JAN. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Brushing aside growing speculation over the Kazakh economy, Kairat Kelimbetov, head of Kazakhstan’s Central Bank, said there were no plans to devalue the Kazakh tenge. Media reports quoted Mr Kelimbetov after analysts openly questioned whether the tenge was too expensive.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Wearing a pin-striped suit, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev delivered his annual state-of-the-nation speech in Astana to the massed ranks of favoured party officials and members of the political elite.
His speech concentrated on the economic tasks ahead for Kazakhstan including the goal of joining the world’s top 30 economies by 2050.
In the more short term, Mr Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan planned to build its first nuclear power station within four years and to bolster the hi-tech sector.
He also set a growth target of between 6% and 7% this year and inflation of between 3% and 4%.
None of this is particularly new, Mr Nazarbayev has never been short of ambition and high rhetoric. He also knows full well that it won’t be him dealing with the headache of trying to hit ambitious targets set for 2050.
Interestingly, standing alongside him as he met delegates after his speech was his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva. Some analysts have talked of her as a potential presidential successor.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In 2013 the port of Aktau, on Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea coast, handled 8% less trade compared to 2012.
This is significant because Aktau is one of the biggest trading posts into and out of Kazakhstan. Unsurprisingly oil and oil-based products form 60% of Aktau Port’s trade volumes. Last year oil shipments through Aktau dropped by 20%, a significant drop and one that needs to be analysed.
The drop is probably down to a shift in the direction that oil has been travelling. Previously, Kazakhstan had sent most of its oil West across the Caspian Sea to Europe via Azerbaijan or north through Russia’s pipeline network. This has changed significantly over the past few years and Kazakh oil is now flowing east to China.
The drop in trade at Aktau is important as it is probably a byproduct of increased Chinese demand for Kazakh energy.
Of course, as Kazakhstan’s economy grows, so should all trade volumes at Aktau — especially, and importantly, non-oil trade volumes.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The consortium of companies developing the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea said it was working on restarting production but declined to give a date. A gas leak shut down production at Kashagan, Kazakhstan’s most high-profile energy project, in October around a month after the project officially opened.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Provence, southern France, ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, can be extradited to Russia or Ukraine to face various money laundering charges.
This is a clear victory for the Kazakh authorities over the human rights lobby and they will be quietly celebrating in Astana and the Akorda, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s palace.
Ultimately the Kazakh authorities want Ablyazov extradited to Kazakhstan to face charges of funding terrorism and plotting a revolution. Shifting him from a prison in southern France to either Moscow or Kiev is, literally and figuratively, a move in the right direction for Kazakh prosecutors.
It also underlines their determination to hunt down enemies of the state.
After the collapse of BTA Bank in 2009, Ablyazov fled Kazakhstan and set himself up in London in opposition to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
In 2012, Ablyazov lost a civil case against the Kazakh government in London. The British court ordered him to pay millions in damages and sentenced him to 22 months in prison for perjury. Ablyazov fled, again, and was eventually arrested by French police in southern France in July last year.
In Russia and Ukraine, Ablyazov faces charges of money laundering . His supporters, though, say the main threat is being bounced along to Kazakhstan. They have said that because Kazakhstan had no extradition treaty with France it has had to work with prosecutors in Russia and Ukraine to propel their man east.
A final decision on Ablyazov’s extradition destination and date will be taken later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh opposition leader, could be extradited to either Russia or Ukraine to face money laundering charges. Mr Ablyazov’s lawyers had argued that the authorities in Russia and Ukraine will simply hand him over to Kazakhstan where they said he would face an unfair trial.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government will relax rules for migrant workers from February 2014, media reported. Migrant workers will be allowed to stay in Kazakhstan for a year if they hold a bank account. The labour ministry said there were 174,000 migrant workers in Kazakhstan last year. It estimated that this would rise to 500,000 by 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will increase the amount of oil it sends to refineries in western China for processing into oil-based products, media reported quoting the Kazakh energy ministry. Kazakhstan has three refineries, not enough to meet the growing demand for oil-based products. Sending oil to Chinese refineries increases Kazakhstan’s reliance on China.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mukhtarbay Otelbayev, a Kazakh mathematician based in Astana, has solved the Navier-Stokes equation, dubbed “one of the problems of the millennium”, media reported. Mr Otelbayev’s claim has not yet been independently verified.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a member of parliament, suggested giving pharmaceutical companies the right to harvest wild marijuana growing in southern Kazakhstan. Ms Nazarbayeva said the government had spent enough resources trying to control the marijuana growth.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
