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On January 21 a new rule was set into action that requires drugstores to limit prices for drugs that are used for COVID-19 medical treatment. According to drugstore owners, this rule may lead to a deficit of those drugs as the business is no longer interested in selling them.

As health system officials said, the new rule is designed to prevent a summer scenario when people couldn’t find proper drugs amid the spike of coronavirus.

The rule covers 230 items that have been used in the COVID-19 treatment. It is expected that the price limitation will help make prices lower...

In 2020 the volume of investments in Kazakhstan was 3.4% less than the year before. This is the first time in over five years when the rate of the physical amount of these investments in fixed capital is showing a negative value. 

According to state data on fixed capital investments from 2016 to 2019, the flow of such investments was steady. However, in 2020 it declined.

Roughly 12.3 trillion tenge ($29.2 billion) has been spent over 12 months of 2020 for business development. It is a bit less than in 2019 when 12.5 trillion tenge ($29.7 billion) was invested for...

On January 16, the Committee of State Inspectorate in the Agro-Industrial Complex under the Ministry of Agriculture imposed a temporary ban on importing Azerbaijani tomatoes, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture press service reported.

The restrictive measures against the import of Azerbaijani tomatoes were initiated by Kazakhstani authorities due to 17 cases of tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV). According to international standards (ISPM), the Azerbaijani counterparts were immediately informed about the case.

Because the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus may lead to a sharp decline in tomato yields by 30-70%, Kazakhstan agricultural officials have decided to impose the ban from January...

On January 18, 2021, the new government was organized in Kazakhstan. All candidates were approved by the new parliament.

Among the cabinet, only two are completely new faces: Minister of the National Economy Aset Irgaliyev and Serik Shapkenov, minister of labor and social protection of the population. 

The minister of foreign affairs Mukhtar Tleuberdi has also been appointed as a deputy of the prime minister.

Once all candidates for the cabinet were approved by the deputies, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a relevant edict.

Now the new composition of the government is:

On...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation into ExxonMobil’s activities amid allegations that the company overvalued one of its key projects in the Permian Basin, The Wall Street Journal edition reported.

On Friday, ExxonMobil shares declined at the New York Stock Exchange by 4.5% to $48 per share. The historical record decline was by 6% (from $50.31 to $47.29).

The investigation was launched when the former company’s employee filed a grievance. As the whistleblower told authorities, ExxonMobil forced employees to use unrealistic estimates about the deadline for drilling wells.

In 2018 ExxonMobil managers estimated the Delaware Basin...

According to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the reforms that should be implemented through better legislation are key to making the country more successful. While speaking in the parliament, the president said that he believes the new deputies will be able to achieve this goal.

«The court system shouldn’t act as a corporation. We need to update the whole system and make the real professionals want to work here. All these new legal system workers should not only be specialists but also good, honest men,» the president stated.

Also, Tokayev noted that reform in...

On January 13 a coal and gas outburst occurred at the Lenin mine of ArcelorMittal Temirtau (AMT) in Central Kazakhstan. All but one of the miners were able to leave the dangerous mine, according to the company.

After the incident, the company immediately published a press release where it announced that the rescue operation is already underway. Emergency response service from Karaganda was sent to the site where it is working now. The service said that the situation with the gas outburst has improved.

As the AMT company noted, 137 workers were on-site when...

The forward for the Paderborn 07 club from Germany’s Bundesliga Streli Mamba may become a player for Kairat, a football club based in Almaty, according to German sports website Transfermarkt.

Twenty-six-year-old Mamba was born in the African Congo. However, he has lived in Germany for his entire life and possesses a German passport. In addition to Paderborn 07, the football player, who came from FC Stuttgart football academy, also played for Energie and Sandhausen.

According to a German online source the estimated salary of Mamba under the initial offer of Kairat was from €700,000 to 800,000. Currently, this figure might...

Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin has held online negotiations with Stephen Kaniewski from Valmont Industries, the prime minister’s press service reports.

