalsporTs

Dignitaries Visit Kazakhstan’s Sochi Hospitality House

culTure

Kazakh Film “Bauyr” Wins Prize at French Youth Film Festival

people

Watchmaking Master Has Seen the Hands of Time

ASTANA OPErA

February 28 at 19.30 Music Contrasts of the 20th century

CONgrESS HAllFebruary 28 at 19.30 Vyacheslav Butussov and Nautilius Pompilius band concertMarch 2 at 19.00 Swan lake and Dream of Margarita ballet

MAxiM gOrKY STATE THEATrEFebruary 28 at 18.30 Lonely Apple Tree

KAzAKH NATiONAl UNiVErSiTY OF ArTS

February 28 at 29.00 Wind-band concert

KAzAKHSTAN CENTrAl CONCErT HAll

March 3 at 19.00 Stas Mikhailov concert

Things To waTch FEBRUARy-MARCH

Government, Undp work to modernise Housing and Utilities services

By Rufiya Ospanova

The government of Kazakhstan and the United Nations Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) are working together to reduce green-house gas emissions by creating a model for modernising inefficient district heating and other systems in Kazakhstan’s small cities. Al-exander Belyi, a UNDP manager of the joint project, which is 80 percent funded by the government of Kazakhstan, spoke with The Astana Times about their goals and achievements.

What is the goal of the project?

The project will develop and test, in a pilot territory [Prigorod-nyi village in astana’s Yessil Dis-trict], a model of modernisation and the subsequent efficient man-agement of housing and utilities services (HUS), services for main-taining safe residences; provision of quality municipal and utilities services to the population through increasing the economic viability, environmental friendliness and re-liability of life-support systems in housing and municipal infrastruc-ture, primarily heating, water sup-ply and electricity systems. …

continued on page B4

Ten wins Kazakhstan’s First ever medal in olympic Figure skating

By Ilyas omarov and Jan Furst

sOCHi – Kazakh figure skater Denis Ten won bronze in the men’s individual competition at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Kazakhstan’s best Olympic figure skating result ever and the first medal for team Kazakh-stan at these games. Ten, 20, has en-joyed the support of his countrymen and fans around the world, especial-ly after his silver-medal finish at the world championships in Canada last year, where he came in second to lo-cal favourite Patrick Chan, but won standing ovations from the crowd.

In Sochi, Ten was among the favourites, but facing some of the world’s best, including Chan and two-time Olympic gold medallist evgeni Plyushenko of Russia skat-ing on his home ice, was bound to be intimidating.

Ten, however, said he never stopped believing in himself and was eager to get the first medal for his nation of 17 million.

“Right after my performance, i went to a gym to exercise. There are two such gyms at the Iceberg rink where the figure skating events were held. While pedalling the stationary bike, I could watch the main contenders on the screen. On one hand, the anticipation was not easy; on the other hand, I could distract myself a little,” Ten com-mented.

“I didn’t follow closely what was going on with other athletes and tried not to build up high hopes to avoid a disappointment,” the skater said, laughing. “This [bronze med-al] was a big gift for me.”

On Feb. 13, Russia’s top skater, Plyushenko, retired after a landing that “felt like knife in the back,” he said, during warmups right before the short programme. However, Ten was already determined to do

what he had to do after falling him-self during the short programme earlier.

“I skated in the short programme after the first warm up, so when i got on the ice, Plyushenko had retired,” he said. “I didn’t know how Chan

and Yuzuru reacted to this news, as they skated in a different group.”

Ten was also concerned about the Kazakh Olympic team throughout the games and closely followed other athletes. “I watched Alexey Poltoranin and Denis Kuz-

in in particular. It is a pity that they didn’t win medals, but I hope that my medal will bring luck to our national team. Perhaps my medal won’t be the only one [for us],” Ten said.


pavlodar artist’s paintings exhibited in astana

By alina Usmanova

ASTANA – The work of painter Zhanetta Nauruzova, an artist from

Aksu, in the Pavlodar region, is being showcased in the Has Sanat Gallery in an exhibition that will run from Feb. 18 to March 10.

Nauruzova’s main themes are nature, usually spring and sum-mer scenes, and representations of light play a large part in her

work. She paints the landscapes around her hometown, often in-corporating historical images. Horses, significant in Kazakh culture, appear frequently, some-times captured in the midst of a race. Flowers are another favour-ite image.

“Nauruzova likes to paint flow-ers, peonies and roses. Her still life paintings with flowers are like an etude [a short musical performance designed to demonstrate skill] and are shown with big colourful spots without unnecessary specification. A spontaneity in creating impres-sions runs through all her work, despite the subject and genre,” Ardaq Yussupova, candidate of art history said.

At the opening of the exhibition, her first in astana, Nauruzova met guests and described the meaning behind her pieces. She said she has been painting since childhood and hates to leave her workshop. Fans of Nauruzova’s paintings from Russia bought most of her collec-tion.

Nauruzova graduated from the Gogol Almaty Art College. Her works are in public and private collections in Kazakhstan, Russia, Tatarstan, Israel, the U.S. and other countries.

Denis Ten brought Kazakhstan the first ever Olympic bronze medal in men’s figure skating.

equines are the preferred subject for the artist from pavlodar.

Zhanetta nauruzova

Idea of Dropping ‘Stan’ from Kazakhstan

Generates Domestic, Int’l Discussion

By michelle witte

ASTANA – At a meeting at a school in Atyrau on Feb. 6, Presi-dent Nursultan Nazarbayev sug-gested what has been in the air in Kazakhstan for years now – that the country drop the “stan” from its name.

“The name of our country has the ending ‘stan,’ as do the other states of Central Asia,” he said, as reported by his official website, Akorda.kz. “At the same time, foreigners show interest in Mon-golia, whose population is just 2 million people, and its name lacks the suffix ‘stan.’ Perhaps, in time, the question of changing the name of our country to Kazak Eli should be examined, but first this should definitely be discussed with the people.” (“Kazak Eli” means “the

land of the Kazakhs” or “Kazakh nation” in Kazakh.)

People in Kazakhstan have been discussing a name change for some time. In March 2013, an online peti-tion on the Onlinepetition.kz web-site suggested changing the English version of the country’s name to the Kazakh Republic. The petition explained that the ‘stan’ links Ka-zakhstan with troubled states like Afghanistan and said the new name would help increase tourism and bolster public pride, among other benefits. The petition generated fewer than 400 responses, not all positive.

Nazarbayev’s recent statement, however, has drawn international at-tention. Articles in The Atlantic and the Washington Post have reported or taken a position on the issue.



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peopleNATIoN&CAPITAL

a watchmaker must have desire, ability and, most importantly, perseverance because this work is very meticulous and painstaking.

woman Finds success in Railway work

By chingiz Tashenov

aKMOLa ReGiON – Nurgul Khamzina is a rarity: a woman employed in a high-tech railway profession. Khamzina is a ra-diographer at the rail car repair depot at Burabai Station. She has worked at Burabai for five years and has reached the sixth and

highest category in her profes-sion.

Railway work is demand-ing and difficult. Khamzina is responsible for detecting the slightest cracks and defects in the automatic couplers that con-nect freight trains, work which requires extreme accuracy. She

searches for these defects using ultrasound devices.

