MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan boosted its gold reserves for the seventh month in a row despite falling prices, Bloomberg news reported. Kazakhstan’s stated policy is to buy all the gold produced in the country. According to data, the central bank now holds 125.5 tonnes of gold, up 8.9% this year. In 2012, it boosted gold reserves by 41%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The three billionaire founders of Kazakhstan’s London-listed miner ENRC have asked to extend the deadline for a takeover proposal by three weeks to June 24, Reuters reported. The billionaires; Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Pathokh Chodiev, want support from the Kazakh government and copper miner Kazakhmys.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps echoing its Soviet past, Kazakhstan will fire a third of its high-level government officials after they failed a new test, media reported quoting the chairman of the state service agency, Alikhan Baimenov. The test for officials was introduced last year to professionalise Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting of the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed that Kyrgyzstan would join the group by 2015. Kyrgyzstan has been talking about joining the union, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, for the past year. Ukraine has been granted observer status.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Archaeologists in eastern Kazakhstan have found the grave of an apparently wealthy woman possibly dating back 2,400 years, media reported. The woman was buried wearing fine jewellery, including a gold headdress similar to the one worn by the so-called Golden Man, Kazakhstan’s most famous archaeology discovery.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Italy detained and deported back to Kazakhstan the wife and daughter of fugitive billionaire banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Ablyazov, ex-chairman of BTA Bank, to be one of his biggest enemies.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It certainly sounds grand. Baiterek, the name for the new Kazakh national holding company, means earth-tree, a mythological tree connecting the inner Earth, the human-inhabited surface of the planet and the heavens.
On May 27, the Kazakh government said it planned to set up a new company, Baiterek, to hold some of the nation’s assets. It’s still, though, not entirely clear what specific role Baiterek will play.
According to media reports, Baiterek will hold stakes in various national companies and work with foreign investors on innovation projects.
Names are important in Kazakhstan and the symbolism of calling the new company Baiterek is difficult to miss.
Baiterek also holds greater resonance in Kazakhstan as the name for the tower at the centre of Astana, a symbol of a growing, proud nation.
Baiterek, the holding company not the tower, is probably one to watch.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Due to Western sanctions against Iran and a sluggish world economy, steel production, an important part of Kazakhstan’s economy, continued to drop in the first four months of 2013, media reported quoting official data. Kazakhstan produced 22% less steel between Jan. and April 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government will make a final decision on whether to buy the 8.2% stake in the Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field by July 2, energy minister Sauat Mynbayev said. ConocoPhillips, the US oil company, is selling the stake which could fetch up to $5b. Both India and China have expressed interest in a deal.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, will increase output at its Uzen oil field in the west of the country, keeping to a pledge made after deadly riots in 2011, the company’s deputy CEO, Daniyar Berlibayev, told Reuters. Falling production at Uzen and job losses were partly blamed for the 2011 riot.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