Both sides have discussed a wide range of issues that relate to cooperation in livestock raising, selection, seed production, drip and rain irrigation, agricultural science and education.

As a result of negotiations between Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Kazakhstani Kusto Group company and Valmont Industries from the U.S., the investments agreement has been signed.

According to the document, a network of demonstrational farms, as well as a high-end irrigation systems plant, will be built in Kazakhstan...

As the Committee of Finance Monitoring under Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance press service reports, Almaty law enforcement officials have destroyed more than 1.1 tons of heroin. In terms of quantity, it is the second drug seizure in the world, according to the agency.

The drugs were seized during an international raid, which involved criminal police and customs officials from Germany, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Netherlands. Once the illegal drugs had been seized, they were destroyed by the officials of the Almaty Department on Economical Investigations in conjunction with the transport prosecutor’s office and under control of a special commission.

Nova Resources (Bidco) company, which is controlled by the key shareholders of KAZ Minerals Vladimir Kim and Oleg Novachuk, has gotten permission from regulators in China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to buy out KAZ Minerals, according to London Stock Exchange website.
 
As Nova Resources reported, the deal was fully approved by the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation. The agency has said that it will not go further to examine the deal.

The Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan has also permitted Nova Resources to acquire KAZ Minerals and approved the transfer to the company of all relevant...

On January 10, 2021 Kyrgyzstan has held early presidential elections as well as a plebiscite on the form of state rule in the country. However, there was a low turnout on elections with no intrigue. 

Low interest in politics

Two out of three voting stations in the village Luxemburg, which is located 25 kilometers away from the country’s capital Bishkek, were opened in a three-story school building. When you look at old brick walls and wooden, not plastic windows you can easily understand that it was built many years ago.

To enter voting station No. 7139, voters should pass a...

As the official website of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) reports, three representatives of Kazakhstan’s national team tested positive for COVID-19. The tests were taken right before the start of the Biathlon World Cup. 

The fifth stage of the Biathlon World Cup starts today in Oberhof, Germany. Yesterday all athletes, coaches and other members of national teams were tested for COVID-19 by the local medical service.

According to the results of that test, four people tested positive, each representing teams from the Czech Republic, Norway, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Because the Kazakhstani sportsman had contact with two other team members, all...

On January 4, medical service reported 144 new cases of coronavirus at the Tengiz oil field that is 4.5 times higher than the day before. At the same time, only five cases were reported in the Atyrau region as a whole, according to the KTK TV channel.

The situation at the oil and gas field has remained hard since the beginning of the pandemic. Due to the constant influx of workers from all over the country who live in rotational camps, coronavirus infection is constantly present there even though all newcomers should test negative as well as stay some time...

As the Department of Economic Investigations of the Committee for Financial Monitoring of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance reported that the Almaty court has sentenced several smugglers of biological resources to jail.

According to the department, the criminal group included individuals from both China and Kazakhstan. They tried to smuggle aquatic crustaceans with the total value of 470 million tenge ($1.1 million).

The criminals were intercepted by law enforcement officials during a raid. The smugglers’ vehicle was loaded with 400 tons of crustaceans that they tried to transport from the country. 

All four defendants were found guilty of economic smuggling, the...

On January 3, Turkish Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 cargo plane (registered as TC-LJN) that was on flight TK6220 from Istanbul, Ataturk (ISL), Turkey to Almaty (ALA), Kazakhstan hit the flock of birds, aviation24.be reported.

The incident took place right after the aircraft had taken off. The flight was cancelled and plane returned to Istanbul Ataturk Airport, the airport of departure. The following examination revealed visible damage to the nose cone of the aircraft and its pitot tube.

Earlier, the Australian airline Qantas, New Zealand’s Air New Zealand and Taiwan’s EVA Air were named the safest air companies in the world. In...

According to Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, this service is necessary for the whole world as an independent project, TASS news agency reports.