Khamzina graduated from the College of Transport in Kokshetau and is now taking a correspond-ence course at the Kazakh Din-mukhamed Kunayev University of Railways in astana. she has two daughters.

watchmaking master Has seen the Hands of Time

By natalia dvoryaninova

PavLODaR – For nearly forty years, Akhmet Toleubayev has been dissembling and reassem-bling watches and clocks. He came to this profession in the 1970s right after finishing school. Today, he is so skilled in his pro-fession that people say, “This man can repair almost every-thing!”

Toleubayev willingly shares his experience and knowledge with others, but over the course of his career as a watchmaker, he has taught only six apprentices. He says that not everyone can be taught jewelry work. A watch-maker must have desire, ability and, most importantly, persever-ance because this work is very meticulous and painstaking.

“I like my work and I can-not help doing something all the time. It’s not for me to sit idling. In this way, you don’t notice the time fly and we are practically always short of it. Time must be valued, but not wasted,” he said.

Repairing watches and clocks has become increasingly com-plicated as technology has ad-vanced. Apart from technical complexities, they also require an individual approach.

Watches are just like people, says Toleubayev. They have their own character, like their masters. The more troubled the master, the more difficult it is to make the watch work and the more often it breaks. Watches can also tell you a lot about the owner, he adds. At times, old dilapidated and much worn watches are easy to fix, while brand-new ones won’t

work. Watches take in the own-ers’ energy. Toleubayev says that some people believe mirrors are harmful to use because they store negative energy and that watches are the same way. Therefore, they must be taken seriously.

The watchmaker praised a So-viet-era Zvezda watch that was recently brought to him. The owner wears it all the time, but it is in ideal condition. In forty years, it has never needed repair. This was the first time.

The master has had to work with all sorts of watches, at times as expensive as a new suv, as

well as solid Swiss, American and Japanese watches. He once restored a French striking clock that was a 300-year old family heirloom.

Pocket watches at one time given to veterans, regarded now as family heirlooms, are also brought to him for repairs.

Toleubayev himself has long worn a Polyot watch and now is wearing a simple Japanese watch. At home, he has several clocks, mostly in the kitchen. They never disturb him even when they strike late at night.


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culTureNATIoN&CAPITAL

new, massive national Folklore collection presentedBy maksut Irzhanov

ASTANA – A 100-volume series of Kazakh folklore called “Babalar Sozi” (Kazakh for The Words of Ancestors) was presented at the National Academic Library of the Ministry of Culture and Informa-tion of Kazakhstan on Feb. 20.

The collection, by authors Seit Kaskabassov, head of the Mad-eni Mura (“Cultural Heritage”) State Programme’s folklore sec-tion, and Ualikhan Kalizhanov, director of the Mukhtar Auezov Institute of Literature and Art, contains 20 volumes devoted solely to heroic epics. There are also 13 volumes of historical epics, 13 volumes of novelistic poems, eight volumes of love novels, seven volumes of reli-gious poems and five volumes of folk tales. Smaller genres within the folklore tradition are represented in sets of 1-3 vol-umes. “Babalar Sozi” was pub-

lished by Astana’s Foliant pub-lishing house.

Speaking at the presentation, Minister of Culture and Informa-tion Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed reminded attendees that “Babalar Sozi,” “One Thousand Songs of the Kazakh people” and “One Thousand Kazakh Kyuis” had all been published under the Madeni Mura programme developed in 2003 on the President’s instruc-tion.

“I am sure this edition will open broad opportunities for all people to get acquainted with the rich her-itage of the Kazakh people. For re-searchers, it is a good opportunity to more closely study the folklore,” he said. The minister expressed his gratitude to Kaskabassov, Kalizh-anov and Kalizhanov’s staff.

“Everyone knows the saying, ‘Time to scatter stones and time to gather stones.’ Now, it’s time for us to gather stones: to present

to the Kazakh people and the en-tire international community our spiritual treasure and rich historical heritage: the 100-volume series of Kazakh folklore, ‘Babalar Sozi,’” Kul-Mukhammed said, addressing the audience of public figures, writ-ers, poets, scholars and readers.

Kaskabassov expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Cul-ture and Information for their help and support and noted that Kazakh folklore is a great spiritual wealth.

Many countries collect, publish and study their folklore and art. According to speakers at the pres-entation, however, no other coun-try has researched, collected and published such a massive edition of folklore. In some countries of the post-Soviet space, this work is just beginning.

Even this massive collection isn’t complete, Kalizhanov said. Material exists to fill 25 more vol-umes.

Feltwork master Teaches Kazakh Traditional craft

By Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – Astana’s Shezhire Gallery and the Women of the Steppe Public Foundation brought together Kazakhs and foreigners in astana at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on Feb. 10 for a lesson in making felt products.

Zamzegul Oralbayeva, who led the class, is president of the Wom-en of the Steppe and a member of Kazakhstan’s artists’ union. With the Shezhire Gallery, she set out to attract public attention to the recovery of the dying folk art of feltwork and traditional Kazakh methods of felting. Kazakh orna-mentation and its meaning were also main topics of the class.

Kazakh traditional culture was present in every detail of the set-ting. Baursaks (traditional fried dough balls) were served with tea, an integral part of the national culture. Felt and feltworking tools were the centrepiece of the hall.

“There are not many people in Kazakhstan who know the ancient technique of making felt clothes, decorations, blankets and other things. Zamzegul is one of those people who treasures the culture of our people and is ready to share her knowledge with you at our master class,” Roza Zhussupova, director of the Shezhire Gallery, said when opening the class.

To start the class, Oralbayeva showed participants the difference in structure between spring and au-tumn felt. Spring felt is light and can be coloured, while autumn felt is stiff and sticky and cannot be coloured because of its structure.

Each must be worked a different way.

“The unique art of the Kazakh people was formed under the conditions of nomadic life and in many aspects was defined by the nature of nomadic production. The emergence of its main items was conditioned by the need to deco-rate yurts and their furniture. Thus, the production of carpets, wall decorations, wrought felt bags, chair covers and clothes was de-veloped,” Oralbayeva said.

“The folk imagination attached magic meanings to ornaments and considered certain patterns neces-sary for the successful develop-ment of a household,” Oralbayeva said.

The most famous motif in Ka-zakh felt carpets is the qoshqar muiyz, Kazakh for sheep’s horn, which symbolises wealth and pros-perity. The horn motif has become a felt-work calling card.

Kazakh felt carpets are pressed, not woven. After laying the base and arranging the decorations, the whole piece is sprinkled with soapy water and pressed, then squeezed and dried. Participants in the class executed these processes and left with a handmade piece of felt art.

The master class was held as part of the Shezhire Gallery’s pro-gramme for supporting and reviv-ing Kazakh national traditions. The next event will be the open-ing of artist, architect and designer Bakhtybek Talkambayev’s exhibit dedicated to Kazakh spirituality, Mangilik Yel, on Feb. 19.

Mukhtar Kul-Mukhammed (l) and other officials were excited to launch the new 100-volume of collection of epic stories and poetry. The authors say there’s enough material for 25 more volumes.

Feltmaking has been growing in populatiry both among local crafts people and expatriates living in Kazakhstan. Top: serik aprymov is delighted to receive the award at the festival in Val-de-marne, France. above: a scene from his movie.

