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Eastern Europe and Uzbekistan have the potential for further expansion of Kaspi.kz, Mikhail Lomtadze, CEO and co-owner of the fintech company told Miguel Armaza, fintech investor and podcast host during New York Fintech Week.

«We are thinking about entering markets bigger than Kazakhstan. These include Eastern Europe; this region is very interesting for us; Asian markets are also attractive and Uzbekistan. This is a big market and it is very close to Kazakhstan, which is also very attractive,» Lomtadze said.

In Kazakhstan, roughly 15 million people use Kaspi.kz out of a population of 20 million...

David O’Sullivan, the International Special Envoy for the Implementation of EU Sanctions, said the European Commission is satisfied with the current level of cooperation and interaction with Kazakhstan, the Interfax news agency reported.

«As you know, this is my third visit [to Kazakhstan]. Our key concern is that Kazakhstan may become a source of re-export of sanctioned goods to Russia. We’ve noticed a significant increase in imports to Kazakhstan and are worrying that some of these goods might be redirected to Russia,» O’Sullivan said during a press conference in Astana.

Nevertheless, the EU envoy noted...

According to the Ministry of Digital Development, Kazakhstan will allocate $5 million to provide 2,000 schools in rural areas with access to satellite internet from Starlink. The government will pay $2,500 for each terminal from Elon Musk’s company, with a monthly access fee of $305.

«The company offers different solutions. We have decided to buy an enterprise solution that will cost us $2,500 per school with a $305 subscription. These devices have no expiration date and the company is ready to offer technical maintenance. All this equipment is under warranty and will be replaced if any...

June 11, 2024, is a date that BioSig Technologies shareholders, a developer of heart signal interpretation technology, will long remember. Nasdaq announced that it would delist its shares from the main listing effective June 12. Following this announcement, the company’s market capitalization plummeted by 70% in just a few hours. This is not the first upheaval in BioSig’s history. The company had previously been “on the edge of the cliff,” having lost part of its team and received a regulatory verdict stating that its development was not groundbreaking. However, it managed to recover. Will investors give it another...

Freedom Telecom will create a national data-sharing system to connect the western and eastern parts of the country. CEO of the company Kairat Akhmetov made this statement during the cabinet’s meeting.

«Let me bring to your attention the New Route project, a unique telecommunication corridor connecting China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Europe. The new data route is not just another alternative; it is the foundation for a modern telecommunication infrastructure for swift and reliable data transfer,» Akhmetov said.

Within the project’s framework, the company will implement two key initiatives.

First, Freedom wants to build...

Zhaslan Madiyev, minister of digital development, has invited Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram to Kazakhstan. Earlier this month, Durov was spotted in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

«I know that he was at Issyk-Kul. I have met with his team in person. Even though I never met with Durov himself, I was assured that he’d received my invitation. I think he will visit our country,» Madiyev said.

The official also noted that there are some ideas worth discussing with Durov, such as the launch of joint labs.

Madiyev pointed out that Telegram is a high-tech company...

Even though the updated outlook of the country’s socio-economic development for 2025-2029 forecasts a 6% increase in the GDP this year, analysts from Halyk Finance have downgraded their forecast from 4.5% to 3.9% in 2024.

Analysts have become more skeptical after noticing capital investments plummeting in Kazakhstan. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, over the period from January to May 2024, capital investments dropped by 6.5% year-on-year.

Another factor that contributed to downgrading Halyk Finance’s outlook was a decline in oil production. In early June, Platts Market Center reported that Kazakhstan’s oil output dropped in May to its four-year...

Over the past year, insiders of IES Holdings, a designer and installer of integrated systems,  sold more than $150 million worth of company shares and did not purchase any, according to analysts at Simply Wall St. They warn that this could be a red flag. IES Holdings’ stock has been rising, gaining 152% over the last 12 months.

