NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alongside China, Russia, Cuba, Iraq and Morocco, Kazakhstan will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo next month, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. This year the committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to an imprisoned Chinese dissident angering China. China is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A judge in the United States dismissed charges of corruption and fraud against businessman James Giffen, who had been accused of giving $84m in bribes to Kazakh officials in exchange for oil concessions during the 1990s. Prosecutors linked senior members of the Kazakh government, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The leaders of the five countries that border the Caspian Sea met for a summit in Baku to discuss the sea’s disputed ownership but they failed to sign any major agreements. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had arrived on Nov.17 for separate bilateral talks with Azerbaijan’s President.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan accused Agip, a unit of Italian energy company Eni, of a $110m fraud at the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea by inflating development costs. Eni’s Agip declined to comment. It is the leader of the consortium developing Kashagan, Kazakhstan’s biggest oil field.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 15 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bicycle lanes cut through many major cities in the developed world. They are, perhaps, a public luxury that wealthy, well organised societies can afford and away from Europe or North America are far less common. Roads have to be smooth, drivers disciplined and the public has to be wealthy enough to be concerned with both traffic management and pollution and not just scraping together a living.
Now, Almaty has its own bicycle lane — the first in Central Asia. Opened this month, the bicycle lane runs 2.5km along a pavement at the side of Abai street which cuts across Almaty.
Kazakhstan has high aspirations. It is once again enjoying economic growth and this year it gained international political kudos through its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which monitors democracy and human rights.
Almaty, no longer the capital but still Kazakhstan’s cultural and financial centre, also holds serious aspirations and in January 2011 hosts the Asian Winter Games.
But Kazakhstan’s recent wealth has also brought traffic and pollution problems to Almaty. In rush hour, the roads are gridlocked and exhaust fumes choke the air.
It appears, though, to be taking traffic management seriously. In 2011 Almaty will finish construction of a seven-station metro system and the bicycle lane in Abai is just the start of a proposed 40km network — similar to wealthy, well-organised European cities.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan agreed to allow the US military to use more direct flight routes across its air space. The deal signed in Washington by a senior State Department official and the Kazakh ambassador will save the US military fuel and time on flights to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 3 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – In 2010 Kazakhstan harvested 13.9m tonnes of grain down from 22.7m tonnes in 2009, a senior official from the Kazakh ministry of agriculture said. This represents a drop of 31%. Droughts have reduced grain harvest this year throughout the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
NOV. 2 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is considering introducing regulations to require foreign companies working in Kazakhstan to deposit 35% of their savings in Kazakh banks, Berik Kamaliyev, deputy minister of trade and industry, told a government meeting. He said the aim was to bolster the Kazakh banking sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
NOV. 3. 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company Kazmunaigas started looking for potential buyers for its 11-year $1.5b Eurobond with an estimated yield of 6.75%. This is the first bond in a series of offerings that Kazakhstan hopes will raise $7.5b to invest back into oil and gas projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
OCT. 28 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Booming commodity prices and a sustained revival in Russia’s economy are driving economic recovery in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report. The IMF said economies in both regions will grow this year except for Kyrgyzstan where political turmoil has dented growth.
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(News report from Issue No. 13, published on Nov. 1 2010)