News

In the past several years, companies that specialize in delivering goods from IKEA shops in Russia to Kazakhstan, where IKEA has no official shops, became so popular that these companies started to open big shops where every product they sell was from IKEA. On March 4, IKEA suspended the work of its shops in Russia because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Kazakhstani businesses that brought IKEA products to Kazakhstan from Novosibirsk, Omsk, Ufa and Samara now have to find alternative sources of similar goods.

In fact, Kazakhstani services that deliver IKEA goods stopped accepting orders right...

As the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development reported, Kazakhstani authorities have finished the investigation into the plane crash that occurred on December 27, 2019.

The final report on the results of the investigation was coordinated with the Dutch Safety Board and the Interstate Aviation Committee.

«Our commission found out that the incident with Bek Air airline’s plane resulted from asymmetrical damage to the plane’s wings bearing capacity during its attempt to take off. As a result, the plane crashed a moment after its takeoff; under its own inertia the plane kept moving and hit a...

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan wants the amendments to the Constitution to be approved by the plebiscite. He’s made this statement today during the meeting of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan.

The president noted that the amendments are going to be applied to one-third of the Constitution. These amendments have already been sent to the Constitutional Council which has to review them.

Throughout the history of modern Kazakhstan, there was only one referendum in 1995, when the current Constitution was adopted.

«We have a constitutional law on a national referendum which has never been applied in practice even...

In this op-ed Timur Turlov, СЕО of Freedom Holding Corp. shares his vision of why it is so important that the National Bank continues to take relevant actions in the future.

On Monday the National Bank of Kazakhstan raised the base rate from 13.50% to 14.00%. That is the sixth time the regulator has raised the rate over the past ten months. Last July the base rate was at 9.00%.

The regulator’s decision is based on standard assumptions. First, the inflation rate in Kazakhstan is still growing. In March, consumer prices soared by 12.0% while food inflation reached 15.0%. The...

Bio labs in Kazakhstan are involved in the research and development of drugs against highly contagious infections and are financed from the state budget, according to Akhylbek Kurishbayev, member of the Senate, the upper house of the parliament in Kazakhstan.

As the senator noted, none of these labs are recipients of foreign grants or act as a workplace for foreign specialists.

These laboratories are developing diagnosis and preventive drugs against highly contagious strains of second and third categories. That means that they do not work with highly dangerous viruses from the first category.

None of these laboratories are secret or...

The lower house of the Kazakhstani parliament Mazhilis has approved a new draft law that is aimed at improving the abilities of people with special needs to go around the city when they want to. According to Elnur Beysenbayev, deputy of the Mazhilis, the new law requires taxi companies to have more invalid cars for people with disabilities.

«This draft law is suggesting one novelty. Now any taxi company has to have one invalid car per every ten vehicles in its fleet. So far, the current legislation requires taxi companies to have one handicap-accessible car per 30 regular vehicles. The...

Erlan Koshanov, head of the ruling political party in Kazakhstan Amanat and speaker of the Mazhilis, is not going to take part in future presidential elections.

«I’ve never thought about that and do not plan to take part in the presidential elections,» he said while being asked about future elections.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev won the presidential elections in June 2019. His term expires in 2024. On April 26, at the urgent meeting of the Amanat political party, Tokayev resigned from the position of the party’s chairman and quit the party. He suggested the candidacy of Erlan Koshanov, speaker of the Mazhilis...

According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense, the agency changed top executives of the company. Moreover, it has initiated the opening of a criminal case to investigate funds embezzlement in the company.

«As the only shareholder of Askeri Kurylys (the company is a parent entity for Askeri Kurylys Astana), the Ministry of Defense has decided to discharge top managers of the company and to hire a new team,» the press service reported.

As the ministry noted, the defense officials had several meetings with the company’s representatives. Military officials wanted the company to pay off its debts; they...

Ural Motorcycles is going to move its manufacturing to Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan, reported Russian newswire Lenta.ru citing Ilya Khait, CEO of the company.

As the CEO of Ural Motorcycles said, the manufacturing site in Irbit, the Sverdlovsk region of Russia faces a shortage of spare parts because of international sanctions. Foreign customers have also been banned from buying Russian vehicles. Given that key markets for the Ural were Western countries, including the U.S.,  this decision has had a serious impact on the company. The statement of Khait has been published on the official channel of the company on YouTube.

However...

The Ministry of Digital Development has decided to provide public services for foreign IT specialists based on the one-stop principle.

Now any foreign IT specialist can obtain any public services based on the one-stop principle in the Expat Center of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). For example, foreigners can now easily obtain an individual identification number, register in a state database for mobile services; get a digital signature; register a company; open a bank account; get residence permission or even buy a local SIM card.

According to Bagdat Musin, minister of digital development, innovations and aerospace industry the development...

As the press service of the Financial Monitoring Agency reported, Madi Shokey, a former chief financial officer in Kcell Solutions has been sentenced to seven years in jail for embezzlement.

Along with a jail sentence, Shokey has also lost the right to hold executive positions with financial responsibility for ten years.

In December 2021, it was announced that Shokey is accused of embezzlement of $1 million. He wasted all that money on betting companies.

The security service of Kcell had launched its investigation and transferred its results to law enforcement agencies.

Kcell Solutions, where Shokey used to work, was established...

Today on April 26, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that has quit the Amanat political party. He had promised to do so back in January.

«It is time to turn it into reality. Starting from today I am no longer chairman of the Amanat party; I’ve decided to quit,» he said.

The president believes that this may have symbolic significance.

At the time, while talking about the new chairman of the party, Tokayev suggested the candidacy of Erlan Koshanov, which has been supported.

On February 1, Koshanov was appointed as the new chairman of the Mazhilis. Erlan Koshanov was born in...

