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Ak Maya Fest, a festival dedicated to shubat, a national Kazakh drink made from camel milk, was held in Mangystau on Aug. 16. Those who attended the event reported astonishing performances, with many describing the festival of national traditions as the Kazakh analogue of Burning Man, the largest art event in the desert in the U.S.

According to regional authorities, about 15,000 people came to the festival organized in the Airakty Valley of Castles. Among them were tourists from Russia, France, Kyrgyzstan, the U.K. and many other European countries. The main symbol of the festival was shubat, a national drink...

Organizers of Jennifer Lopez’s concert at Almaty’s Central Stadium have released the event’s figures. The show drew 27,000 attendees, about 7,000 of whom came from 35 countries around the world.

According to the Almaty city administration, the concert generated approximately $18.5 million in revenue, with $1.1 million expected to go into the state budget as taxes.

«The expenses of foreign guests in Almaty during the concert period alone are estimated to have added more than 5 billion tenge ($9.2 million) to the city. Taking into account the spending of all spectators and indirect income, the total...

Kazakhstan imported $203.5 million worth of chocolate in the first half of the year, according to data from the Bureau of National Statistics. In monetary terms, imports grew by 32.6% year-on-year.

At the same time, total import volume decreased by 64 tons compared to the same period last year, indicating that the price of chocolate imported to Kazakhstan has risen significantly. Overall, the country imported 41,000 tons of chocolate and other cocoa confectionery products in the first six months of 2025.

The increase in import costs was driven mainly by Russia, Kazakhstan’s largest supplier. Imports from Russia rose in value...

The Oi Qaragai resort near Almaty has launched two new entertainment facilities for adrenaline seekers: a sky swing and Kazakhstan’s first alpine slingshot ride. Kursiv.media shares prices and directions.

Both adrenaline rides are located at a new Aktas site at the Oi Qaragai resort, at an altitude of 2,140 meters.

The slingshot, which the resort calls the «catapult,» propels riders up to 15 meters. The total duration from launch to landing is around three minutes.

The sky swing lets you experience the feeling of flying over a steep drop. It is designed for three people, but two can ride as...

Kazakhstan’s largest gold producer, Kazzinc, 70.2% of which is owned by Switzerland-based Glencore, reduced zinc production from its own sources to 61,800 tons in the first six months of 2025, down 3% year-on-year (YoY), according to Glencore’s report.

Meanwhile, zinc in concentrate production rose by 13% to 37,200 tons, while copper fell by 14% to 7,700 tons. Gold output declined by 7% to 281,000 ounces and silver increased by 6% to 1.647 million ounces.

Across the group, total production from own sources amounted to 343,900 tons of copper (down 26% YoY), 18,900 tons of cobalt (up 19% YoY...

BNK Commercial Bank — formerly the microfinance organization BNK Finance Kazakhstan and recently transformed into a bank — has received a written directive from Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) for violating prudential ratios, the agency reported.

The former MFO received its banking license on June 25, 2025, and managed to operate without regulatory notices for about two months.

The ARDFM noted on its website that the bank was sanctioned for violating prudential liquidity coverage and net stable funding ratios, as well as the term liquidity ratio (k4-1), as of July 1, 2025.

Popular Kazakh ice cream producer Shin-Line is negotiating to export its products to South Korea and Vietnam. According to the company’s representative, the main challenge is the high cost of delivery to these countries.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture reported on potential exports of Kazakh ice cream, noting that Shin-Line is exploring the use of refrigerated containers for sea transport.

Shin-Line’s Head of Board of Directors Dmitry Dokin confirmed to Kursiv.media that negotiations are indeed underway, but the possibility of exporting to these countries faces logistical challenges. For now, delivering Kazakh products would be both lengthy and costly. If shipments...

Kazakh companies face double taxation and full veterinary, sanitary and customs checks when exporting goods to other Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) members, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan.

«In a number of cases, unimpeded transit through the territory of EEU member states is not provided,» Bektenov said.

He added that in public procurement, some member countries circumvent the rules and set requirements that make it impossible for suppliers from other EEU nations to participate, despite unified rules adopted in 2020 to ensure national treatment in government...