Kazakh Film “Bauyr” wins prize at French youth Film Festival

By alina Usmanova

ASTANA – “Bauyr” (Kazakh for “younger brother”), by Serik Aprymov, won the Confederation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) award for best film in the international fea-ture films competition at the 24th Ciné Junior international film fes-tival held in val-de-Marne, France from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11. “Bauyr” was produced by Kazakhfilm.

“On the Eve” by Karim Mous-saoui (France, Algeria) won the

Grand Prix for best film. an hon-orary prize for the best feature film by a young person went to “Weight of Elephants” by Daniel Borgman (Denmark, New Zealand, Germa-ny, France, Sweden).

Ciné Junior promotes pictures aimed at children and teenagers. The festival awards a grand prize for the best film plus 8,000 euros for its distribution in France; a CiCae prize for the best film as voted for by children from 6 to 15, as well as an honorary prize for the

best feature film by a young per-son.

The world premiere of “Bauyr” took place at the Horizons compe-tition of the 70th venice interna-tional Film Festival. Immediately after the festival in venice, the film was shown in the main competi-tion programme of the ninth Eura-sia International Film Festival and received two awards, the award for Best Director and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award. In January, the

picture took part in the Five Con-tinents programme of the 37th In-ternational Film Festival in Goth-enburg.

“Bauyr” will take part in the Panorama of World Cinema pro-gramme of the 42nd FEST Inter-national Film Festival, which will be held from Feb. 28 to March 9 in Belgrade, Serbia.

FEST is one of the major cul-tural events of southeast Europe. In its more than 40-year history, the film festival has been attended by about 4 million viewers, and more than 4,000 films have been shown. This year, 75 films from 30 countries will be shown. “Bauyr” will be shown on March 1 and 3 in Belgrade’s Fontana and Cultural Centre cinemas.

The world premiere of “Bauyr” took place at the Horizons competition of the 70th Venice International Film Festival. Immediately after the festival in Venice, the film was shown in the main competition programme of the ninth eurasia International Film Festival.


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counTryNATIoN&CAPITAL

alexander Belyi, a Kazakhstan national and a Undp manager of the joint pro-ject, is keen to make a contribution to building a better energy saving system.

continued from page B1

There are about 60 small towns in Kazakhstan, with the total pop-ulation of about 1.5 million. This is a serious reason to work on modernisation of municipal hous-ing economy. Municipal housing economy of small cities is in much worse situation than in large cities or regional centres. This relates to the heritage of the past when proper repairs were not done. All those problems worsened. Build-ings, systems of water and gas supply were of worse quality than in big cities. The issue of energy efficiency is closely related to the quality. If due to the poor quality of the systems the loss of heat is observed the talk of energy effi-ciency becomes an empty talk.

The task of the joint project is to show all the benefits of using en-ergy-saving measures, equipment and materials and approaching the management of the municipal housing economy from the point of view of the quality of the energy structure and the benefits of energy saving. … another task is to find a point where people will participate with local authorities and suppliers of resources to find compromises to repair the systems. … Over the past years, our 17 projects have showed that it is possible to im-prove efficiency and reduce costs. With small investments, it is possi-ble to achieve 25-45 percent ener-gy savings. People see the advan-tages and they are ready to invest

in their own houses to reduce costs and increase their comfort.

How does the project function? The project consists of four

components. The first one is re-search. Last year, we collected all the information about the village; the buildings; the systems of engi-neering, heating, water supply. We elaborated the scenarios through which the municipal housing econ-omy would develop in this locality. We already have the final reports; they will soon be posted on the UNDP website for the project.

The second component is almost finished. in addition to the techni-cal measures, we are implement-ing organisational ones. They are aimed at modernising the man-agement system of the municipal housing economy. We also consid-ered the possibility of reforming communal services.

The third component is related to testing the decisions we made. It started this year. Here, we will create a sample project for mod-ernising the municipal housing services in apartment buildings. … The third component will also in-clude decisions related to alterna-tive energy: using solar collectors, installing automated heating units in apartment buildings, replacing windows with better heat-preserv-ing ones.

The fourth component will start by the end of the year. It includes monitoring what will be done and experience sharing. … We imple-mented 17 projects and we are monitoring them according to our indicators. The first is an economic indicator, the second one is envi-ronmental and the third is a tech-nical indicator. Similar monitoring will be implemented in Prigorod-nyi. We also plan to introduce a

system of automated control that will provide the akimat (city ad-ministration) with information about what is going on there.

We will share our experience in five regions, five smaller loca-tions where training seminars will be held for various target groups, mainly the owners of apartment buildings, akimats, heat-supplying companies and other communal enterprises.

What is the role of the UNDP in the project?

The UNDP renders support – we implement pilot demonstration fa-cilities showing the advantages or disadvantages of ideas. This year, we plan to implement several pilot initiatives in Prigorodnyi and con-sider the possibility of installing solar collectors on one of the state-financed institutions (a kindergar-ten or school). …

UNDP projects get feedback: we always evaluate our work, iden-tify mistakes we made and work on them, and if we see inefficient measures, we correct them.

How did you choose Prigorod-nyi?

Prigorodnyi is a part of Astana, but this village is separate from the city. It has its own boiler-house, its own heating network; previously, it was a separate location. We be-lieve this is a model where we can try all energy-saving measures. …

Before choosing the territory, consultations were held. It was the

proposal of the beneficiary itself, the government: the then Agency for Construction Affairs (now a committee at the Ministry of Re-gional Development) and the Ka-zakhstan Centre for Modernisation and Development of Municipal Housing Economy. This village will be used as a model. … After introducing our system there, we can introduce the model around the country.

Another reason for choosing the village is its proximity to Astana. Astana is a large political, cultur-al and trade centre and the centre where decision-makers are concen-trated. Showing them some innova-tions close to Astana makes it more likely that the innovations will be introduced in the country. The third reason is the proximity of the vil-lage to the future eXPO 2017 area. We believe this village will be ex-emplary. The fourth is proximity to the international airport. Guests coming to the capital will pass this village and see the progress. Cur-rently, with our Dutch and German colleagues, we are thinking about the possibility of constructing a solar plant in Prigorodnyi to show the progress of the country in this direction. In the coming month, we will make a decision regarding constructing this plant.

Who will monitor the changes after the project is complete?

We will try to do that. The con-cept of monitoring will follow several target directions. The first is the city akimat responsible for

all changes. The second target of monitoring will be owners, and the third, specialists in the sphere of energy management.

Where do you plan to hold training seminars?

We are planning to hold semi-nars in five regions but we haven’t specified which. We will send a letter to local authorities in the middle of this year and in autumn we will start holding seminars. In-terested regions will be chosen and we will go there and hold semi-nars. We are still working with the towns of Shuchinsk, Atbasar and Yereimentau [all in the Akmola re-gion]. Representatives from these cities attended our seminars, and they will be interested in our ex-perience.

if more than five cities will re-spond, we will send recommenda-tions on the project and propose holding such seminars, using budgetary funds.

We also have a train-the-trainers manual for advanced training in the sphere of energy efficiency in the communal heat supply of buildings. More than 40 trainers were trained and went to the re-gions to hold seminars themselves.

In this project, the most impor-tant thing is the process, how to reach the result. We cannot go to every city and show how to change the system, but we can show the process. in all our final publica-tions, we write how we reached our results, step-by-step.