Details

Simply Wall St estimates that IES Holdings insiders sold $151.3 million worth of company shares over the past year and did not buy any. The most recent known transaction was made by IES Holdings CEO Jeffrey Gendell. On...

Halyk Finance has reviewed the new refinery industry concept for oil prepared by the Ministry of Energy and has become very skeptical about the agency’s plan to produce enough oil products for the domestic market by 2050. The company’s analysts also doubt that the ministry would be able to boost petroleum product exports to 10% by 2050.

According to Murat Temirkhanov, advisor to the CEO of Halyk Finance, the draft concept of the refinery industry development until 2050 doesn’t address key problems of the industry and directly contradicts the president’s edict on economic liberalization.

«The government...

Kazakhstan is going to continue using the +7 country code, the press service of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry reported. The agency has decided not to switch to the +997 country code, which has been reserved for Kazakhstan since 2021, due to financial and technological issues that may emerge in the future.

«When we dived into the issue of switching to the new code in conjunction with operators, we realized that although it is possible, the switch may have some financial and technical consequences for us. Furthermore, all our operators would be...

American PepsiCo will allocate $160 million for a new potato chip manufacturing site in the Almaty region of Kazakhstan. This factory is going to be the biggest such project in Central Asia. The project is expected to create 1,000 jobs during the construction process and 350 permanent jobs after it is completed in 2026.

The country’s government says the manufacturing site will fully rely on local raw materials and boost the region’s development.

The project details were discussed by Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Olzhas Bektenov and David Manzini, president for Russia and CIS at PepsiCo, whereas the general arrangement on...

Sergek Group, an IT company from Kazakhstan, has won the nomination for «Best Smart Traffic Management Solution» at the Future Digital Awards for Smart Cities & IoT Innovation 2024. According to the company’s press release, Sergek presented its solutions for sustainable development and smart cities.

As CEO of Sergek Group Asset Akhmetov underlined, the company’s success in the contest proves that Kazakhstani IT solutions for smart cities are applicable worldwide. Despite competing against many well-known international companies, Sergek managed to secure second place after an American IT company won the platinum award.

«This win once again...

Shares of NewLake Capital Partners, a real estate firm specializing in properties for licensed cannabis producers, rose by 2% on Thursday, June 13. The company announced that it would pay a dividend of $0.43 per share for the second quarter of 2024.

Details

NewLake Capital Partners’ stock price increased by 2.08% on Thursday, June 13, on Nasdaq, reaching $19.65 per share. Over the past year, NewLake’s shares have gained 62.16%. However, since its initial trading in mid-2021, the stock has decreased by almost 30%.

On Thursday, NewLake announced a second-quarter dividend for 2024 amounting to $0.43 per share...

According to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), American sanctions against the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) won’t bring any legal consequences for KASE, as the Russian exchange controls just a small fraction of it.

On June 12, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury added the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) to its SDN list, which means all its accounts in American banks and depositories must be blocked, whereas US citizens and entities are prohibited from any sort of cooperation with the exchange. MOEX already announced that it would stop trading with US dollars and euros.

The U.S. government has put KBR-Technologii from Kazakhstan on its sanction list, accusing it of illegally supplying drone components to Russia. These dual-use goods were exported from Kazakhstan to Russia via Belarus, according to some media reports.

Interestingly enough, the company sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control of the Treasury Department (OFAC) was established on May 13, 2022, just a few months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was registered in North Kazakhstan, which is very close to Russia.

However, a registration number mentioned by OFAC indicates another company called MJ QAZAQ TRANS. It was...

According to Assel Marchenko, deputy head of the National Payment Corporation of Kazakhstan (NPCK), the agency isn’t going to develop any payment system similar to the Russian Mir.

«We have no plans related to the creation of any alternatives to Mir. We haven’t even thought about this,» Marchenko said in an interview with Kursiv.

In order to reduce the risk of secondary sanctions, the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the NPCK use the switching of card transactions. This project has been implemented to mitigate the risks for cardholders in Kazakhstan in conjunction with Mastercard, Visa...