Luxury brands have expanded sales in Kazakhstan after leaving or downsizing operations in Russia, Kommersant reported, citing Artur Gafarov, head of Russia’s Institute for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Economics.

Gafarov pointed to Richemont, the Swiss holding company that owns Cartier, Montblanc and other brands, as an example. Since 2023, Richemont’s Russian division has focused on wholesale jewelry shipments to Kazakhstan. By 2024, revenue had risen 19% to 986.6 million rubles, equivalent to approximately $10 million.

Kazakhstan accounted for 96% of the Russian unit’s total revenue in 2024.

Tiffany & Co. took a similar approach, shifting its...

In the first six months of 2025, Lotte Rakhat Confectionery reported a profit of about $3.9 million, down 53.4%, or $4.4 million, from the same period last year, according to the company’s filing on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website.

The drop was largely due to a 23.4% fall in gross receipts to nearly $14 million. While revenue from confectionery sales rose year-on-year by about $9 million, production costs increased by $13 million. The biggest rise in costs came from materials — primarily ingredients — which jumped $12 million, or 25%, compared to last year.

General, administrative and selling...

Tengizchevroil (TCO), 50% of which is owned by U.S.-based company Chevron, produced 19.46 million tons of oil from the Tengiz field in the first six months of 2025. In the same period in 2024, the company reported production of 14.4 million tons, or 114.6 million barrels, marking a 35.1% year-on-year (YoY) increase.

«Once all Tengiz facilities are operating at full capacity, TCO’s total annual crude oil production is expected to reach approximately 40 million tons per annum,» the company said in a statement.

In the first half of 2025, TCO sold more than...

The United Arab Emirates-based company Presight is set to launch a new AI-powered surveillance system in Astana this December, the city’s mayor Zhenis Kassymbek announced during a meeting with residents.

“In line with the agreement, the company must complete this stage by the end of the year. In addition, more than 20,000 cameras will be installed on top of those already in place. We plan to finish in December and launch then,” Kassymbek said.

Presight’s office in Astana opened in May 2025. Earlier, the Sergek project, which had operated in the capital since 2017, was...

Investment management company Fonte Capital has announced the listing of the Fonte Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on the Astana International Exchange (AIX), according to a statement on the company’s website.

An ETF is an exchange-traded investment fund that is traded in a way similar to ordinary shares. Typically, it is a basket of assets such as shares, bonds, commodities or a combination of them — bitcoin in this case. When an investor buys one ETF share, they effectively acquire a small stake in all the assets included in the ETF.

Trading in the fund’s shares began on Aug...

Kazakhstan has received $365 million in dividends from Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) that had been frozen in Luxembourg, Finance Minister Madi Takiyev said at a recent government briefing.

«This year, we received $365 million in dividends for previous years,» Takiyev said. «For 2024, the financial statements have just been completed; I haven’t seen the results yet. We’ll review those next year. But for 2021-2022, we received our money. They were unblocked.»

ERG’s ownership is split among the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan (40%), the heirs of the late Alexander Mashkevich and the Ibragimov...

Mobile rates for Altel and Tele2 customers in Kazakhstan are off-limits to government scrutiny until the end of 2026, following a court decision tied to an international agreement with Qatar.

Mobile Telecom-Service (MTS), which owns the Altel and Tele2 brands, won its case in the Almaty Court of Appeal, which canceled an antitrust probe into alleged overpricing for SMS notification services. Case details were published on the Supreme Court’s Office.sud.kz portal.

The investigation was dropped under a Kazakhstan-Qatar agreement that bars authorities from interfering in MTS operations or reviewing its rates until 2027.

In late 2023, the Specialized...

In July 2025, air carriers in Kazakhstan served 1.7 million people, marking a record for at least the past 18 years, according to data from Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics.

Air travel

In July, airlines operating flights within and outside Kazakhstan served 1.7 million people, the highest figure since at least 2007.

The number of passengers transported increased by 13% year-on-year (YoY). Passenger turnover also reached a record high, totaling more than 3.4 billion passenger-kilometers, up 7% YoY.

Taxi

This means of transport also saw a rise in usage, with the number of passengers transported by taxis increasing 3.7-fold...