Government, Un development programme work to modernise Housing and Utilities services

Kazakh students produce new cheaper, low pollution water Filter

By Raushan shulembaeva

aLMaTY – a filter for purify-ing drinking water using nano-structured minerals developed at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Science and Technol-

ogy Park may be presented at eXPO 2017 in astana, its creators say. The filter is one of the first such devices to be produced in Kazakhstan.

The developers, students Assylb-ek Aimurzayev, Nikolai Kiyashko

and Bagdad Satybaldiyev, under the tutelage of candidate of chemi-cal sciences Bolat Uralbekov, set a goal of eliminating heavy metals from drinking water using natural minerals such as glauconitic sand-stone and diatomite. The two min-erals create a dual-layer filter which cleans water in two stages, from pre-cleaning to final purification. The use of local raw materials sig-nificantly reduces production costs.

The students’ research so far, using modern physicochemical methods, has shown that these minerals are very effective for purifying water with excess lead ions. The minerals are in no way inferior to the activated carbon commonly used in water filters, though activated carbon is much more expensive than glauconitic limestone and diatomaceous earth. According to the young inventors, their filter is capable of cleaning 100 cubic metres of drinking water before recharging.

customs Union Helps local Industry expand

By svetlana abenova

usT-KaMeNOGORsK – vostok-Boilers in ust-Kame-nogorsk has been active in the development of the town and the region. Now, with the Customs Union (CU) and further Eurasian economic integration, the compa-ny is expanding even more.

The first plant began produc-ing small boilers in 2003. Today, it is involved in the construction of internal and external water and sewer systems, heating pipelines, water tanks and pumping stations, and not only in the regional cen-tre. An increasing number of vil-lagers now have clean drinking water at home through vostok-Boilers’ systems.

a new vostok-Boilers plant pro-ducing insulated pipes was opened a year ago through the State Pro-gramme of Accelerated Indus-trial and Innovative Development (SPAIID), with a focus on creat-ing environmentally safe prod-ucts. With the establishment of the Customs Union, the plant has been able to expand production and begin to produce pipes with gal-vanised coatings. Regional akim (Governor) Berdybek Saparbayev noted that the new plant should bring additional revenue to the re-gional budget.

“With the creation of the Single Economic Space, the interaction of the regions reached a qualitatively new level. After all, before join-ing the CU, our businessmen paid

double tax on vaT [value-added tax], which was 30 percent of the cost of production. [After joining the CU] it became much easier to win the markets of Russia and Belarus,” said Plant Director Serik Akberdin.

No less important than the eco-nomic advantages, Akberdin said, is the increased awareness of re-gional producers. Russian and Belarusian consumers now come with proposals for cooperation to the East Kazakhstan entrepreneurs.

“We are also working to im-prove the proportion of local con-tent. Today, the metal pipes are delivered from Pavlodar and the galvanised cover is supplied by Pavlodar and Karaganda oblasts,” said Akberdin.

domestic enterprises to Be Involved in pavlodar petrochemical plant Upgrade

By yekaterina Beskorsaya

PavLODaR – Kazakh busi-nesses will make significant con-tributions to the modernisation of the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant, said Gavit Kurkimov, deputy gen-eral director of Rominserv sRL, the project’s general contractor.

In July 2013, the Pavlodar Pet-rochemical Plant and Rominserv signed a contract worth $1.072 billion for the design, supplies and implementation of the project. Earthworks will begin at the re-finery as early as april. after the upgrade, Kazakhstan will have a fundamentally new breed of fac-tory. General director of the enter-prise Shukhrat Danbai said that in addition to an increased process-ing capacity of up to 7 million tonnes of hydrocarbons per year, the entity will be able to process 5.5 million tonnes of domestically produced oil (originally the plant was designed to handle West Si-berian oil). An equally important modernisation goal is transition-ing to producing all types of mo-tor and diesel fuel at Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards. Today, the Pav-lodar plant manufactures fuel that meets the requirements of Euro-2. Among other things, the enterprise seeks to increase the depth of oil processing from 85 to 90 percent.

Recently, a meeting on local con-tent development during the mod-ernisation of the plant was held in Pavlodar and was attended by Kazakh producers of technological equipment, representatives of the large industrial enterprises Kazen-ergocable, Petropavlovsk Heavy Engineering Plant, Belkamit En-gineering Plant LLP, Pavlodar energo stroy and others. Officials from the Kazakhstan Ministry of Oil and Gas, Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, KazMu-nayGas Processing and Marketing, the Pavlodar regional administra-tion, the National Chamber of En-trepreneurs, the Union of Service Companies and the Union of Engi-neering Companies of Kazakhstan also attended the meeting. The main objective of this interactive platform was to explain to poten-

tial suppliers of goods and services the main algorithm of procurement and criteria for the selection of participants.

“The modernisation of Kazakh-stan’s refineries will allow them to satisfy 100 percent of domestic fuel demand and improve product quality. Rominserv sRL has set a goal to involve Kazakhstan sup-pliers and manufacturers in the modernisation project. For this purpose, the company created a new department called the Kazakh Content Service to monitor and an-alyse the local goods and services market,” Kurkimov said.

Progress has already been made in this area. In December 2013, the company signed its first in-dustrial order, which was $3.18 million with the Kazakh company Belkamit for three columns weigh-ing 423 tonnes. It’s worth noting that earlier, products of such com-plexity in technology projects were imported from Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

The range of products and ser-vices that can be purchased from local companies is quite wide. Dauren Akhmetov, KazMunayGas Processing and Marketing’s gen-eral manager of the innovation

and local content department listed containers, tanks, separa-tors, fireproof paints, metallic structures, pales, soil, concrete, gravel and other products as ones now produced in Kazakhstan that were previously imported from the country’s CIS partners. Local skilled workers will be recruited to work on upgrading the Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant.

“We are not going to procure a large staff from abroad during the main stage of the project, but it is necessary to bear in mind that the modernisation of the petrochemi-cal industry is a very serious task. All equipment that will be deliv-ered here must be approved by major licensors, so it is quite un-derstandable that some specialists will be invited from overseas. But most workers and managers will be local hires,” Kurkimov said.

Rominserv is a member of the Rompetrol Group (a 100 percent subsidiary of KazMunayGas). In Kazakhstan, they have already implemented a number of pro-jects, including the reconstruction and modernisation of the Atyrau refinery and the technical supervi-sion of construction of a road bi-tumen plant at the Aktau Plastics Plant.

Students of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University developed a filter that may be presented at expo 2017.

Businesses will modernise the pavlodar petrochemical plant in line with the signed contacts.


B5NATIoN&CAPITAL

project manager Rauan Kaliyev shows audioguide to hearing-impaired people.

The suffix ‘stan’ and its connotations have long challenged leaders and governments in Central Asia in their efforts to distinguish themselves from other regional neighbours. Kyrgyzstan has officially changed its name to the Kyrgyz Republic in the 1990s, while Kazakhstan’s ministry of Foreign affairs published a book titled “Kazakhstan: The misunderestimated stan” in 2010.

socieTy

Joint Undp, Gov’t projects eliminate Barriers for Vulnerable populations

By Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working with the national gov-ernment on a joint programme to improve the competitiveness of the East Kazakhstan region through the implementation of innovative approaches to the planning and de-livery of social services.

