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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Kazakhstan not to extradite four Karakalpak activists to Uzbekistan where they’ll likely face politically motivated prosecution and even torture, according to the human rights watchdog.

«After the brutal crackdown on protests in Karakalpakstan in July, the authorities in Uzbekistan continue to persecute activists representing the Karakalpak ethnic minority,» said Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia researcher for HRW.

If Kazakhstan decides to do so, it would mean the county is violating international law, she pointed out.

«That’s why Kazakhstan authorities must drop the idea of extradition and set those activists free,» Rittmann highlighted.

Over the...

The International Monetary Fund has changed its forecast for Uzbekistan’s GDP growth this year, according to the World Economic Outlook published in October 2022.  

This year the country’s economy is expected to increase by 5.2%, not 3.4% as projected by the fund in April. However, the IMF is not so optimistic when it comes to next year. The fund believes that Uzbekistan’s GDP will grow just by 4.7% while the earlier outlook was 5%. 

The IMF has also changed its forecast for inflation. In 2022, the price surge is expected at 11.2% instead of 11.8% while in 2023 the rate...

As the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kazakhstan reported, there are 12 candidates who are going to take part in the snap presidential elections in November.

October 11 was the last day for those who wanted to register as a candidate for the country’s president. This stage lasted 19 days from September 23 to October 11.

According to Erman Mukhtar, the secretary of the CEC, there are 12 candidates including Meiram Kazhyken from the Union of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan, Zhiguli Dayrabayev (Auyl Party), Nurlan Auesbaev (Nationwide Social Democratic Party), Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a candidate from several civil associations, Nurzhan Altayev

Over the first eight months of 2022, ice cream production decreased by 7% in Kazakhstan. However, in July-August, Kazakhstani ice cream producers were able to increase their output (11,945 tons) over the same period last year (10,690). This allowed them to partially mitigate shocks in the first half of the year when the production plunged by 17%.

Several factors might explain this decrease. First of all, in January there were logistical problems at the border with China. Then ice cream producers lost another large supplier of ingredients – Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the vast majority of foreign...

Jusan Bank denies any affiliation with the family of Ex-President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

According to the bank’s press service, many Kazakhstani media outlets and social media have reported that Nazarbayev allegedly controls the bank and its parent company Jusan Technology Limited in London.

«Neither Nazarbaev nor any member of his family is linked to Jusan Bank, its subsidiaries or its parent company. They are not shareholders and have zero control over the bank and JTL,» the bank said.

Jusan Bank highlights that its ultimate goal is to facilitate education in Kazakhstan and it is ready to take any measure needed to...

First Heartland Securities (FHS), the majority shareholder in Jusan Bank, is going to recommend its subsidiary make dividend payouts for 2021 at $2.21 per share. This decision was made during the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the FHS shareholders on October 6.

Now, Jusan Bank is expected to hold its EGM on October 24. The bank is going to discuss the dividend payout issue. According to FHS, the bank is going to use its net profit obtained during the last few years to make dividend payouts. The company highlighted that payouts to Galimzhan Yessenov, a minority shareholder of the bank...

According to Tamara Duysenova, minister of labor and social protection of the population in Kazakhstan, more than 70% of officially employed Russians work in the service sector.

Another group of Russians is employees in the industrial sector (16%), construction companies (9%) and agriculture (2%). In general, there are five of the most popular professions among those who have come to Kazakhstan from Russia: accountants, client managers, sales managers, logistic specialists and drivers.

The government wants foreign workers to pay their retirement contributions.

«So far, we have 22,500 Russians officially working in Kazakhstan and paying their retirement contributions. About 8,000 of...

In September and October, international development institutions in Central Asia changed their outlook toward economic growth in Kazakhstan to a more positive one. Among these institutions are the World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), Asian Development Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In early October, the World Bank published its regular report on Europe and Central Asia where it assumed that Kazakhstan’s GDP growth is going to slow down to 3% this year, not 2% as previously predicted (the rate was 4.1% in 2021). There are several reasons for this decrease including a...