Volkswagen’s sales in Kazakhstan have plunged in recent years, and once the Touareg model is discontinued in 2026, the brand could disappear from the country altogether, according to Artur Miskaryan, head of the Automotive Market Monitoring and Analysis Agency.

Writing on his Telegram channel, Miskaryan noted that just a few years ago, the German automaker consistently ranked among the top 10 most popular brands in Kazakhstan. In 2021, local dealers sold more than 4,000 Volkswagens, accounting for about 3% to 4% of new car sales. At the time, the most popular models came from Kaluga and Nizhny Novgorod...

The co-founder of the Save the Caspian Sea movement, Vadim Ni, has filed a lawsuit against Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, demanding that the production sharing agreements for the country’s largest oil projects — Kashagan, Tengiz and Karachaganak — be made public.

Ni told Kursiv.media that the case has already reached the Supreme Court. Environmentalists also plan to present a 10-step plan to save the Caspian Sea to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev soon.

«As for transparency, these three fields should operate under open agreements,» Ni said. «We requested the environmental conditions for the projects from...

A HOWO truck production facility is set to be established in the city of Saran in the Karaganda region. The Chinese heavy-duty truck manufacturer Sinotruk has joined the Kazakh company Saran Machinery, as reported by Primeminister.kz.

The plant is expected to produce up to 10,000 commercial and specialized vehicles annually. It will also be equipped with a modern cataphoretic metal coating line — the first of its kind in Kazakhstan — a technology that protects vehicle bodies from corrosion and extends their lifespan.

Several components are planned to be made from galvanized steel produced at Qarmet, a Kazakh metallurgical...

The growing complexity of the overall picture in global politics, the accumulation of macro-level statistics, and the broadening of data assessment methods have been shattering one stereotype of mainstream economists and political scientists after another.

Kursiv.media recently reported that in just the past few years, economists’ views on industrial policy have undergone a complete reversal. Once condemned, then rationalized, industrial policy has ultimately emerged as a tool more actively used by developed countries than developing ones in recent decades. The paradox is that it was precisely the developing countries pursuing catch-up development models that faced the harshest criticism, even...

Starting Aug. 13, Kazakhstanis can connect to Starlink internet. The company has officially launched its satellite internet service in the country, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry.

The Starlink website lists the monthly fee for home internet starting at 23,000 tenge (approximately $43), but the company’s device is required for access. There are two options: standard and mini. The standard device is suitable for everyday home internet use, while the mini is designed for basic applications. The standard costs 201,000 tenge ($373) and the mini 104,000 tenge ($193). Delivery is promised within one to...

Foreign internet platforms that pay Kazakhstan residents will soon be required to report those payments to the country’s tax authorities. This rule encompasses major social networks, including YouTube and TikTok.

The provision is included in Kazakhstan’s new Tax Code, according to the State Revenue Department of the Mangystau region.

«This is necessary for desk audits of the income of individuals receiving remuneration through digital platforms, such as YouTube, TikTok, and others,» the department said.

The agency has prepared a list of answers to frequently asked questions about the new code — reviewed...

Kazakhstan’s shadow economy was estimated at 16.71% of GDP in 2024, down nearly one percentage point from the previous year, according to the Bureau of National Statistics. However, the Supreme Audit Chamber says the methodology for assessing the so-called non-observed economy is flawed and that government efforts to combat it remain insufficient.

Non-observed economy in 2024

In late July 2025, the Bureau of National Statistics (BNS) updated its estimate of Kazakhstan’s non-observed economy (NOE). The shadow sector declined from 17.58% to 16.71% of GDP in 2024, a drop of 0.87 percentage points (p.p.). In current prices, that amounts...

The Andorran company Pas Grau Internacional (PGI) Management, which will help build a ski resort at Kok-Zhailau, has registered a subsidiary with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). The move was first reported by Arman Batayev, owner of the Finmentor Telegram channel.

PGI is a global leader in ski resort development, with more than 120 projects completed worldwide. Its portfolio includes renowned destinations such as Davos and St. Moritz in Switzerland, Courchevel in France, Ischgl and the Tyrol region in Austria, Vail and Aspen in the U.S., Whistler Blackcomb in Canada and several resorts in Andorra. In 2024, Andorra’s...