Polymetal, which is set to be renamed Solidcore Resources shortly, wants to double its gold production to one million ounces by 2029. The company is also going to invest $800 million in the construction of Irtysh GMK (mining and metallurgic company), Polymetal said in a presentation during Investor’s Day.

The Irtysh GMK is going to be located in the vicinity of the town of Pavlodar. The $800 million factory is expected to be fully operational in the first half of 2028. Once commissioned, it will be producing about 15 tons of gold per year for more than 30 years.

As...

Batys Energo Prom and Wooju Entek will build a production facility for shipboard equipment in the West Kazakhstan region, according to the press service of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs called «Atameken.»

The factory, which is set to be located in the industrial zone of the Poima settlement, will produce vessel equipment with the help of machinery from South Korea.

Once the production site is fully operational, it will export part of these products labeled with the «Made in Kazakhstan» mark to EU member states. Under the contract with the investor, the factory is also expected to produce various vessels...

The batch of humanitarian aid from the Chinese port of Lianyungang has come to Atyrau, the region of Kazakhstan hit by floods. According to the local Department of Emergency Situations, China has sent tents, bed sheets, rubber boots, shovels and water-absorbing tools.

«Our humanitarian aid has come with a bit of delay due to some reasons. However, it didn’t prevent us from showing that we do care about your country. Today, I am transferring the humanitarian aid to the Atyrau Social Development Fund on behalf of the Lianyungang Port,» said Zhao Wei, head of the Lianyungang...

According to a new report by Fitch, stronger lending regulation in Uzbekistan should mitigate overheating risks in the retail lending market and gradually improve banks’ loan book quality. Family business loans have led to large credit losses at some banks recently, the agency said.

Fitch experts believe that stricter regulatory control over retail loans introduced by Uzbek authorities is a response to rapid retail loan growth over the past several years. For instance, the country’s government has introduced maximum payment-to-income limits (60% maximum) on all retail loans; the initiative will enter into effect starting in July 2024. The rate...

Over the past six months, Kazakhstan issued about 500 licenses for geological exploration of solid minerals; 70 licenses were issued in May alone, according to Kanat Sharlapayev, minister of industry and construction.

«We have already introduced a decent order for obtaining exploration licenses. First come, first served. In May alone we issued 70 licenses for exploration. Over the past six months 500 licenses have been issued,» he said during the AMM 2024 forum.

As the official noted, investors’ interest in metal ore exploration in Kazakhstan is gradually growing. For instance, over the period from...

According to Beknur Nessipbayev, head of Astana Motors, one of the biggest car companies in Kazakhstan, a big war in the auto market is coming, driven by an influx of newcomers. He shared this opinion during the Kursiv Auto 2024 forum held in Almaty on June 10.

«There are so many new businesses trying to enter the market. We know that about 15 more automotive brands from China want to sell their cars in Kazakhstan. We are going to bump into a big war in the market. I mean, we can already feel this. We are...

Tourists came to Almaty from Paris intending to illegally penetrate the territory of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. As a result, one of them has died because of dehydration in the steppe, according to the RIA Novosti, citing a source familiar with the matter.

«Two French citizens were trying to illegally trespass the cosmodrome territory. They chose the so-called classic route which means they went from the highway toward high buildings they saw by foot across the steppe. One of the tourists got sick on the way,» the source told the media outlet.

As the 112 Channel...

Samsung C&T Corporation from South Korea wants to build renewable energy sources in Kazakhstan, the press service of Kazakh Invest reported after Gabidulla Ospankulov, chair of the Investment Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met with Seung-Chan Jung, managing director of Samsung C&T Corporation in Central and Western Europe.

«Representatives of Samsung C&T corporation have confirmed they are eager to implement a set of projects in the sphere of renewable energy and its storage with the help of solar energy and batteries specially designed for that purpose,» the press service said.

South Korean investors...