FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered work on the Almaty Metro system to stop because of a shortage of funds, media reported. The first phase of Almaty’s metro was unveiled in 2011 but high costs and low passenger numbers have combined with a drop in government funds to delay a planned extension.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Industrial activity in Kazakhstan will decline by 0.3% this year to its worst level in 17 years, media reported quoting the economy ministry. The drop in industrial activity is symptomatic of the overall slowdown in Kazakhstan’s economy in the past 12 months.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the central Kazakh town of Temirtau sentenced two men to eight and 11 years in prison for links to radical Islam and plotting a series of attacks. One of the men, prosecutors said, tried to recruit people to head out to join the extremist IS group in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kairat Kelimbetov, head of the Kazakh Central Bank, hinted for the first time that he was prepared to allow a gradual devaluation of the tenge. He told Russian media: “We will not allow a one-off shock devaluation and instead will work within the framework of a smooth and flexible exchange rate mechanism.”
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>Slump in global oil prices triggers tax cut>>
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will slash its oil export duty by 25% to help companies manage a sharp drop in energy prices, economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said.
The measure is part of a package of proposals designed to help Kazakhstan’s economy weather an increasingly nasty economic downturn. Energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik also said that taxes on miners would be cut soon.
Currently oil exporters pay $80 to ship a tonne of oil out of Kazakhstan. The government will cut this to $60.
It’s a drastic step for Kazakhstan which still relies heavily on oil exports for its revenue. Drastic but, possibly, unavoidable. Oil prices have halved in the past seven months, forcing spending cut backs and budget cuts.
The sharp drop in oil prices also creates another problem for Kazakhstan. It makes the more expensive projects, such as the Kashagan project in the Caspian Sea, unprofitable. Dropping export tax may go some way to addressing this problem.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan have brought new charges against RFE/RL reporter Khadija Ismayilova, media reported. Ms Ismayilova, a critic of the government, is in pre-trial detention for coaxing a journalist into a suicide attempt. She will now also face charges of tax evasion and embezzlement.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil, a Kazakh joint-venture with Chevron, is expected to boost oil output by 42% to 38m tonnes by 2021, Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said. This is important news for Kazakhstan as Tengizchevroil is its biggest single oil producer.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government has launched a new initiative to promote domestic industries which will include a clothing label marked “Made in Kazakhstan”, officials said. Earlier President Nursultan Nazarbayev had said more people should buy Kazakh goods.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>Early vote is a tried and tested strategy>>
FEB. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev looks set to bring forward a presidential election by a year, a move designed to impose stability during a turbulent economic period.
The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan asked parliament to bring forward a presidential election from 2016 to this spring.
“It is crucial to strengthen the economy and ensure the continuity of the current policy by holding an early election,” the assembly, a constitutional body headed by Mr Nazarbayev, said in a statement.
Since then the country’s biggest political party Nur Otan has voiced its support for an early election.
The dire economic situation has been a constant headache for the Kazakh leadership in the past few months, especially after the plunge in oil prices and the collapse of the Russian rouble.
The Kazakh elite view extending Mr Nazarbayev’s term in office by another five years as a way of imposing stability. Kazakhstan, also, has form with bringing elections forward. It brought an election in 2011 forward. Mr Nazarbayev won with 96% of the votes.
Experts were waiting for an announcement of this sort.
Kazakhstan’s political watchers had often ended conversations with Bulletin correspondents with: “We are waiting for an early election, to guarantee medium-term stability.”
It appears that their predictions have been borne out. It still remains to be seen, though, whether these elections will calm an increasingly turbulent political and economic environment.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said that all government spending, excluding social projects, would be cut by 10% to cope with the economic slowdown, media reported. He made a point, though, of denying that there was an economic crisis in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)