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Kazakhstan’s automakers produced 19,500 vehicles over January-February 2023, a 36.8% increase over the same period last year, according to the Association of Automobile Business of Kazakhstan (AKAB).

In February alone, the industry produced 10,400 cars worth $285 million.

In terms of the type of vehicles produced within the reported period, the vast majority were passenger vehicles (17,500 or +41.3%), followed by 1,600 trucks (-3.5%), 263 buses (an increase of 2.3 times), 158 trailers and 27 special-purpose machines.

The biggest car maker Allur in Kostanay increased its output in January-February to 10,600 vehicles (+37.2%). Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan in Almaty produced...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed into law 25 amendments to the country’s tax code, according to the press service of Ak Orda.

These amendments cover a special tax regime for retail tax and distressed assets of banks and microfinance organizations. For instance, the new edition of the tax code restores retail tax in Kazakhstan.

«Any business with a staff of fewer than 200 people and revenue lower than $4.6 million a year can apply for a special tax regime. This regime has two different rates depending on whether an individual (4%) or an entity (8%) is...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a law aimed at preventing torture and expanding the rights of convicts in Kazakhstan, according to the press service of Akorda.

«This law is a continuation of consistent efforts of Kazakhstan aimed at rooting out torture and other forms of cruel treatment of convicts, expanding their rights and preventing negative prison subculture from forming,» the press service said in a statement.

The new legislation introduces criminal liability for cruel behavior toward inmates or humiliation of their human dignity. The law also requires law enforcement officials to use record investigative actions...

Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade has prohibited the country’s airports from providing fuel and maintenance to aircraft from Russia and Belarus, according to the Airport Haber edition. 

«Rendering of any services for aircraft produced in the U.S. and controlled by Russia or Belarus must be stopped,» the edition reported.

Moreover, under the new rule, Turkish airports can no longer provide fuel and other services to private, cargo, commercial and charter aircraft with 25% of American content on their way to Russia or Belarus.

However, the Association of Tour Operators in Russia says that the...

Kazakhstani poultry producers will be able to provide the country with chicken in five to six years. So far, the country exports about 110,000 tons of chicken legs from the U.S., according to the National Entrepreneurs Chamber Atameken.

«Poultry products America sends to us are cheap and not high quality. We have been filling this niche lately. We have several investment projects and in five to six years we will produce all poultry Kazakhstan needs by ourselves,» said Erbol Eseneev, deputy chairman of the chamber.

The official noted that local poultry producers account for...

According to Qiwi, delisting its American Depository Shares (ADS) from the NASDAQ stock exchange won’t affect the company’s operations, finance or business plans.

Because NASDAQ made the delisting unilaterally, Qiwi hasn’t ruled out disputing this decision, the company said in a statement.

The company’s shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange as usual.

The majority stakeholder of the company is Sergey Salonin (28.2% of shares) while 71.5% of shares are traded on the broader market.

On March 15, NASDAQ notified Qiwi about the delisting of ADS starting from March 24, 2023. Similar notifications were also sent to other Russian companies...

According to Polymetal International’s finance report, in 2022, the company absorbed $288 million in losses compared to $904 million in profit in 2021.

«In 2022, our adjusted net profit reached $440 million ($913 million in 2021). Due to lower EBITDA and non-cash depreciation costs ($653 million after accounting for tax effect), net losses of the group reached $288 million compared to $904 of profit last year,» the company said in a statement.

In 2022, Polymetal earnings shrunk by 3% to $2.8 billion, with Russian assets accounting for $1.9 billion (67% of profit) while Kazakhstani assets...

The banking crisis that is unfolding in the U.S. after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, has slightly affected Kazakhstan’s foreign currency market so far, according to the National Bank.

«We have seen signs of growing volatility and weakening of the national currency exchange rate against the U.S. dollar. The fall of oil price to $73 or $74 per barrel has also added fuel to the fire,» the regulator’s press service said in a statement.

However, the central bank noted that the banking crises in the U.S. and Europe are local and...

