JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting Kazakhstan’s regional economic pull, the authorities have decided to set up a centre to deal with the problems of Tajik migrant workers, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. After Russia, Kazakhstan is the most popular destination for Tajik migrant workers.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks as if Kazakhstan has gently reformed its state pension plan without creating too much of a fuss.
Reform of the generous Soviet-era pension scheme is a particularly thorny issue across the former Soviet Union. Armenia’s government resigned in April because of protests against its proposed changes to the pension scheme and last year in Kazakhstan, a minister resigned after suggesting that women should work for as long as men.
Now though, it looks as if the Kazakh government has gently pushed through the changes it needs to make.
State media reported that President Nursultan Nazarbayev had signed into law a plan to modernise pensions.
The basic premise of the new pension plan, which won’t come into effect until 2016, is that employers will pay the equivalent of 5% of their employees’ salaries to the government. This, media said, will be used by the government to cover a current shortfall in the pension scheme.
So, in total, Kazakh workers will from 2016 effectively contribute the equivalent of 15% of their salary to the government’s pension pot. Employees will pay 10% and companies another 5%.
As the increased pension contribution comes from companies, rather than from workers, it’s unlikely to trigger public protests. Analysts, though, have said that the pension hole has become so big that the Kazakh government may also decide to increase direct employee contributions. That may cause trouble.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uralsk, western Kazakhstan, jailed British oil worker Peter Baruch for eight years for child pornography related offences. Police arrested Baruch, who had worked in Kazakhstan since 2009, earlier this year after he was caught paying an underage girl to pose naked for him in his hotel room.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JULY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sentenced five men to between 6 and 7-1/2 years in jail for being members of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. The authorities in Kazakhstan have said that they are fighting a growing wave of Islamic extremism. The court found the men guilty of spreading terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Astana will aim for an IPO within three years, Peter Foster, its CEO, said, according to media. Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund owns 51% of Air Astana and BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) owns 49%. The Kazakh government has been looking to privatise various companies it owns.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Union of Journalists has awarded Julian Assange, head of Wikileaks, a prize for investigative journalism, media reported. Mr Assange has been living in Ecuador’s embassy in London since June 2012. He is wanted in the US for divulging classified information and in Sweden to face charges of sex offences.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and nurses will receive a 28% salary rise next year, media quoted health minister Salidat Kairbekova as saying. Medical workers have long complained that they are underpaid, especially since a 20% devaluation of the tenge this year. Nurses in Kazakhstan are currently paid $436/month; doctors $620/month.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – So, now it is official. The unrest in Ukraine is negatively impacting Kazakhstan’s economy, economy minister Yerbolat Dossayev said at a routine press conference.
Economists have been downgrading Kazakhstan’s growth predictions this year because of increased fighting in Ukraine and international sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea but this is the first official confirmation.
“The poor growth rate of industrial production, the slowdown of investment activities, high levels of non- performing loans, and the crisis in Ukraine are the main risks to Kazakhstan’s economy,” Mr Dossayev said.
Kazakhstan is now looking at GDP growth this year of around 4% rather than the 6% it first hoped to hit.
Rasul Zhumaly, a political analyst for the exclusive.kz website explained the impact of the Ukraine unrest on Kazakhstan.
“(There is a) high level of interdependence among these post-Soviet economies,” he said. “The Ukrainian situation is negatively affecting the Russian economy and this in turn is closing some avenues for the development of Kazakhstan.”
There is, though, a sneaking suspicion that the Kazakh officials may be starting to use Ukraine as an excuse, shielding genuine structural problems in the economy from attention.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan banned the sale of alcohol between 9pm and 12am every day except in licensed bars and restaurants in an attempt to get people to drink less Alcohol sales are ubiquitous in shops around the country, something officials blame for the high level of drinking.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will trial a pilot project to change its national education curriculum away from the Soviet style rote learning to one based on the West’s critical thinking and problem solving, media reported. The step is, potentially, a major step in a much needed educational overhaul.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)