The programme covers pro-jects intended to improve access to social and economic services for vulnerable groups in Semey, Kurchatov, Ust-Kamenogorsk and the most affected areas of the East Kazakhstan region, based on the example of the Semey area. It is financed by Kazakhstan’s small grants programme.

As part of their joint programme, several projects improving social and economic services and creat-ing a barrier-free environment for people with disabilities and people with limited mobility have been implemented for the first time in the country.

One of the projects was the es-tablishment of a Daytime Care Centre for elderly and disabled people. The purpose of the centre is to prevent overcrowding at el-derly care homes and to provide medical and social services as well as a pleasant place for elderly and

disabled people to spend their lei-sure time.

The centre is intended for 15 people, but there are plans to ex-pand. It is equipped with a so-called sensor room with modern equipment including a massage chair, an oxygen concentrator and a rehabilitation compression train-er, which guests at the centre will be trained to use. The centre pro-vides meals, access to a physiolo-gist and classes with an exercise therapy instructor.

The project will facilitate a grad-ual transition from hospitals to an expanding network of organisa-tions providing social services in daytime care institutions. The centre is one way of addressing the need for new, alternative forms of medical and social assistance aimed at improving quality of life. The centre was allocated 1.5 mil-lion tenge (about US$8,100) from programme funds.

A project in Semey, Theatre Without Barriers, creates an acces-sible environment for persons with disabilities by providing for audio and video descriptor and Tv and audio equipment for broadcasting theatre events in sign language. This, incidentally, will also create jobs in the region. To further im-prove access, a modern roll-ramp was installed and a wheelchair for

visitors with limited mobility pur-chased by the theatre. People with hearing disabilities will be able to attend the Abai Theatre in Semey and engage in the social and cul-tural life of the city more fully. On the day of presentation of the project, deaf and hearing-impaired visitors watched a play for the first time in their lives. The project was allocated 1,488,571 tenge (about US$8,050).

Museum Without Barriers, a 1.5 million tenge (about US$8,100) project, provided the opportunity for 12,000 disabled people in the Semey area who had suffered as a result of Soviet nuclear tests to get informa-tion about exhibits at the Nevzorovs east Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Fine Arts. The project developed special programmes for hearing-im-paired people to be able to listen to presentations of museum exhibits. a film, “3D museum,” was created and will be broadcast on a special screen presenting paintings in sign language. The projects productions and programmes will be posted on the Nevzorovs museum website, which will be available for viewing at home for those who cannot visit the museum.

The Information Without Bar-riers project will be implemented in the Semey public service cen-tre. Under the project, 661,245

tenge (about US$3,500) will be provided to create an area for peo-ple with special needs. A special table adapted for the disabled, a wheelchair and special equip-ment, including an amplifier for the hearing-impaired, an electron-ic magnifier for documents and a magnifier with a highlighter for the visually impaired, were purchased.

The project is intended to improve access to key information, particu-larly about state services.

“Implementing projects like this will help test new, innovative mechanisms and implement inter-national best practices for improv-ing access to economic and social services. All projects are aimed at improving the delivery of social

services. The implementation of these projects will also draw the attention of the public, nongov-ernmental organisations and me-dia to solving social problems and will achieve long-term positive changes in society,” Project Man-ager Rauan Kaliyev explained. The projects will be implemented annually at state institutions.

soyle.kz Helps Teach Kazakh language

By Galym Terensay

The Kazakh State Language De-velopment Foundation launched in December of last year www.soyle.kz, which helps website visitors learn the Kazakh language. Au-thor and Director of the foundation Azat Shaueyev recently discussed the project with The Astana Times.

What prompted the idea to launch soyle.kz?

The Kazakh language is becom-ing the language of education, sci-ence and the Internet in Kazakh-stan. There are also a variety of textbooks and manuals on the Ka-zakh language and it’s good when there is a choice. Both online and distance learning are time impera-tive in the age of information tech-nologies. [This Kazakh language resource is now available] and saves a lot of time and resources.

What exactly does your website offer?

The online course soyle.kz (Kazakh for speak) offers lessons in the basics of grammar, reading and writing and an understanding of commonly used spoken lan-guage. It contains a lot of useful information on pronunciation and the translation of new words, vo-cabulary cards, vocabulary notes to the lessons, standard phrases, situational dialogues, audio and video materials, exercises, tests, reference materials and a lot more. The dialogues simulate real situ-ations from everyday life for the learners to overcome the language barrier and develop confidence in their abilities.

There are lessons for beginners with more advanced levels coming soon.

Are many people interested in studying the Kazakh language?

Sure they are, and our portal’s statistic points to a growth of inter-est in it. Over the two months, the site has had 40,000 visits from Ka-

zakhstan, Russia, China, the u.s., Germany, the UK, Turkey and other countries. More than 6,000 users have signed in and started learning.

What are the plans ahead?More than five million ethnic

Kazakhs are now living outside Kazakhstan in 43 countries, wish-ing to learn the language. And for those who do not speak Russian, for English speakers, as well as for the five million future guests arriving in our country for eXPO 2017, we are going to work out a special programme. The working language will be English, while the Kazakh version is to be in the Latin alphabet, which is familiar to most foreigners and Kazakhs liv-ing abroad.

The portal will be regularly up-dated with new lessons, materials and a section for children, too. We recommend visitors check for up-dates. A mobile application will be added soon.

continued from page B1

“[Kazakhstan is] wonderfully di-verse, and there is a case to be made for a name that more fully reflects that,” wrote the Washington Post’s foreign affairs blogger, Max Fisher, on Feb. 7. Fisher wrote in support of a name change, though not necessar-ily to “Kazak Eli” but to something more reflective of Kazakhstan’s di-versity. When suggesting the pos-sible change on Feb. 6, Nazarbayev himself restated that he thinks Ka-zakhstan’s ethnic diversity is one of its great strengths.

‘Stan’ does indeed affect Kazakh-stan’s image in the West, said Rus-sian political scientist and Direc-tor of International Programmes at the National Strategy Institute Yuri Solozobov, as quoted by Interfax.by. Western media and even major political figures tend to refer to the five Central asian states as a unit, despite their differences, he said. “Nursultan Nazarbayev noticed that this … greatly hinders the inflow of economic investment and blurs Kazakhstan’s brand as a successful country in the world,” he said.

“There’s a certain stigma associ-ated with the suffix ‘stan,’” wrote Matt Ford on The Atlantic’s website

on Feb. 7. “Would a name change help Kazakhstan? Geographically, it couldn’t hurt. Flubbings of Central Asian nations’ names are common, even among those who should prob-ably know better.”

There is also support for the change within the country. “I fully support the president’s proposal to rename our country Kazak Eli,” Mukhtar Taizhan, president of the Bolatkhan Taizhan Foundation, as quoted by Total.kz. He said the new name would be simpler and more appropriate, as it comes from a Tur-kic rather than Persian root and Ka-zakh is a Turkic language. (“Stan” is an ancient Persian suffix meaning “place of” or “country.”) Taizhan also said anyone of any ethnic group living in the renamed country should be considered fully “Kazakh.”

Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor and leading brand strategist for regions, told the BBC in an interview on Feb. 7 that a name change would be “an incredibly ir-ritating thing to do to the planet,” given the changes it would neces-sitate to communications services, postal services, visas and more. He said costs would run to billions of dollars. “People don’t judge coun-tries by their names or by the way

they present themselves,” he said, but by what they do. “Changing the wrapper doesn’t change the sweet.”

Kazakhstan, with the biggest economy in the post-Soviet space, is currently one of seven Central Asian ‘stans.’ Though it has received more than $180 billion in foreign invest-ment since independence, the coun-try still isn’t well known outside of energy circles, despite having an ac-tive multilateral foreign policy and taking part in many regional and international organisations. Hosting the international exhibition eXPO 2017 in the capital, Astana, is one way the nation is working to get on the global map. The country is also campaigning for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2017-2018.

The country’s capital city got a new name in 1998, shortly after it was moved from Almaty to the Ak-mola region. The names of a number of other cities and towns have been changed since independence, some-times reverting from Russian names to older Kazakh names.

‘Stan’ can have a way of stick-ing, however. Kyrgyzstan became the Kyrgyz Republic in 1993, but is rarely referred to that way both in-side and outside of the region.

Idea of Dropping ‘Stan’ from Kazakhstan Generates domestic, International discussion


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TourismNATIoN&CAPITAL

Five Historical and cultural Tourism clusters to Be developed across country

By nurlan Bapanov

ASTANA – The Tourism Indus-try Committee of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan has identified five re-gional clusters for tourism in Ka-zakhstan. They will be developed through the new Concept for the Development of Tourism to 2020.

Marat Igaliyev, chairman of the Tourism Industry Committee, pre-senting the information in a report to the Mazhilis, said the concept contains a set of measures for de-veloping tourism and associated industries in Kazakhstan. Cultural tourism, including guided tours, is

one of the main directions of the concept, as are short breaks or weekend tours. Both aim to boost tourism to sites of historic or cul-tural significance, as well as to the nation’s nature reserves.

Five main natural, cultural and historical clusters are to be de-veloped first. The astana clus-ter includes the city of Astana, the Akmola region and parts of North Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and Karaganda regions. Key natural places of interest are the Burabai, Kokshetau, Buiratau, Karkaraly and Bayan-Aul national parks. Karaganda City is on the list, as well as sites on UNESCO’s tenta-

tive World Heritage list, including mounds built by the Tasmolinsk culture, the tombs of the Begazy-Dandybay culture of the megalith-ic period and silk Road towns like the Bozok settlement.

The Almaty cluster includes the city of Almaty and part of the Almaty region. Key tourist des-tinations include the UNESCO World Heritage-listed archaeologi-cal landscape of Tamgaly, with its petroglyphss; Charyn Canyon; the Kapshagay Reservoir; the ski area near Almaty and the Ile-Alatau Park; the Zhana Ile tourism centre; the petroglyphs of Yeshkiolmes; the Altyn Yemel National Park, Is-

syk mounds and Talgar settlement all of which are on UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage list and the Boralday Saka mounds includ-ed on the transnational silk Road World Heritage nomination.

The East Kazakhstan cluster consists of the northern and east-ern part of the East Kazakhstan re-gion. Key places of interest are the Bukhtarma Reservoir, irtysh Riv-er, Zhaisan Lake, Katon-Karagay National Park, Markakol Lake, Kalzhir Canyon, the Ridder-ana-tai and Ivanovskiye mountains and the city of Semey. There are plans to expand this cluster to include the Berel State Historical and Cul-

tural Reserve and the alakol state Nature Reserve.

The South Kazakhstan cluster includes parts of the Kyzylorda, South Kazakhstan and Zhambyl regions. Key places of tourist in-terest are the city of Turkestan, with the World Heritage-listed mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yas-sawi; the medieval Otrar and Otrar oasis ruins; the Karatau State Na-ture Reserve; the sairam-ugamsk State Park; Baikonur Cosmo-drome; Kyzylorda, Saryagash and Taraz cities and the Sauran ruins, Arpa-Uzen petroglyphs and Aksu Zhabagly Nature Reserve current-ly on UNESCO’s tentative World

Heritage list. This cluster will also be expanded to include the Merke Turkic sanctuary, the Barsakelmes Nature Reserve, the Zhetyasar oa-sis and the Siganak settlement.

The Western Kazakhstan cluster will include parts of the West Ka-zakhstan and Mangystau regions, with places of interest like the Beket-Ata, Shopan Ata and Kar-aman-Ata underground mosques; the mausoleums of Omar and Tur; the necropolis of the Mangyshlak peninsula; the Bokey Horde mon-uments; Sherkal Mountain; the Karagiye-Karakol protected areas; ustyurt state Nature Reserve and the Kenderli resort.

piano Festival Hopes to draw musical Tourism to astana

By Tatiana Bek

ASTANA – Travel companies in Kazakhstan are developing tour packages for foreign visitors wish-ing to attend the Astana Piano Pas-sion festival of classical music this May.

The festival, which began in 2013 with the online broadcast-ing of performances by gifted children and piano stars, aroused a lot of interest among lovers of classical music from around the world. Many spectators regretted then that they could not come to Astana and personally see and hear the performances. That’s why this year, festival organisers and the National Association of the Tour-ism Industry of Kazakhstan decid-ed to prepare tours in advance and invite music lovers to the capital of Kazakhstan.

Encouraging foreign tourists to come to Kazakhstan is one of the main tasks of developing the tourism sector in the country, ac-cording to representatives of the National Association of the Tour-ism Industry, which comprises Ka-zakhstan’s large travel companies.

Astana Piano Passion is the larg-est competition of young pianists

in Central Asia and has the poten-tial to attract many tourists from abroad. To do this, according to festival organisers, it is neces-sary to provide standardised tour packages that include a trip to Lake Borovoye and other places of interest, allowing visitors to see some local colour. Tourist firms will be ready to present their pack-ages in early March.

The second Astana Piano Pas-sion international festival will be held on the major modern concert grounds of the capital from May 10-16. Guests and citizens of Asta-na will be able to attend concerts and master classes with today’s best musicians and teachers. The festival is also an opportunity to establish international contacts, support young talent and promote the music of Kazakh composers. Works by Kazakh composers are included in the compulsory pro-gramme of the young musicians’ competition.

The deadline for applying to the Astana Piano Passion competition, organised by the Accordi di Astana public fund with the support of the municipal administration and the Moscow Philharmonic, is March 15, 2014.

Five regional clusters for tourism in Kazakhstan will be developed through the new concept for the development of Tourism to 2020. charyn canyon (left photo) is in the almaty region, while the Burabai area (right) is in the akmola region.

women in Kazakh national costumes welcome the participants of the piano pas-sion Festival in astana last year.


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nation’s Boxers win Four countries-2014 Tournament

By alina Usmanova

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s na-tional boxing team won the Four Countries-2014 boxing tourna-ment, which ended here Feb. 20.

in the tournament’s final round, Kazakh boxers defeated the Rus-sian team with a landslide score of 7:3. The victories were won by Birzhan Zhakipov (49 kg), Kairat Yeraliyev (56 kg), Zakir safiullin (60 kg), sagadat Rakhmankulov (69 kg), Dauren Yeleusinov (81 kg) and Anton Pinchuk (91 kg). Yerlan Tamemov (52 kg), Almas-bek alibekov (64 kg) and Rustam Svayev (75 kg) were defeated.