Kazakhstan continues to spend its savings from the National Fund, strategy that has already affected the country’s economy. The government must show much more financial discipline. The only good cause for the withdrawal of money from the National Fund is the implementation of strategic goals, according to Maulen Ashimbayev, speaker of the Senate of Kazakhstan.

«Over the past eight years, the National Fund’s assets decreased from $73 billion to $57 billion. This trend isn’t good. We all need to show more financial discipline in the near future,» he said at the plenary session of the Senate.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev convened a meeting with the Security Council to discuss ways to reduce risks to national security, according to the press service of Ak Orda.

«The president has highlighted that it is necessary to get an objective assessment of the current challenges and threats to national security and to figure out how to prevent these threats,» the press service said in a statement.

No details about potential risks and threats to the country discussed by the Security Council have been provided by the authorities.

Given that the country is going to vote for...

Halyk Bank has reported losses associated with the selling of its subsidiaries in Russia and Tajikistan: Moskommertsbank and Halyk Bank Tajikistan, according to data published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website.

KASE data shows that the bank estimated its losses associated with the selling of Moskommertsbank at $41.1 million. The bank lost about $1 million when it sold its Tajik subsidiary. These losses have been calculated as the difference between the transaction value and net assets value of the two banks ($45.3 million and $3.2 million, respectively). At the time of selling, Moskommertsbank had $124.8 million worth of assets...

Given the buzz around media reports saying that Kazakhstan has seized the property of Roscosmos at Baikonur, Minister of Aerospace Industry Bagdat Musin has issued a comment.

According to the official, the country’s authorities indeed have seized the property of the Center for the Exploitation of Ground Space Infrastructure (CENKI), not a space launching complex known as Baikonur.

«There are two companies. One of them is Joint Venture Baiterek and the other is CENKI. They had a legal argument in the AIFC court and the court made a decision. And now an officer of the court is going to...

Kazakhstan’s judges are going to be more independent. The country’s Senate approved a new law on the judicial system and the status of judges in Kazakhstan. Now only the prosecutor general has the power to launch an investigation against judges.

According to Senator Andrey Lukin, Kazakhstan’s law enforcement agencies have a set of tools for influencing judges and can easily take advantage of them.  For example, the police can unleash investigative actions against a judge with no criminal case opened. All they need is permission from a local prosecutor. Once they have this permission, they can collect data about a...

At the end of February 2023, Borealis Foods Inc. and Oxus Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company controlled by Kazakhstani businessman Kenes Rakishev, announced the signing of a definitive business combination agreement. This is expected to result in a newly-combined company under the name Borealis Foods Inc. Upon closing of the proposed transaction, the company will continue to be led by Borealis’ CEO and co-founder Reza Soltanzadeh, and chairman and co-Founder Barthelemy Helg. The boards of directors of Borealis and Oxus have each unanimously approved the proposed $150 million transaction.

Borealis is a food technology company that has created...

According to Alibek Kuantyrov, minister of the national economy, Kazakhstan’s GDP grew by 4.3% in February 2023. In contrast, the country reported a 5.6% growth of its GDP in January 2023.

«Over the period from January to February, Kazakhstan’s economy grew by 4.3%, including the real economy (2.7%) and sphere of services (5%). We’ve seen growth in all key industries, although sectors such as construction, information and communication, and trade have shown the biggest growth,» said Kuantyrov.

The Ministry of National Economy reported a 19.2% increase in investments in fixed capital, in spheres of transport...

Kazakhstan wants European countries to implement a visa-free regime for the country’s citizens, according to deputy minister of foreign affairs Roman Vasilenko.

The official noted that the Foreign Ministry is still trying to expand the visa-free space in Europe for Kazakhstanis. Last year, the country signed agreements on a visa-free regime with Albania, Andorra, Serbia and Montenegro (a seasonal visa-free regime).

In 2017, Kazakhstan has introduced a visa-free regime for E.U. member states, although it was temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

«We are now talking about softening of the visa regime for Kazakhstanis. I mean...

