News

Freedom Finance investment company has been chosen as an underwriter for the initial public offering for UzAuto Motors, according to Eugene Mozheiko, executive director of Freedom Finance in Uzbekistan.

This spring UzAuto Motors announced bidding for potential underwriters. On June 6, the procurement committee of the Uzbek automaker revealed its final decision. As a result, Freedom Finance is expected to sell 5% stock of UzAuto Motors within the country while about 25% of the stock must be sold on foreign stock exchanges.

«Freedom Finance is going to arrange stock launches on two stock exchanges. The very first stage is local...

Freedom Finance has presented the updated design of its logo: the word “finance” is no longer in the name of the group. Also, the holding has changed its motto to «One brand – a thousand opportunities.» So the next step is the transformation of the holding into a highly effective ecosystem, stated Timur Turlov, CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. during the annual report presentation.

Ecosystem, naming and key areas of activity

Over the past few years, the holding has turned into a huge ecosystem and the new name highlights that the company is now something bigger than just...

The Ministry of National Economy has presented its forecast for the social and economic development of the country for the next five years. Kazakhstan’s population is going to grow by 250,000 people each year and will reach 20 million by 2025. However, population growth doesn’t mean an increase in the workforce, according to the labor market indicators.

The forecast is based on the population growth statistics over the past few years. For example, it took 3.5 years for Kazakhstan to increase its population from 18 million to 19 million (2018-2021). If this logic is correct, the country will reach the...

According to Chairman of the Senate (the upper house of the parliament in Kazakhstan) Maulen Ashimbayev, the former president Nursultan Nazarbayev does not influence the country’s political course.

«Mr. Nazarbayev took part in the referendum, which is the legal right of every citizen. However, as a former politician the first president of Kazakhstan doesn’t intervene in political affairs,» said Ashimbayev.

As the official noted, the Constitution now regulates all these issues.

«We do not ask advice from the first president. This is not an obligation for us. Currently, the activities of all three branches of power, all state agencies are...

According to the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, the agency has negotiated with Samruk-Kazyna, KazMunayGaz and TotalEnergies to implement a large-scale project in the area of renewable energy. Once the project is finished in 2026, it will be able to generate about one gigawatt of clean energy.

The memorandum is designed to solve all the issues linked with the development, financing, construction and operation of the new wind power station with a capacity of 1GW. Once the project is done, the station will be able to accumulate electricity to pass it over to consumers later on.

Kazakhstan is going to lift a dividend tax if the sum of a dividend is less than $218,644 a year, according to Amanzhan Zhamalov, a member of Kazakhstan’s Mazhilis. The lower house of the parliament has already approved the amendments to the national tax legislation.

As Zhamalov noted, these changes followed the order of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to improve taxation in the mining sector and prevent capital from being withdrawn from the country. 

«When we reviewed the draft law in the parliament, we introduced some changes into the document. First of all, it concerns benefits on dividends paid by the...

As the head of the Central Election Commission Nurlan Abdirov said, all the amendments to the Constitution of Kazakhstan have entered into force.

The official noted that according to the national referendum law any decision is mandatory for the entire country if it’s approved in a nationwide referendum.

Today, the Central Election Commission has confirmed that the election turnout on the referendum was 68.05%. The vast majority of those who took part in the referendum said yes to the amendments while 18.66% of voters said the opposite.

This data is close to the preliminary figures announced by Kogamdik Pikir, a...

Starting from June 8, Kazakhstan’s citizens and foreigners will no longer be required to possess either COVID-19 vaccination/revaccination certificates or PCR test results to cross the state border of Kazakhstan.

The decision was made by the Interagency Commission.

Moreover, the same decision also lifts the ban on the operation imposed on 12 automobile crossing points located in seven different regions of the country. During the pandemic, they were all temporarily closed.

In April, Kazakhstan opened its land borders with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Russia. At the time, the country also lifted restrictions on air travel to Kazakhstan.

