Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan diverts route to driving licence

MARCH 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — In a move designed to improve driving standards, the Kazakh government scrapped rules that forced learner drivers to take lessons at specialist driving schools before they can sit a test.

Previously, it was incumbent on the specialist driving schools to approve learners as ready to step up to take a driving test. This, the government said, added cost, bureaucracy and corruption that was putting people off taking driving exams.

Kazakhstan has one of the worst ratios of deadly accidents on its roads. In 2013, the World Health Organisation said that deaths by car accidents in Kazakhstan averaged 24.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest rate among countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus and around four times higher than the European average. These are often attributable to poor roads or poorly maintained vehicles, but also to bad driving.

An official in the interior ministry told the Conway Bulletin on condition of anonymity that the new rules were designed to simplify government procedures, cut red tape and encourage people to sit a driving exam.

“It is done for simplification. If a person knows the rules, has some driving skills and he or she can pass the exams, we do not think it is necessary to make them study in driving schools,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, driving instructors were less than impressed.

The Kazakh Association of Driving Schools said that the government’s new rules may actually worsen the quality of driving in the country.

Learner driver Akbota Mulkibayeva also doubted the new system would eradicate corruption.

“It is sad because there will be even more bribes to pass the test now,” she said, emphasising Kazakhstan’s shifting and hard to eradicate corruption issues.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakhstan allows headscarves in school

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s minister of education Yerlan Sagadiyev said school councils were free to allow headscarves into the classroom. The declaration follows a public request to allow kimeshek headdress, considered part of Kazakh traditional dress, thus not in conflict with the government’s ban on wearing religious clothing items. Mr Sagadiyev’s declaration has now opened the way for more exceptions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Stock market: Nostrum Oil & Gas

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nostrum Oil & Gas has suffered a long period of sustained low oil prices, which has hit both its revenues and its stock price.

Nostrum’s revenues fell by a staggering 42% last year, accompanied in the downward trend by lower production volumes.

And, as shown in the graph, Nostrum’s share price has continued to fall, down 48.7% in Q1 2016.

Nostrum, however, remains confident about its long term objectives and pointed out in its full year results that it had cut costs and was investing in its processing capacity.

It made no mention of the failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum of last summer, which hit Nostrum’s share price, especially after Tethys started talks with Kazakhstan’s Olisol last November.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Kazakh Pres. sacks energy minister

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked former energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik immediately after a parliamentary election. This was part of a government reshuffle that switched several top-bureaucrats in government and local administrations. Mr Shkolnik, the highest-profile government official to be sacked, was replaced by power sector veteran Kanat Bozumbayev.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Nur Otan drops Dariga Nazarbayeva as MP

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – ALMATY — The results of the parliamentary elections may have been expected but there was a surprise lined up. A few days days after the vote the Nur Otan party dropped Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, from its list of MPs (March 24).

The Conway Bulletin’s Central Asia newswire service (the Silk Road Intelligencer) broke the news on Thursday that Ms Nazarbayeva’s had been dropped by Nur Otan as an MP.

MP in 2012-14 and also held the post of deputy PM since last September, was in line to return to the lower house of Parliament and be nominated as speaker.

This would have granted her a powerful and respected position and also signalled that she was being lined up as a potential successor for her 75-year-old father as Kazakhstan’s second post-Soviet president.

There has been no explanation to the apparent change of plan but it set off various theories on the Kazakh presidential succession issue.

And last week, too, Ms Nazarbayeva’s son, 31-year-old Nurali Aliyev, quit as deputy mayor of Astana apparently to pursue business interests.

This effectively means that in one week, two key members of the president’s family have taken a step back from influential political positions.

One theory previously been put forward for Kazakhstan’s succession issue was that Ms Nazarbayeva would take over in the short term as president before making way for her son. That now appears off the agenda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Kazakhstan’s KMG debt worsens

MARCH 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – International ratings agency Fitch said that Kazmunaigas’ adjusted debt ratio for 2015 might be worse than expected. A weak performance by KMG EP, Kazmunaigas’ upstream subsidiary, significantly lower dividends from its joint-ventures and a weaker tenge had combined to dent the company’s finances.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Kazakh Kashagan field to reach commercial production next year

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Halyk Bank effectively poured cold water over Kazakh officials’ forecasts that the giant Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea would meet commercial production of 75,000 barrels/day this year. Instead, Halyk Bank said that Kashagan would be operating effectively only by the end of 2017. Kashagan is vital for Kazakh oil output.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Editorial: Kazakh Pres. daughter’s moves

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Observers expected one major outcome from Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election. Dariga Nazarbayeva’s nomination as an MP and her ascendency to be parliament’s Speaker, an important constitutional role and a stepping stone to higher office. But it didn’t come through.

Has she fallen out with her father, the 75-year-old Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev? Her son, Nurali Aliyev, resigned as deputy mayor of Astana earlier this month. Coincidences are rare in Kazakh politics.

Is she adopting a more low-key approach? This could be one way of dodging future tough austerity policies that the government will inevitably adopt to survive a worsening economic crisis.

Whatever the greater game plan is, one thing is for sure. Kazakhstan’s succession issue will once again dominate Kazakh politics.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Kazakh miner corporation appoints new head

MARCH 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bakhtiyar Krykpyshev replaced Eduard Ogai as chairman of Kazakh miner Kazakhmys Corporation. Kazakhmys Corporation is the privately-held offshoot of the now-defunct Kazakhmys and is controlled by Vladimir Kim. KAZ Minerals, the publicly-traded heir of Kazakhmys, is the other offshoot of the corporate reorganisation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

UK introduces new visa process for Kazakh citizens

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The UK government introduced a new Super Priority visa service for citizens of Kazakhstan. The new service will cost an extra £750 ($1,060) in addition to the consular fees and will ensure delivery within 24 hours. The government also said the new process can be used to apply for long term, multi- entry visas. “Last year the UK issued over 15,000 UK visas for Kazakhstani citizens,” Carolyn Browne, British ambassador to Kazakhstan said in a statement. London is a favoured destination for Kazakhstan’s wealthy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)