VTB Bank Kazakhstan has started issuing plastic Mir payment cards, according to the Interfax news agency citing the bank’s press service.

The bank has also been issuing digital Mir cards since December 2022.

According to Stanislav Kozyakov, head of retail business in VTB Kazakhstan, the bank sees high demand for Mir cards from retail clients who make online payments or travel to Russia.

«Our bank is number one in Kazakhstan in terms of money withdrawal with the help of Mir cards,» he said.

The bank says that it can issue a plastic card within one...

Mikhail Lomtadze, head of Kaspi.kz took part in the Tech, Media and Telecom 2023 conference by Morgan Stanley in San Francisco where he talked about the unique experience of Kaspi.kz

Morgan Stanley has been organizing the Tech, Media and Telecom conference for 30 years. Every year this conference gathers leading tech companies and investors from all over the world like Elon Musk, heads of Google, Microsoft, PayPal and many other tech giants.

«During the conference, my colleagues and I talked about Kazakhstan, the fast development of technologies in our country and what we have done to...

According to KazTransOil (KTO), Inpex North Caspian Sea Ltd., a stakeholder (7.563%) of North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) is going to send its oil to Europe via the port of Aktau and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC). NCOC is the consortium that operates the Kashagan oil field.

«From a technical point of view, we can export 6.2 million tons of oil a year via Aktau. So far, the port has booked part of its capacity for 1.5 million tons of oil that Tengizchevroil wants to export via the Trans-Caspian route toward the BTC. Inpex from the Kashagan...

KazTransOil (KTO), a subsidiary of the national oil company KazMunayGas, reported a 60.9% drop in its consolidated net profit.

«In 2022, the consolidated net profit of KTO was about $44.9 million, a 60.9% decline compared to 2021,» the company said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the consolidated earnings of the company reached $580.2 million in 2022, a 7.3% increase over the year before.

Earnings of KTO itself reached $418.5 million last year, a 1.3% decline over the same period of 2021.

In 2022, KTO’s net profit dropped by 78.3% to $19 million compared to 2021.

KazMunayGas...

According to Aliya Moldabekova, deputy head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, in February the country’s national currency tenge demonstrated confident growth. As the official said in a interview with the Kapital edition, non-residents’ appetite for state bonds and selling out of quasi-state companies were key drivers of the exchange rate strengthening.

In February, the regulator reported a 3.2% increase in the tenge exchange rate. Despite rumors, the reasons behind this strengthening are quite simple, said Moldabekova. For instance, February has been a popular season for large quarterly tax payments since 2016, when the tenge exchange rate has become free...

Bereke Bank, a former subsidiary of Sberbank Russia, which is now under the control of the state-owned holding Baiterek, is no longer on the sanctions list, according to the U.S. Ministry of Finance.

On March 8, the Kursiv edition wrote that on March 9, 2023, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Treasury Department is going to launch an official procedure of withdrawal of Bereke Bank from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN). The bank had been on the list since April 2022. At the time, it was a subsidiary of Russian Sberbank.

«On...

The construction of a new pipeline toward the Caspian Sea to export oil may take Kazakhstan five years, according to Bloomberg citing Bolat Akchulakov, the country’s ministry of energy who spoke at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas.

«Akchulakov said Kazakhstan is planning a new pipeline that would take its crude to the Caspian Sea for export. But developing such a project could take five years and would also require a new fleet of oil tankers,» the news agency reported.

The article also highlights that according to Kazakhstan’s energy minister the country’s «number one problem,» is how to diversify its...

Chevron Corp., one of the biggest oil producers in the U.S., is planning to increase oil output at the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan by up to one million barrels per day, according to state news agency Kazinform, citing CEO of the company Mike Wirth, who attended the CERAWeek conference in Houston.

As Wirth noted, Chevron has a project that can increase oil output to one million barrels per day in Kazakhstan.

The expansion project is set to start its operation as the construction phase has already been completed. The company will put into operation the remaining facilities over the...