Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan tries to balance all sides over Ukraine

SEPT. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan is having to play a precarious balancing game to keep competing interests in and around Ukraine happy, Kazakh foreign minister Erlan Idrissov said in an interview with Reuters in New York.

Mr Idrissov was in the United States to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry to reaffirm the two countries’ friendly ties.

The complexity of Kazakhstan’s position is not just down to its geographically position but also because of its membership of the Kremlin-led Customs Union.

“We as a matter of principle support an independent, sovereign, forward-looking, advancing politically and economically Ukraine. That is the core of our policy towards Ukraine,” Mr Idrissov said in the interview.

“We take no sides.”

The United States and the EU have imposed economic sanctions on Russia which has slowed its economy and triggered a knock-on effect on neighbouring Central Asia. Russian economic growth powers Central Asian economies.

Mr Idrissov underlined the impact of sanctions on Kazakhstan. “The crisis prevents the entire area from focusing on economic development and delivering well-being to the population,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Russia handed ex-BTA to Kazakhstan

SEPT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former BTA Bank official wanted in connection with fraud, to Kazakhstan for prosecution. Mr Kosaev was a colleague of Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently in a French jail. Kazakhstan wants to extradite Mr Ablyazov although rights groups have said that he wouldn’t face a fair trial.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Kazakh city improves for finance

SEPT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Almaty sees itself as the financial centre of Central Asia and, increasingly, as a hub for businesses and companies wanting to straddle Europe and Asia.

And it appears as if it is earning plaudits.
In the latest ranking by London-based consultancy Z/Yen of the world’s most important financial centres, Almaty ranked

43 out of 84 cities, a jump from 58 in February. Only Istanbul, in Eastern and Central Europe, ranks higher in 42nd position.

Professor Michael Mainelli, chairman, Z/Yen Group told the Conway Bulletin that instability in Europe, mainly triggered by the civil war in Ukraine, had diminished cities’ standings there to Almaty’s benefit.

“Political turmoil throughout the Middle East and Asia, particularly in oil-rich dictatorships, seems to put Almaty on a more even footing with its competitors,” he said.

The index is ranked on several different areas. These are business environment; financial sector development; infrastructure; human capital; reputation and general factors.

Since the first Global Financial Centres Index was launched in 2007, Almaty has steadily improved its ranking. Good news, indeed, for Kazakhstan’s financial sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Halyk Bank to buy HSBC Kazakhstan

SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank officially decreed that Halyk Bank, one of the country’s biggest banks, could buy HSBC’s Kazakh subsidiary. Halyk Bank agreed to buy HSBC’s Kazakh operation earlier this year for around $175m. HSBC is streamlining its business, cutting the less profitable operations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Petrol running out in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Aktobe region in northwest Kazakhstan is on the brink of running out of petrol, the regional government’s business head Bagzhan Tlegenov said. Supplies of petrol have been particularly tight since August because of low refinery capacity in Kazakhstan and falling imports from Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Kazakh city’s healthcare crumble

SEPT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An influx of migrants to Almaty looking for jobs has reduced the quality of public healthcare in the city, Kazakhstan’s deputy PM, Gulshara Abdykalikova, told media. Ms Abdykalikova specifically said that the quality of doctors and nurses needed to be improved.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Russia handed ex-BTA to Kazakhstan

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)

Kazakhstan trademarks the palace

SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks like the Kazakh president’s office is becoming more commercially-minded.

Media reported that it has trademarked the Akorda, or the presidential palace, and a handful of other buildings in Astana.

One of the trade-marked images of the blue-domed Akorda show the sun rising behind it, rays of light shining over its roof.

It’s unclear, currently, just what the presidential administration plan to do with the trademark other than boost the image of the building itself.

The Akorda, which means White Horde, was built in 200 and lies at the centre of Astana, the city at the focus of President Nazarbayev’s vision for Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)

Fuel shortage to stay in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s deputy energy minister, Uzakbai Karabalin, has said fuel shortage will continue despite government attempts to buy extra petrol from Azerbaijan and other neighbours, media reported. He said a third of Kazakhstan’s petrol came from Russia which was dealing with an economic slowdown.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept. 17 2014)

Corruption proves stubborn in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An opinion poll in Kazakhstan said that a third of people don’t believe various high profile government campaigns to reduce corruption will have any impact, media reported. Most of the respondents said corruption is too ingrained in the system to be rooted out.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept. 17 2014)