Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan ups spending in green energy

JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — As a statement of intent it was emphatic. Kazakhstan’s environmental protection minister Nurlan Kapparov told a news briefing in Astana on June 5 that the state would invest $3.2b a year until 2050 on developing alternative sources of power to reduce its reliance on coal.

Mr Kapparov said that this was the equivalent of 1% of Kazakhstan’s annual total GDP.

This scale of commitment is genuinely large and will put Kazakhstan in the top league of countries committed to reducing their reliance on coal-fired power stations.

Currently, coal-fired power stations generate about 80% of Kazakhstan’s power needs.

The initiative to push for green alternative power sources is an indicator of a developed economy, just the sort of image that Kazakhstan wants to project. It is also part of Kazakhstan’s wider policies for both power production and for winning EXPO-2017. One of the themes of EXPO-2017 is green energy.

Kazakhstan has already made headway in developing alternative energy. This year it has announced initiatives to boost wind, hydro-electric, solar and nuclear power.

Mr Kapparov said that he wanted to see green energy make up half of Kazakhstan’s total production by 2050.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)

Kazakhstan scraps grain silo in Iran

MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has scrapped a plan to build a grain silo in Iran, media reported quoting an official at the Kazakh agriculture ministry. Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest grain producers and Iran is one of its biggest markets. The Kazakh agriculture ministry blamed political instability in Iran for pulling the plan.

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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Kazakhstan continues hunt for Ablyazov

MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities have stepped up their hunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former chairman of BTA Bank.

First, in April, police in Almaty arrested Ablyazov’s former business partner Erlan Tatishev. Now, on May 29, Italian police swooped on Ablyazov’s wife, Alma Shalabayeva, and their 6-year-old daughter who were living in Rome.

The actual whereabouts of Ablyazov, wanted by British police for lying in court, is unknown, although media reports said Ms Shalabayeva was carrying a Central African Republic passport with a fake name when she was detained.

Lawyers for Ms Shalabayeva said the raid was illegal and that she held a Kazakh passport with a Latvian residency permit allowing her to stay in the EU. The Kazakh prosecutor-general has accused Ms Shalabayeva of being involved in various crimes.

Regardless, it appears defeating Ablyazov in court was not enough for Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

He has long considered Ablyazov to be dangerous. After fleeing Kazakhstan in 2009, Ablyazov set himself up in London. He funded political parties and media projects with the thinly disguised aim of unseating Mr Nazarbayev.

The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of stealing billions of dollars from BTA Bank, trying to overthrow the government and plotting to bomb public buildings.

This year a British court ruled against Ablyazov and ordered him to repay the Kazakh state billions of dollars.

British judges also decided that Ablyazov had lied in court. He has been on the run since 2012.

The net is tightening and the Kazakh authorities may soon have their man. This might, though, be the easy bit.

What to do with Albyazov then is possibly more complicated.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Locust outbreak in Kazakhstan

MAY 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s ministry of agriculture warned that a large plague of locusts was likely to infest parts of north and west Kazakhstan. The ministry’s press release said serious locust plagues were cyclical and that the last major infestation was in 2000.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Kazakhstan boosts gold reserves

MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan boosted its gold reserves for the seventh month in a row despite falling prices, Bloomberg news reported. Kazakhstan’s stated policy is to buy all the gold produced in the country. According to data, the central bank now holds 125.5 tonnes of gold, up 8.9% this year. In 2012, it boosted gold reserves by 41%.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Kazakh Trio delays purchase of ENRC

MAY31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The three billionaire founders of Kazakhstan’s London-listed miner ENRC have asked to extend the deadline for a takeover proposal by three weeks to June 24, Reuters reported. The billionaires; Alexander Machkevitch, Alijan Ibragimov and Pathokh Chodiev, want support from the Kazakh government and copper miner Kazakhmys.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Kazakh bureaucrats sacked after failing test

MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps echoing its Soviet past, Kazakhstan will fire a third of its high-level government officials after they failed a new test, media reported quoting the chairman of the state service agency, Alikhan Baimenov. The test for officials was introduced last year to professionalise Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Kyrgyzstan to join Customs Union

MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting of the Russia-led Eurasian Customs Union in Astana, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev confirmed that Kyrgyzstan would join the group by 2015. Kyrgyzstan has been talking about joining the union, which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, for the past year. Ukraine has been granted observer status.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Tomb discovered in Kazakhstan

MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Archaeologists in eastern Kazakhstan have found the grave of an apparently wealthy woman possibly dating back 2,400 years, media reported. The woman was buried wearing fine jewellery, including a gold headdress similar to the one worn by the so-called Golden Man, Kazakhstan’s most famous archaeology discovery.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)

Ablyazov family deported to Kazakhstan

MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Italy detained and deported back to Kazakhstan the wife and daughter of fugitive billionaire banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Ablyazov, ex-chairman of BTA Bank, to be one of his biggest enemies.

(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)