On June 5, Kazakhstan conducted a nationwide referendum devoted to a group of amendments to the national Constitution. According to Nurlan Abdirov, chairman of the Central Election Commission in Kazakhstan, 77.18% of citizens voted for amendments to the Constitution while only 18.66% of voters said no to proposed political reforms in the nationwide referendum on Sunday.

As a result, the plebiscite on the amendments to the Constitution of Kazakhstan has been declared valid.

«There were 7,986,293 voters who took part in the referendum on Sunday (68.06%). However, 125,859 (1.58%) ballot papers have not been taken into account because they included...

Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC) is one of the biggest investment companies in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. However, as a U.S. person, the company is obliged to obey a wide range of sanctions regimes imposed on specific countries. In light of the consequences of the rising geopolitical tensions, this issue becomes more important.

How sanctions work

Over the past decade, IT compliance in the financial industry has become more important and even more demanding. Compliance encompasses specific areas like anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing as well as general regulatory compliance. Each regulation requires companies to fulfill...

On June 1, the Air Safety Committee of the European Commissions published its official verdict concerning aviation authorities and airline companies in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development.

Kairbek Uskenbayev, head of the ministry, said that aviation authorities of all 27 EU member states have decided not to put any restrictions on Kazakhstan’s airlines that fly to Europe and not to put Kazakhstan on the EU Air Safety List.

Kazakhstan was on that list once. In 2009 an audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) showed a low rate of ICAO standards implementation (47%) in...

The country’s GDP declined by 3% in April 2022, even though in March it rose by 1.3%, in February it increased by 4.1% and in January the ministry reported about 5.6% growth of the GDP, the Interfax-Kazakhstan reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Economic Development.

Over the period from January to April 2022, the average growth of the Russian GDP was 1.7% compared to last year’s figures.

Among key drivers of the decline, the ministry says, are international restrictions in the sphere of transportation and logistics as well as domestic demand shrinking.

In terms of the main industries in Russia...

Uzbekistan has changed its requirements to digital mining. Now only companies that have direct access to renewable sources are eligible for digital mining. However, even with these new rules, crypto businesses continue to stay in the shadow.

Power of the Sun

Uzbekistan consumes more energy than it can produce: in 2020, the country produced 66.4 billion kilowatts/hour of electricity while consuming 69.1 billion kilowatts/hour. In order to compensate for that shortage, Uzbekistan was forced to spend more and more money to resupply the energy from neighboring countries. In 2020, the country spent on that purpose $115.7 million. The...

According to Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics, the inflation rate in May reached 14%

In May 2022, food product prices surged by 19% over the same period last year; nonfood product prices increased by 11.9% while the cost of paid services has risen by 9.1%.

Among food products that demonstrated the highest price surge are sugar (60.5%), vegetables (31.5%), flour (29.9%), poultry (28.5%), grits (27.1%), potato (26.2%) and fruits (24.6%).

Home appliance prices soared by 20.2%, washing and cleaning products went up in price by 17.5%, construction materials by 17.2%, cars by 16.3%, furniture and utensils by 13.3%, textiles by...

Uzbekistan is going to introduce market-oriented rules for harvesting and selling wheat, according to a new edict of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan. This year the country is planning to harvest about 2.5 million tons of wheat.

The National Agriculture Fund of Uzbekistan is going to buy 1.7 million tons of commercial wheat and 266,500 tons of seed. The authorities expect that the wheat price will follow the market, although at the very first stage the price will be set by the government.

In order to make sure there is enough wheat, the fund is going to make its contractors...

According to Kaiyrzhan Bimoldin, head of the Center for Retirement Benefits under the Ministry of Defense, the government is going to raise the retirement age for military personnel in Kazakhstan.

As the official noted, the retirement age for military personnel depends on the maximum age people can serve in the army. In 2022, Kazakhstan adopted a new practice when the maximum duration of military service was increased by five years. As a result, the retirement age for servicemen must be expanded by the same length.