The Russian team did not par-ticipate in the over 91 kg category.

The Kazakh team also defeat-ed the Uzbek team 7:3 and the team from the United Kingdom 8:2 on their way to the tourna-ment victory.


The Kazakh skater said he was not sure about the world cham-pionship this year. “I don’t want to plan ahead of time; I have had problems with my health through-out this tough season. I skated here in Sochi in different skates – one pair was made of leather and the other from a different material. My shoes are from two different pairs. I have had various injuries this past season. My skate broke, I had to change it to another one, then I couldn’t get used to it and eventually strained my left foot. There has been a tonne of these situations. So far, I have been planning to pay more attention to my own health after Sochi, as my feet have been a concern dur-ing the past season, including at Sochi,” Ten said.

Despite massive media exposure in his native Kazakhstan, Ten pre-fers to stay an athlete rather than a

celebrity. “I never considered my-self a media person, as I consider myself an athlete first of all,” Ten said. “I am fortunate that people want to socialise with me, ask me for interviews. But first of all, i am an athlete. Sport is my top priority and I am planning to stick to it in the near future,” he said.

Ten hosted a skating show with figure skating stars last year and wants to repeat such a show in Kazakhstan by inviting some of his figure skating counterparts from all over the globe. His only concern is that the show was named after him, and he’d like to change it to something bigger, something like, “Kazakhstan In-vites Friends,” he said, “to place the emphasis on our country first of all.”

But he’s not leaving the ice rink yet. “Figure skating is a tough discipline, and I am not planning to stop yet. Time will tell,” the skater said.

Ten wins country’s First ever medal in olympic Figure skating

dignitaries Visit Kazakhstan’s sochi Hospitality House

By askar Beissenbayev

SOCHI – The Kazakhstan Hos-pitality House opened by President Nursultan Nazarbayev during one of his visits to the Sochi Olympics venue hosts all image-building activities, eXPO 2017 outreach efforts and Kazakhstan’s bid for Almaty to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The main guests of the hospital-

ity house are tourists, foreign jour-nalists and guests who have been presented with Kazakh culture and national cuisine.

One of the first officials to visit was President of the Internation-al Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, who supports Kazakhstan’s bid to host the twenty fourth Win-ter Games.

Chairman of the Kazakhstan Agency for Sports and Physical

Culture Tastanbek Yessentai and President of the National Olym-pic Committee of Kazakhstan Temirkhan Dosmukhanbetov discussed Kazakhstan’s athletic facilities, while visiting the hospi-tality house.

Head of the Department of the Russian President’s affairs vladimir Kozhin also visited the hospitality house, and after re-viewing its information concern-

ing Astana and Almaty’s ability to host large international events praised these capabilities.

Prince of Monaco Albert II, an-other guest of the house, said he wanted to visit Kazakhstan during eXPO 2017 and believes President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s ideas help build a positive image of the coun-try in the world and contribute to development of peaceful relations between the nations.

Sports Official Praises Ten’s and Team’s Sochi Effort, Upbeat about almaty 2022 olympic Bid

By Jan Furst

ASTANA – The Feb. 7 to Feb. 23 Olympic Games in Sochi once again were watched by peple from every corner of the Earth and dem-onstrated the discipline, determina-tion and sportsmanship that bonds nations and continents.

The Kazakh national Olympic team included approximately 50 athletes who competed against the best in the world. Spectators around the globe saw the Kazakh national flag when the country’s top figure skater Denis Ten won bronze on Feb. 14.

Among the Kazakh team’s main sponsors in Sochi, and London in 2012, were the Samruk Kazyna Na-tional Welfare Fund and Presidential Professional Sports Club Astana. Fund Public Relations Director and Presidential Club Board Member Aidar Makhmetov traveled to Sochi as a sponsors representative.

“I had never been to Sochi before, but I could imagine what it was like before. And I saw with my own eyes what the city has transformed into,” Makhmetov told The Astana Times in an exclusive interview.

“I couldn’t but help thinking that I was somewhere in Europe and

not in Russia. i was also surprised by the work of volunteers. They were very friendly, helpful, always smiling, wishing athletes luck and to come back again. It was an eye-opener for me. it was not my first time in Russia, but for the first time, I encountered such sincere inten-tions,” Makhmetov said.

“As for our athletes, they had a fighting spirit. i witnessed it my-self. i think Roman Krech (seventh in 500-metre speed skating) and Denis Kuzin (seventh in 1,000-me-tre speed skating) did their best, and their results should be considered as good ones. Moreover, I spoke to the head coach of the short track team Madygali Karsybekov, who im-pressed me very much. I think the fact that the short track team made it to the finals (placing fifth in the end) … is a very high result, considering they didn’t have much experience,” Makhmetov said. ” This sport I think has a very high potential in Kazakhstan, considering that there are eight medals in this event. I think we should focus on this sport. It’s a fast, dynamic event. If Kore-ans are good at it, why can’t we try it as well?”

Makhmetov also did not exclude the possibility of attracting a South

Korean short track skater, as Russia did with viktor ahn, who won three gold and one bronze for team Rus-sia in Sochi and has become a six-time Olympic medalist.

“I can’t exclude the possibility of attracting a South Korean short track skater to Kazakhstan, but he must be their top skater and only one, as Russia did.”

Makhmetov also knows Ten per-sonally and was among the first to predict he would do well.

“I have known Denis [Ten] for many years and now I happen to coordinate his progress as part of the Samruk Kazyna fund. What I like about him is his determina-tion, his professionalism and his approach to work,” Makhmetov said. “Preparing for the Olympics, he set a goal and was never side-tracked. He had a chance at gold, considering that both [Canadian silver medalist Patrick] Chan and [eventual gold medalist Yuzuru [Hanyu] fell. But due to figure skating politics, we understand that bronze is best we can get. Denis skated earlier than most of his opponents and stayed on top for quite some time, then when the last opponent was skating, I texted Denis’s mother with congratula-

tions and she replied likewise, only then it struck me, what if the judges would favour the American for bronze and Denis would end up fourth, and I had already texted all congratulations for the bronze. But good thing is Denis remained in third,” Makhmetov said.

Ten did remain third thus bring-ing Kazakhstan a historic medal. “Afterwards, we took Denis out to celebrate,” Makhmetov said.

Makhmetov was also among the first ones to hold the medal. “it was very heavy, and it is a symbolic com-pensation for the heavy, hardy work and injuries Denis had to withstand to get it. It was his second Olympic Games in his career. I think his third Games in South Korea will be even more successful.”

Also in Sochi, Makhmetov met with Thomas Bach, the Olympic gold medalist in fencing in Montre-al in 1976, and currently the ninth president of the International Olym-pic Committee.

“He initiated the conversation and started asking about Almaty. The bid to host the Olympic Games in 2022 in Almaty is controversial in Kazakhstan. Many don’t favour it. I don’t handle this question, but I would like to say that hosting the

major world event would record Almaty and Kazakhstan into sports history for centuries. Undoubt-edly, all [people around the globe] will discover Kazakhstan–that’s one. Second, the whole city infra-structure would change. Preparing for the Olympics is not just build-ing new sports facilities, we have enough of that, but also re-shaping the architecture of the city. On the whole, the Games might even change the mentality of people for the better concerning some negative traits we have.People will start ap-preciating nature more, respecting cleanliness and order, all these dis-ciplines [people] and the infrastruc-ture that remains afterwards, as I see

it in Sochi, would contribute a lot to our lives in Kazakhstan in a positive way,” Makhmetov explained.