«I am not going to sell the company like the founders of WhatsApp did. The world needs Telegram as an independent project that respects the rights of users and provides high-quality services. As we have seen, this is impossible if the service is part of a large corporation,» Durov wrote in his Telegram channel.

He said that Telegram will start to activate the monetization of the service to cover the costs of its development...

On December 14, 2020, The Foundation for Financial Journalism (FFJ) website published an article written by Roderick Boyd called «Freedom Holding: After ‘Borat,’ the Silliest Kazakh Import of the Century.»

The article did not appear in the professional media and circulated only in anonymous Telegram channels and websites.

Freedom Holding Corp. refused to respond to the Kursiv edition’s request because as a public company it doesn’t think it is a good idea to comment on any opinions published by dubious sources.

As Kursiv found out, FFJ is not a serious media like Bloomberg, it’s just a community of authors who...

The government of Kazakhstan and shareholders of Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) signed an agreement that settled the dispute, the Ministry of Energy’s press service reported. 

Under the terms of the agreement, shareholders of the Karachaganak project have paid Kazakhstan $1.305 billion as compensation. 

Both sides agreed on the final terms of production sharing. Therefore, until 2037 Kazakhstan can get up to $600 million if the oil price will meet $40-50 per barrel.

Also, the Kazakhstani government and KPO agreed to start the new Karachaganak Expansion Project’s (KEP) first development stage to support the oil production plateau at the Karachaganak oil...

The amount of print newspapers that readers used to subscribe for has been downsizing from year to year. Currently, it’s about 118 million pieces while five years ago it was more than 185 million newspapers and magazines.
 
According to the Bureau of National Statistics’ data for the 2015-2019 period, the downward trend has been there all along. However, in 2016 the downsizing of the subscription amount was just 3%, while in recent years it increased from 8 to 17%. Moreover, if you compare those figures for 2019 and 2015, you’ll see a difference of 36%. In absolute terms, five...

The amount of new electronic devices that are produced in Kazakhstan has shown steady progress. Since 2015, the annual increase in production is about 34% thanks to the communication equipment sector.

As the Bureau of National Statistics reported, the volume of production in information and communication technologies reached last year’s mark of 30.2 billion tenge or $71.6 million. This is 30% more than in 2018. The vast majority of produced goods were communication devices (routers, modems, network cables, etc.). In 2019 their share doubled to 12.9 billion tenge ($30.6 million) against 5.8 billion tenge ($13.7 million) in 2018. Kazakhstani companies...

As OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama stated at the 27th Ministerial Council (an event organized by Tirana online), Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Sweden and Denmark Kairat Abdrakhmanov will be appointed as OSCE commissioner on national minorities.

«We are going to appoint new OSCE managers: Helga Schmid as secretary-general, Matteo Mecacci as head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Teresa Ribeiro as OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media and Kairat Abdrakhmanov as commissioner on national minorities,» Edi Rama said.

German diplomat Helga Schmid, who will replace Thomas Greminger as OSCE secretary-general, will...

Kazakhstan’s government has started the ratification of the U.S.–Kazakhstan Air Transport (Open Skies) Agreement. Kursiv gave a try to found out when nonstop air flights between the two countries may appear.

On October 15, the document was published by the Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) and it’s now under consideration by several state agencies. As expected, the law will be passed to parliament next year, where it should be approved by both chambers: Senat and Mazhilis. Then, after the signing by President Tokayev, the agreement will be set into effect. This process may last from six to nine months according...

According to Sport-Express (Russian sports edition), which ranked the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) players by income, Darren Dietz from Barys is in the top-10.

The captain of the hockey team from Nur-Sultan, Darren Dietz, has the highest salary among Barys players. The annual salary of the club defenseman, who also plays in the Kazakhstan national hockey team, is $993,000. In terms of income, Dietz and the other seven KHL players share ninth place in the rating.

The highest-paid player of the Kontinental Hockey League is Dmitry Yashkin from the Czech Republic, who plays for Moscow Dynamo and earns 95 million...