Unbreakable Brotherhood 2022, a command and staff exercise program scheduled for October 10-14 in Balykchy, Kyrgyzstan has been canceled, according to the country’s Ministry of Defense. So far, the agency has not explained the move.

The drills were announced this summer. It was expected that all the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states, including Tajikistan, would take part in the event

However, after the military сlashes on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, members of Zhogorku Kenesh, Kyrgyzstan’s national parliament as well as residents of the border area demanded the Kyrgyz government ban Tajik military personnel from taking part in the military...

The first supermarket under the SPAR name opened in Almaty. The international company that runs a network of supermarkets in various countries is partnering with the local company SKIF TRADE (owner of the Small and Skif brands). The new site in Almaty is Eurospar, a type of supermarket for family shopping with 1,000 to 3,000 square meters of floor space. The new shop in Almaty is 2,400 square meters.

There are four types of SPAR supermarkets: Spar, Eurospar, Interspar and Spar Express. Spar is the most popular type of supermarket with 300 to 1,000 square meters of floor space. These...

Kazakhstan’s political parties have united into the people’s coalition to support the candidacy of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the acting president of the country.

«Today we have made a strategic choice and now we shall unite behind Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as we all pursue the same goal. Of course, many other political parties also propose Tokayev as a candidate. That is why we have united with these parties and agreed to establish the people’s coalition in support of Tokayev,» said Erlan Koshanov, head of the Amanat political party during the 24th urgent congress of the party.

Today, on October 6, President Tokayev must...

Petr Vrublevskiy, Ambassador of Ukraine to Kazakhstan, is no longer welcomed after a scandal with his provocative interview, according to Aybek Smadiyarov, official spokesperson of Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.

Currently, the agency is considering a new candidate for the position that Ukraine has already proposed.

«I’d like to note that we and our Ukrainian counterparts have a similar understanding of this issue. The current ambassador now is no longer welcomed in Kazakhstan and no other meetings or discussions are planned,» Smadiyarov said.

He also commented on the statement by Maria Zakharova, the official spokeswoman of the Russian MFA, who said that...

The old era of oligarchic capitalism in Kazakhstan is dead, long live the new era of social responsibility, according to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. During his official visit to the Karaganda region, he talked about these changes in the country’s approach toward businesses operating within its territory.

He also noted that the government is keeping an eye on all large commodity companies operating in the country as people want big businesses in Kazakhstan to be highly efficient and socially responsible.

«We are going to do everything needed to prevent capital from being illegally withdrawn from our country. We are also keeping...

There were no big changes in the labor market in the third quarter in Kazakhstan. However, the number of vacancies over the period from July to September decreased by 2.5% (351,000) compared to the same period last year. The Kursiv edition decided to learn what this statistical data means.

According to Enbek.kz, among industries with few vacancies are the trade and warehouse industry (negative 32%), transportation and logistics (-13%), and the food and hospitality industry (-17%). Also, there were fewer vacancies in the sphere of marketing and media. The number of vacant jobs in this sector dropped from 15,900 to...

On October 3, the Uzbek Republican Currency Exchange (UZCE) presented the launch of trading with US dollar futures linked to the national currency (Uzbek som). 

«We spent two years on the development of the new tool. It was ready by this June and until recently we had tested the tool in conjunction with 13 commercial banks. Later, we are going to launch similar futures linked to other foreign currencies,» said Sirojiddin Baymetov, a senior broker in the UZCE.

He also noted that the presentation of the tool is symbolic because there were no such hedging products in Uzbekistan before. With...

As the press service of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Trade and Integration reported, the Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering company has designed and produced a new wheeled armored vehicle Alan 2, which is under testing before being produced on a mass scale. 

According to Mukhtar Almukhanov, technical director of the company, the vehicle must be compatible with electronic equipment, so the company’s engineers are trying to identify potential sources of noise that might prevent electronics from working properly. This is necessary to certify the vehicle before offering it to customers in other EEU member states and abroad.  

Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering is the biggest...

The world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance and the Agency for Financial Monitoring of Kazakhstan are going to share data about crypto assets.

The two sides have signed a memorandum on cooperation in the sphere of cryptocurrency circulation and agreed to share information necessary for identification and to block any virtual asset gained illegally, according to the agency’s press service.

«This memorandum is going to be a solid foundation for the procedure of freezing crypto assets criminally obtained from Kazakhstan and their seizure by the country’s government,» the agency said.

In August, the Astana Financial Services Authority granted Binance its in-principle...

During his official visit to the Abai region, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev touched on the risk of nuclear war. He said that the current geopolitical tensions have almost reached their peak, very dangerous situation for the whole world.

The president reminded the audience that even though it has been 33 years since the last nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test, locals still suffer from the consequences of those explosions during the Cold War.

«Nuclear energy is a great achievement for humankind that must facilitate the welfare of people and countries. This kind of energy mustn’t be a tool to...

Uzbekistan has ramped up its gold reserves by 19 tons since January 2022. This is ranked fifth among all other countries, according to Gold.org.

«This means that net purchases of gold reached 19 tons since the beginning of the year. Now, the total gold reserves of Uzbekistan is about 381 tons,» the report said.

Among other countries that have shown fasterst rates of purchasing gold are Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and India. 

Turkey is the biggest buyer of gold this year. Since January this country has bought 84 tons of precious metal. The current volume of Turkish gold reserves is...

According to Bagdat Musin, minister of digital development, innovations and the aerospace industry, regular consumers should drop their digital signatures and use QR eGov Mobile.

During the Digital Bridge 2022 international conference, Musin said that he was never happy with digital signatures because every person who wanted to receive that digital signature was supposed to visit a Public Service Center in person.

«As a digital minister, I wanted to make a difference. I appreciate my team that realized this task and now our QR codes are so common. Wherever you need to approve a document or action you can use...

The United States acknowledges the progress Uzbekistan has achieved in the fight against child labor, the Dunyo Information Agency reported.

For the first time since 2011, the U.S. TDA Report has mentioned Uzbekistan as a country that achieved «significant progress» in this field. Before that, the country was on the list of countries that close their eyes to the problem of child labor. The first serious changes in the country’s attitude towards the issue were noticed by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2018.

The agency has also removed Uzbek cotton from the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has revised its forecast for the economic growth in Central Asia to be more positive. In 2022 the GDP of five Central Asian states is going to increase by 4.3% and by a further 4.8% in 2023, according to the Regional Economic Prospects review.

In this document, the bank highlighted that almost all Central Asian economies demonstrate quite high levels of resilience to the rising geopolitical tensions.  

The EBRD increased its forecast for Uzbekistan by 1.5%. It is expected that this and next year Uzbekistan’s GDP will reach 5.5% and 6.5% respectively...

According to analysts from the OLX company, the number of search queries using the word “apartment” has sharply increased accross the country’s Northern regions.

For instance, this rate increased by 40% in Astana, 25% in Pavlodar, 50% in Aktobe and 80% in Petropavlovsk. The interest in renting apartments rose twofold in Almaty and Uralsk, 2.5fold in Ust-Kamenogorsk, and threefold in Kostanay.

At the same time, not all apartment owners are rushing to take advantage of this growing demand. The number of “for lease” ads increased in towns such as Uralsk and Kostanay (by 40%), and Petropavlovsk and Aktobe (30%). However...

Kazakhstan is going to borrow €345.7 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This money will be allocated toward the development of the private sector and the sustainable rebounding of the national economy. The lower house of the parliament Mazhilis has already begun examining the draft law on ratification of the agreement between Kazakhstan and the international entity.

«We are going to borrow €345.7 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. We need this money to cover the budget deficit and stabilize the social and economic situation in the country,» said Marat Kusainov, head of the...