On April 25, 2022, the National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to raise the base rate from 13.5% to 14% with a percentage corridor of +/-1 p.p. The standing lending facility rate is now 15% while the standing facility rate for liquidity withdrawal is 13%.

The regulator said that this decision is based on the strong intention to prevent inflation amid rising geopolitical risks and a global price surge that affects Kazakhstan as much as many other countries in the world. On the other hand, for three years in a row fiscal boost has been one of the main drivers of...

The Anti-corruption Agency of Kazakhstan has launched a pre-trial investigation into the activities of Nurlan Masimov, former head of the police department of the Pavlodar region. He left the region right after resigning from his position as the chief of the local police. Law enforcement officials believe that he might be involved in bribery.

The examining court of the region approved his detention, so the police have issued a wanted notice for Masimov. As the agency said, the final decision about the former police officer must be taken by the courts after a full-scale investigation.

According to open-source information, Nurlan...

On April 21, the upper chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament Senate ratified the agreement between the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Turkic Academy. This document regulates all the issues linked to the operation of the academy on Kazakhstani soil.

According to Askhat Aymagambetov, minister of education and science in Kazakhstan, the agreement is drawing a line under issues such as the status, privileges and immunity of the Turkic Academy, its property and staff in Kazakhstan. Members of the organization are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan while Hungary has the status of observer.

«Due to the fact that the...

Founder and majority shareholder of the international investment group Freedom Holding Corp Timur Turlov said in an interview with Kursiv.media that he is going to get naturalized in Kazakhstan.

According to Mr. Turlov, he’s already informed the Russian consulate about his intention to quit his Russian citizenship. He is going to take a similar move toward the island nation Saint Kitts and Nevis, where he obtained citizenship under the country’s investment program. The renunciation of nationality in any other country is the key requirement of Kazakhstan for those who want to be naturalized here. As Turlov highlighted, he decided to...

The first vice minister of national economy Timur Zhaksylykov said that there are two options for a possible deal with the sale of Russian bank subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.

The first option is a direct sale of loan portfolios of the Russian subsidiaries with a discount. On April 13, 2022, Halyk Bank already bought a part of the retail loan portfolio of Sberbank of $726 million. This deal covered car loans, issued within a preferential loans program; collateral-free loans; urgent cash loans and mortgage loans. As of April 1, the loan portfolio of Sber was about $2.4 billion.

«Probably some Russian...

According to the bank’s representatives, the negotiations between the bank and a potential buyer have reached a final stage and the deal may be finished within days.

On April 11, Andrey Timchenko, CEO of Alfa Bank Kazakhstan said that the entity is going to sell its business in the country and negotiate with potential investors. He also mentioned that about a dozen different investors examined the bank’s books.

Responding to a request by Kursiv.media, the bank said that the negotiations with investors have reached a final stage. «We are going to announce a deal within days,» reported the press service...

Kazakhstan is going to update its e-government system by moving it to a platform model on its own with no help from Russian Sber, according to Askar Zhambakin, vice minister of digital development and aerospace industry.

«Because of the geopolitical situation and reassessing our capabilities, we have decided to build this platform on our own with the help of IT companies from Kazakhstan. So far we have been conducting technical and economic analyses. By the end of this year we are going to roll out the first bunch of services based on a new platform,» he said.

Previously, the government...

Altynalmas (KASE: ALMS) is considering an option to freeze the further development of the Bestobe gold mine, according to Diyar Kanashev, CEO of the company, at a press briefing.

«If we want to develop this mine, we will need about $70 million of investments. But it doesn’t mean that we won’t need more investments in the future,» he said.

So far, Altynalmas has invested in the Bestobe project more than $110 million. The vast majority of that money was spent on the construction of a new ore-processing plant that reprocesses mine tailings. It was supposed that in the future the...

As the press service of Akorda reported, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed an edict on the de-bureaucratization of the state apparatus. The document is aimed at ensuring that government staff is making decisions fast and with a high level of efficacy. Also, Tokayev wants to remove excessive regulations from the executive branch, cut extra reporting and document flow and raise the level of independence and personal responsibility for top executives in the public sector.

In part of the initiative, the government is now obliged to revise a wide range of rules and orders by the county’s prime minister, his deputies...

On April 14, the Senate or upper chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament considered a draft law on the protection of children’s rights, education, information and IT. Senators have updated the document and sent it back to Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the parliament.

According to Maulen Ashimbayev, speaker of the Senate, the chamber’s members very carefully examined the draft law and made a bunch of amendments to the draft.

«Senators have suggested that all claims of cyberbullying against a child must be reviewed by a special watchdog. A previous version of the draft law said that this kind of question falls...

Kazakhtelecom stocks (KZTK) have risen by 2.13% to $69.24, according to Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

On April 12, Skyline Investment Company S.A. and Alatau Capital Investment, both companies controlled by Kairat Satybaldy, nephew of Nursultan Nazarbayev, ex-president of Kazakhstan, handed over 28.8% share of Kazakhtelecom stock to the government. Both deals have been done free of charge.

In turn, the cabinet has officially agreed to sign a gift agreement with Skyline Investment Company S.A. and accept 2,671,481 common stocks or 24.95% of the company’s capital equity. At the same time, Alatau Capital Investment has donated 413,412 common stocks of Kazakhtelecom...

Sberbank subsidiary in Kazakhstan continues to work as usual after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the U.S. Department of the Treasury postponed the deadline for completing transactions with Sberbank for an additional three months from April 13 to July 12, 2022, according to the joint statement of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and Sberbank Kazakhstan.

So, for now, clients of Sberbank in Kazakhstan will be able to make unlimited transactions with payments and transfers both in Kazakhstan’s national currency tenge and Russian rubles.

«The Agency of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of...