Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan funds fight against radical Islam

MAY 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since the bombing of the Boston marathon in April, radical Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus has attracted increased scrutiny.

The two Tsarnaev brothers who allegedly planted the bombs were of Chechen ethnicity but part raised in Kyrgyzstan.

Central Asia has been combating extremists for years but the potential export of radicalism is relatively new.

One of the regions considered most vulnerable to radical Islamic ideas is western Kazakhstan which has a large population of poor and relatively disenfranchised young men.

The trial of six men accused of plotting to attack targets in Astana opened last week, and on May 21 the trial of another eight men accused of links with radical Islamic groups started in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea.

Now, media have reported that the Kazakh authorities have announced that another 200b tenge (roughly $13m) would be spent on combating the growth of Islamic extremism in the west of the country.

A lack of opportunities is just one of the issues driving young men in the west of Kazakhstan to extremists but Nurdaulet Suindikov, the government official who announced the funding increase, said security, rather than welfare and jobs, would be the focus of the extra spending.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Kazakhstan’s Kcell announces new CEO

MAY 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms giant TeliaSonera has replaced the CEO of Kcell, its Kazakh subsidiary.

Ali Agan will replace Veysel Aral, who has moved to head TeliaSonera’s Eurasia business division, as CEO. Mr Agan immediately said he wanted to develop 4G coverage in Kazakhstan, a strategy backed up later by the TeliaSonera CEO.

Kcell is the biggest mobile operator in Kazakhstan with 13.5m subscribers, a market share of 45%.

Mr Agan is a TeliaSonera insider. He has headed up TeliaSonera’s Uzbek unit, Ucell, since September last year and before that had been CEO of Azercell, the Azerbaijani unit.

TeliaSonera has been caught up in a corruption investigation in Uzbekistan since last year, focused on indirectly paying Uzbek officials for a 3G licence. The focus of the investigation does not include Mr Agan.

The day after announcing the new head of Kcell, Reuters reported that the CEO of TeliaSonera, Per-Arne Blomquist, told Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev how the company planned to roll out 4G coverage.

So far only Kazakhtelecom, the state-owned fixed line monopoly, has opened a 4G network in Kazakhstan. It opened the service in Astana and Almaty last year for its mobile brand Altel, the smallest Kazakh mobile operator.

Mr Blomquist said TeliaSonera had invested $2b into infrastructure in Kazakhstan in the past 15 years.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Tesco to expand in Kazakhstan and the Caucasus

MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Consumer markets in Central Asia and the South Caucasus region are maturing, as Tesco, the British supermarket chain, has realised.

Or at least, consumer markets in some of the region’s countries are maturing.

Tesco’s clothing department, which trades under the brand name F&F, announced that it planned to open various franchise stores across the Middle East, Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Specifically it said that F&F would open a store in Astana, the Kazakh capital by the end of June, to be followed by stores in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.

These will be opened through franchise agreements with Saudi Arabia-based Al Hokair and Dubai-based Futtaim.

The deal and Tesco’s intention to expand across Central Asia and the South Caucasus is important as it acts as further evidence that consumer demand in these markets is changing.

Long associated with the luxury market, Western high street brands have moved into Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, over the past couple of years and now, with the arrival of Tesco, it appears that discount brands are following.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Journalist detention spurs criticism in Kazakhstan

MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Kazakh officials of illegally detaining Aleksandr Kharlamov, a journalist, holding him in a psychiatric unit and falsely accusing him of inciting religious discord. HRW said Mr Kharlamov, from north-east Kazakhstan, was detained in mid-March.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

UK pays military transit through Kazakhstan

MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Britain will pay Kazakhstan between $300,000 and $400,000 a year to shift military equipment across its territory, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Aleksei Volkov as saying. NATO members have been agreeing deals with Central Asian states to help pull military equipment out of Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Kazakh presidents attends military parade

MAY 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Wearing camouflaged military uniform, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev took the salute at the largest parade by Kazakhstan’s military. Increasingly wealthy, Kazakhstan wants to show off its military might. Over 7,000 soldiers, 400 vehicles and 80 aircraft paraded in front of Mr Nazarbayev at a military base.

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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh banknote wins international award

MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In terms of banknote sophistication — artwork and anti-forgery security — Kazakhstan is world class.

The International Bank Note Society named Kazakhstan’s 5,000 tenge note, worth around $33, as the best new issue of 2012.

This is the second consecutive year that Kazakhstan has won the award after its new 10,000 tenge note won in 2012.

With the help of the British banknote printer De La Rue, the Kazakh Central Bank designed and launched the new 5,000 tenge banknote on New Year’s Eve 2011/12.

The judges praised its bright orange colour as well as the banknote’s designs, including an outline of the country, the iconic Soviet-built Hotel Kazakhstan in Almaty and Independence Statue in the centre of the city.

The note also contains various anti-forgery watermarks and other devices that improve its security.

Unusually for banknotes, the 5,000 tenge note, which beat Canada’s 50 dollar bill and the Jersey 100 pound bill for the award, does not carry the image of a famous national person.

If banknote art and sophistication is a sign of a confident, growing economy that is increasingly proud of its currency and aware of its national symbols, then Kazakhstan is definitely moving in the right direction.

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakhstan to issue $1b debt

MAY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has invited banks to manage a $1b debt issue, its first since 2007, finance minister Bolat Zhamishev told media. The announcement is significant as Kazakhstan is cash-rich from oil production; the debt issue will act as a barometer of the market’s interest in Kazakh debt.

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazkommertsbank posts positive results

MAY 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest bank, reported a 15% rise in net profit in Q1 2013 compared to Q1 2012. The increase was due to higher interest rate payments and a fall in bad debt. Kazkommertsbank’s results are important for the Kazakh banking sector which is still recovering from the 2009 global economic crisis.

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Kazakh legal cases unravel in London

MAY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — London is the global centre of dispute resolution.

Its courts, solicitors, barristers and the law itself are respected around the world attracting businesses and individuals who need to settle commercial disputes.

Now, a study of documents over the past five years has shown that Kazakhstan-focused legal disputes generated the second highest number of cases, the London-based Independent newspaper reported. Dispute resolution in London can be used as a rough gauge of a country’s economic activity.

According to the report, only the United States has been the focus of so many litigation issues.

Of the 705 litigation cases covered since 2008 by the Commercial Court, the business dispute arm of the High Court in London, 86 related to Kazakhstan. Russia, which has had more high-profile and expensive cases, recorded 75 cases.

The biggest Kazakhstan-oriented case to pass through the British courts in the past five years was the dispute involving Mukhtar Ablyazov who was accused of defrauding BTA Bank, where he had been chairman, of billions of dollars.

Ablyazov is currently on the run, having been charged with perjury last year. Earlier this year, the High court ordered Ablyazov to re-pay $2b.

According to the Independent’s report, the BTA/Ablyazov dispute case generated 11 individual cases, employing at least 50 solicitors.

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)