At the same time, the size of retirement benefits for military personnel is going to...

Turkish holding TAV Airports reported that the passenger traffic through its asset the international airport of Almaty reached 469,450 passengers in April 2022. This is a 7.7% increase over the same period last year and a 4.4% increase compared to April 2019.

International flights with 148,421 passengers in April accounted for almost all that growth (+35% over the same period in 2021); domestic flights were attended by 321,029 passengers (-1%).

The International Airport of Almaty is the only asset of TAV to show a 4% growth in April 2022 over 2019.

For example, airports the company runs in Turkey showed...

The company never stopped trying to save its reputation in court. Last week the High Court of Justice in England and Wales acknowledged actions the SFO took against the company as illegal and said that the behavior of the legal firm Dechert, which was hired by ENRC to conduct an internal investigation, was inappropriate. Amid the trial that took years, ENRC reported serious reputational damage, delisting of its stocks and turning from a public company to a closed holding.

Investigation – delisting – investigation

On August 9, 2011, The Times, a British outlet published an article by David...

According to the press service of the Civil Aviation Committee, representatives from Boeing met with Talgat Lastayev, head of the committee. At the meeting, the two sides agreed that American specialists will provide training for personnel from Kazakhstan’s commercial airlines.

As the Boeing delegates noted, the main goal of the visit to Kazakhstan is to assist the country in improving control over flight safety and examine what the two sides can do to deepen their cooperation.

For instance, this potential cooperation may include issues such as improving Kazakhstan’s legislation to prepare it for the evaluation within the International Aviation Safety...

Kazakhstan’s high base rate is undoubtedly a difficult pill to swallow. Some people may say that such a bitter pill is often the most effective cure. However, almost every powerful medicine has some side effects and we always have to weigh the risks and benefits of this kind of monetary policy.

Those who support the record high base rate in the country (14 ± 1%) now insist that the government has to do everything to prevent the currency crisis in Kazakhstan. Previously, their main argument was control over inflation. However, there is no strong correlation between the base rate and...

According to new amendments to the country’s Tax Code, which were approved by the parliament on May 25, the cryptocurrency mining industry is going to be subject to differentiated taxation starting from January 1 next year.

Under the new rules, the rate of electricity payment will be linked to the average electricity price during an accounting period. For example, if the average cost of electricity is about $0.01-0.02 per kilowatt-hour, the payment rate will be $0.02; if the price is $0.02-0.03, the rate will be $0.016; if the price is $0.03-0.05, the rate will be $0.007; if the price is...

According to Olzhas Bektenov, head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, starting from the beginning of the year Kazakhstan has successfully returned to the state budget more than $517.7 million. Over almost five months, the agency identified more than 600 corrupt officials including 100 senior officials.

Moreover, the agency has taken some protective measures to prevent small and medium-sized companies from being illegally intervened by any officials.

«We’ve developed an algorithm of actions when any investigation activity must be approved by the headquarters,» the agency said in a statement.

The Anti-Corruption Agency along with the Atameken entrepreneur chamber has created a special...

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, the rate of migration to Kazakhstan has been growing since the beginning of the year. Over the first quarter, more than 4,000 people moved to Kazakhstan. This is a one-third surge over the same period in 2019 and twofold growth compared to last year. About half of the migrants came from neighboring Uzbekistan.

As the agency noted, the structure of migration has changed. For example, 41% of migrants who came to Kazakhstan last year were from Russia. This year the share of Russians dropped by 19% while the share of Uzbekistanis grew. In...

During the first three months of the current year, Kazakhstani exporters reported a record surge in exports thanks to favorable prices for commodities on the global market.

Kursiv Research is presenting this year’s first review of Kazakhstani exports to identify the key points of growth. Over the period from January to March, Kazakhstani exports grew by 65.8% and reached $19.1 billion – a five-year record. Energy products became key drivers of that surge. They have been on their high since March due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stable oil price and sulfur

Oil is the key export...