DEC. 23 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s raised its sovereign foreign currency rating on Kazakhstan to BBB from BBB-. It said the upgrade reflected Kazakhstan’s rebound from the global recession. Ratings service Moody’s has already upgraded Kazakhstan to Baa2. Fitch retains a BBB-rating.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
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DEC. 26 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – This year Kazakhs could be asked to vote in their second referendum since independence in 1991.
The first referendum in 1995 asked Kazakhs to bypass the Constitution and extend Nursultan Nazarbayev’s term as president. Nearly 16 years later, a potential second referendum will ask Kazakhs to bypass the Constitution again and extend Mr Nazarbayev’s term as president.
The Constitution states a presidential election should be held every five years and the next one had been planned for 2012. Now, Parliament and the Kazakh people say they want Mr Nazarbayev to reign uninterrupted until 2020.
Opponents of Mr Nazarbayev say this highlights his autocratic ways. His supporters say the people and not Mr Nazarbayev is driving the referendum.
It is no surprise that the 70-year-old Mr Nazarbayev wants to run Kazakhstan for the next decade. His aides hinted throughout 2010 he wanted to remain in power, in June Parliament made him Leader of the Nation and his succession policy clearly still needs finalising. In 2007, Parliament also changed Kazakhstan’s Constitution to allow Mr Nazarbayev, and only Mr Nazarbayev, to run for an unlimited number of terms as president.
But scrapping presidential elections (even through a referendum) is a significant step, especially as Kazakhstan ended 2010 as chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — Europe’s human rights and democracy watchdog.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
DEC. 21 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Construction started on an extension in west Kazakhstan of a gas pipeline that runs from Central Asia to China. When completed in 2015, the 1,475km pipeline will run from Beineu near the Caspian Sea to Shymkent on the border with Uzbekistan and link up with an existing pipeline to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
DEC. 29 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Parliament voted to back a referendum to scrap the next two presidential elections and allow President Nursultan Nazarbayev to stay in power until 2020. Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported the referendum may be held in March.
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(News report from Issue No. 21, published on Jan. 4 2011)
DEC. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with Russian radio station Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov once again criticised US-funded laboratories in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region. The main target of his criticism was, once again, the Lugar Center in Tbilisi but he also said that there were US-funded laboratories in Armenia and Kazakhstan. Russian officials have said that these laboratories have military links although Georgian officials have denied this.
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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018
DEC. 15 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Chevron-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) agreed to double the capacity of its pipeline pumping oil from the Tengiz field in west Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. The expansion will cost $5.4b and will boost volumes to 1.4m barrels of oil a day by 2015. CPC is a key oil export route for Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 20, published on Dec. 20 2010)
DEC. 14 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazmunaigas Exploration & Production (KMG EP) said it will increase spending by 15% in 2011 to $661m. The number of production drills KMG EP operates will increase to 239 from 213 and its exploration budget will double to $55m. KMG EP is traded in London. Kazmunaigas holds the controlling stake.
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(News report from Issue No. 20, published on Dec. 20 2010)
DEC. 8 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia will supply Kazakhstan with a batch of its most advanced air defence missile system the S-300, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported after talks between the countries’ defence ministers. The missiles will form part of a combined air defence system between Russia and Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 10 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Industrial output in Kazakhstan rose 10.5% in the first 11 months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009 but agricultural output fell by 12.3%, the Kazakh Statistics Committee said. This reflects Kazakhstan’s rebound from recession but also a drought which hit grain production.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 9 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will double export duty on oil to $40/tonne from Jan. 1 2011, the Kazakh finance ministry told Bloomberg. Kazakhstan introduced a $20/tonne duty in May 2008 but ditched it in Jan. 2009 when oil prices fell sharply. It reintroduced the tax in August 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)