Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Convicted terrorists in Kazakhstan to lose citizenship

APRIL 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh MPs passed into law a bill that will strip people convicted of terrorism of their citizenship. Kazakhstan and the rest of Central Asia have been fighting to dampen a flow of recruits to the extremist IS group over the past few years. The main suspects behind an attack in Istanbul and St Petersburg this year were from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Kazakh language clubs thrive as people explore national heritage

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ALMATY, APRIL 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Kazakhstan’s cities, where Russian was once the dominant language, Kazakh language clubs are increasingly popular.

Alina Achilova, a student at the International Information Technologies University in Almaty, helped set up the Qazaqsha club three years ago. Based in a museum for national instruments, the club has broad appeal, attracting students, professionals and the retired. What they share, Ms Achilova said, was Russian as their first language and a desire to explore their own cultural heritage.

“I had many friends of different ethnicities and native Kazakhs who couldn’t speak or understand Kazakh language and would always ask me for help,” she said. “In Almaty I couldn’t find any places for them to learn Kazakh and thought it’d be good to open such a place.”

Language has once again been thrust into the political spotlight in Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev said this month that he wants to switch Kazakh to the Latin alphabet from Cyrillic to broaden its appeal and to identify it more closely with other Turkic languages.

Since independence from the Soviet Union he has worked on building the cultural identity of Kazakhstan, promoting national heroes, cultural and language. Kazakh has grown in popularity and in Almaty it is far more widely spoken now than it was even a decade ago.

Some analysts have accused Mr Nazarbayev of trying to airbrush Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet out of Kazakhstan, but it is still an official language, still widely spoken in business and politics and is the main language in the north of the country.

Still, even among Kazakh’s supporter base, there are people who question whether the switch to Latin is such a good idea.

“I think it will be very long, expensive and problematic process,” said Yerke Maratkyzy, at Qazaqsha club.

Turkish is written in Latin, as is Uzbek, although in Kyrgyzstan, the Cyrillic imposed by the Soviets in the 1920s is still used, like in Kazakhstan. Before that, both Kazakh and Kyrgyz had been written in Arabic script.

For Erden Zikibay, a volunteer at another Kazakh language club called Bas Quso, the switch to Latin is a positive step.

“It will help bring together Kazakh people and Kazakhstani people to the Turkic and Western worlds, and increase popularity and prestige of Kazakh language inside Kazakhstan.”

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

India wants to boost cotton imports from Kazakhstan

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APRIL 20/21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in the south Kazakh city of Shymkent, Kazakh and Indian officials pledged to increase cooperation in the cotton trade. Indian businessmen said that they wanted to increase the supply of cotton from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has been trying to develop its cotton sector over the past few years in a drive to move away from rely too heavily on the oil and gas sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Kazatomprom not impacted by bankruptcy, says agency

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APRIL 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency, said that it wouldn’t be affected by the bankruptcy last month of Toshiba’s US unit Westinghouse Electric because it had organised an option to sell its 10% stake back to Toshiba at the price it bought it for. Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, bought a 10% stake in Westinghouse in 2007 for $540m. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy last month after cost overruns at four nuclear reactors it was building in the US.

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Currencies: Kazakh tenge and Azerbaijani manat

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APRIL 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Softer oil prices have pushed down the value of the Kazakh tenge and the Azerbaijani manat. The tenge is now trading at 313.8/$1, its lowest value since March and the manat is trading at 1.665/$1, a two week low.

Oil has come off a high on April 11 of $56.23/barrel to be trading at around the $51/barrel mark. The main driver of the dip in oil prices is geopolitical concerns over US intervention in Syria and the spike in tension around the Korean peninsular. Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are price takers and will have to settle for whatever the geopolitical machinations hand them.

On the equities front, it has been a very good fortnight for TBC Bank. It has ragreed a $100m loan from the EBRD to implement the so- called Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement with the EU. This is designed to boost trade between Georgia and the EU. TBC Bank’s share price has risen by around 20% this year and analysts are positive.

“Looking ahead, TBC Bank is expected to record a rise in its bottom line of 8% this year, followed by further growth of 14% next year,” said share analyst The Motley Fool. “When combined with its relatively low P/E ratio, this puts it on a PEG ratio of only 0.8. This suggests that more share price growth could be ahead for the company.”

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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)

Kazakhstan to close Radiotochka

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APRIL 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radiotochka, one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Kazakhstan, will close because of a combination of financial and political pressure. Last year its editor, Bigeldy Gabdullin, was arrested for extorting bribes from officials. His deputy editor fled the country shortly afterwards.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)f

China agrees to buy 51% of car maker in Kazakhstan

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese investment company SMS agreed to buy a 51% stake in Kazakh car-maker Allur, the company said in a press release. The press release didn’t say how much SMS was going to pay for its stake or when the transaction would take place. Allur is one of the biggest car- makers in Kazakhstan and owns stakes in the SaryarkaAvtoProm and Agromash factories. Kazakhstan’s car manufacturing sector has been hard hit by the economic slowdown.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)f

Floods hit the north Kazakhstan

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APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Heavy rainfall triggered floods in north and central Kazakhstan, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Media reports said that 5,000 people have been evacuated to high ground. The worst hit area was around the town of Atbasar, 260km north of Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

New car sales fall in Kazakhstan

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APRIL 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car manufacturers in Kazakhstan sold 7,569 new cars in the first quarter of the year, a drop of 28.2% on the same period in 2016, Kazakhstan’s Union of Automotive Industry Enterprises, KazAvtoProm, said in a press release. The data will be a blow to the government which has been saying that a sharp economic downturn since mid-2014 has now been reversed.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)

Turkmen president travels to Kazakhstan

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APRIL 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymkuhamedov travelled to Astana to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev and sign a deal which they said marked the end of any border disputes between the two neighbours. Both sides said that the deal meant that the borders would now be fixed.

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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)