According to Makhmetov, Al-maty 2022 could happen because “the main contenders like Davos and Munich are out, as you well know. As for Oslo, the government is pro Games but the people don’t support the initiative, so there is only Krakow that proposes a two-town Olympic games that contra-dicts the main idea of the Games to be held in one town. Then there is Beijing that just hosted the summer Olympics [in 2008]. But since the next Winter Olympics are going to be in South Korea, I don’t think [the Olympic committee] would grant the bid to another Asian country. In this sense, I think Almaty would be in the final with Oslo.”

He went on to explain that the Winter Games in Norway in Lille-hammer in 1994 have been praised for over two decades.

Makhmetov also assured that both Samruk Kazyna and the Presiden-tial Professional Club Astana will continue to contribute financially to developing sports in Kazakhstan.

“We are not only doing it finan-cially, but also administratively. We hope to cooperate with the Sports Agency. I am also very glad that Ka-zakh citizens are getting involved in sports and supporting their country-men and teams. I hope the govern-ment will continue to strengthen the role of sports in Kazakhstan,” he added.

aidar makhmetov


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astana’s production Is Growing, service sector needs development, mayor says

By Gulyaim Tulesheva

ASTANA – Akim (Mayor) of Astana Imangali Tasmagambetov reviewed the city’s progress and discussed economic goals at a public meeting in Astana on Feb. 19. Major achievements include growth in industrial production and support for small and medium-sized businesses; goals include di-versifying the service sector.

As one of the seven values of the Mangilik Yel (Eternal Nation) national idea expressed by the President in his recent state-of-the-nation address, the capital is taking a growing role in the development of the country, Tasmagambetov said, and last year laid a solid foundation for growth. Gross re-gional product (GRP) amounted to 2.7 trillion tenge (US$14.6 billion) and industrial enterprises pro-duced goods and rendered services worth more than 263 billion tenge (US$1.4 billion). By 2020, munic-

ipal authorities want services to be 80 percent of GRP.

“The capital is growing rapidly, but the service sphere isn’t always keeping up. Small and medium-sized businesses should be diversi-fied to meet the modern principle of step-by-step availability and expand the net of their branch ac-tivities. That’s why the state fully supports business initiatives [and] lending to entrepreneurs,” said Tas-magambetov. In 2013 alone, more than 6,000 businesses received real assistance under the Business Road Map 2020 state programme, he said. Tasmagambetov also not-ed that today, small and medium businesses are helping develop the middle class, which the President says is of major importance.

“Already today, small and medi-um-sized business accounts for 67 percent of tax revenues to the city budget. The volume of their prod-ucts over the past year made up 1.2 trillion tenge (US$6.5 billion),”

Tasmagambetov said. “By 2017, we have every possibility of increasing the number of small and medium-sized businesses to 60,000.”

a significant proportion of the 1 trillion tenge (US$5.4 billion) allo-cated on the President’s instruction from the National Fund in 2014 and 2015 to provide the real eco-nomic sector with credit resources will be also available to small and medium-sized enterprise in the capital, he said.

An industrial park created to implement investment projects in the capital has produced goods and services worth more than 120 bil-lion tenge (US$649 million) over

the past three years, 45 percent of the city’s industrial production volume. Industrial production in the capital has doubled since 2010, from 111 billion tenge (US$600 million) to 263 billion tenge (US$1.42 billion) in 2013, Tas-magambetov reported.

By 2017, the mayor said, the in-dustrial park’s output will be about 250 billion tenge (US$1.39 billion) annually and over 8,000 new jobs are expected to be opened. Tax rev-enues will quadruple and reach 70 billion tenge (US$378 million); the share of local content in goods and services will approach 70 percent.

Much work is to be done in the

sphere of urban infrastructure, the mayor said. The ambitious BRT project – high-speed buses, run-ning in specially allocated lanes, – is intended to relieve the public transport system and prepare the capital for hosting eXPO 2017. in June this year, construction of the first BRT line will be launched. its completion is scheduled for 2016.

Regarding social issues, Tas-magambetov said that the amount of children’s and social benefits and targeted social assistance will be increased from April 1, 2014 not by 12 percent, but by 16 per-cent, according to the President’s orders on social support after the

devaluation of the tenge. Today in the capital there are 3,999 recipi-ents of social assistance.

The mayor spoke positively about the recent correction in the tenge exchange rate, saying it would help curb the growth of im-port volumes, revive the internal market, support domestic produc-ers and save Kazakhstan’s gold reserves. In addition, he said, the measure will increase the incomes of exporters and the state budget, attract additional financial resourc-es to the Kazakh economy and al-low the state to reinvest money from exports into the domestic economy.

akim of Astana Imangali Tasmagambetov is confident in the city’s industrial development prospects.

Evening of Music and Poetry Benefits young astana writer

By Rufiya Ospanova

asTaNa – a benefit evening for young Astana poet Aliya De-meisenova was held in the capital’s Black Duck restaurant on Feb. 22.

Poetry readings have been held every month at the Black Duck and in other venues in Astana for the better part of a year. This one, “Let Me Fly,” featured paper planes with Demeisenova’s po-ems printed on them and began with a violin performance by Ali-na Guchshina, who often accom-panied the poet as she read.

“I started to make up poems be-fore I learned how to read,” De-meisenova said in her introduc-tion. “By the time I reached the second grade, my mom took me to the Shuchinsk district newspa-per editor, Stepan Avdeyuk, who became my first critic and tutor. The newspaper became the first place I could be published. My first poems were about nature. i was born in the beautiful Boro-voye area and it was impossible for me not to write. Everything

I write is closely related to my life.”

The first part of the event was mostly dedicated to lyrics and vio-lin music. Demeisenova made the event interactive, giving guests pa-pers on which to write questions or wishes. They could also fly paper planes containing poems they want-ed to hear read. Some of the poets at the reading made up poems dedi-cated to Demeisenova on the spot.

“The evening was held in a romantic atmosphere matching Aliya. When you hear a serious comparison of happiness with a cat, you start to think about what happiness means. It may be loneli-ness or its absence; it may be the city where one wants to live and love; it may be people whom you change and who change you,” said Liya Tarazi, another young poet from Astana.

In the second part of the read-

ing, Demeisenova performed po-ems accompanied by guitar and read short stories.

Closing the event, Demeisen-ova revealed the meaning of the event’s name. “It’s not true that some people are born to creep and others to fly. All of us come to this world with wings, but eve-ryday fuss, concerns, problems and limits that we set ourselves throw us back on earth. Don’t let anyone stop your flight. Fly, cre-ate and believe in wonder.”

Demeisenova’s benefit even-ing was the second in a number of upcoming benefit evenings. The benefit evenings are held as part of the monthly series of po-etry readings that began in March 2013. In the future, organiser Yelden Sarybay plans to publish poems by contributors and also have them translated into other languages.

young astana poet aliya demeisenova

alina Guchshina

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