Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s trade turnover sinks

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by a sharp drop in commodity prices, Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover shrank by 30% in Jan.-April compared to the same period last year, the Statistics Committee said. Exports fell by 31% in the first four months of the year to $11b while imports fell by 29% to $7.2b. The global drop in oil and commodity prices has exposed Kazakhstan’s over reliance on its extractive industry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh court jails doctors for selling babies

ALMATY, JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Almaty court sentenced a group of former doctors, nurses and mothers to prison for selling newborn children, exposing another case of corruption and human trafficking in Kazakhstan’s healthcare system.

Four mothers who had sold their children, 10 hospital workers and one other person linked to the trafficking of the babies will face between two and nine years in prison.

The sentence ended a trial that lasted for one year and targeted the illegal market of children.

For eight years, hospital workers, including several doctors, had organised the sale of at least 30 children at a price of between $500 and $6,000 each. One nurse sold as many as 10 babies.

The parents who bought the babies were pardoned by the judge, avoiding both a sentence and a criminal record, allowing them to become their children’s official guardians.

Under Kazakh law, people who have a criminal record cannot legally adopt children.

During the trial, parents who bought the babies said they had agreed to the trafficking ring because it was easier than facing the bureaucratic hurdles of adoption.

Aiman Umarova, a lawyer who defended a woman who bought a baby, told the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent that this was not an isolated case in Kazakhstan.

“It is a problem across the country. In maternity houses you can easily sell children,” she said.

Last month, a court in Shymkent, south Kazakhstan, started a trial against workers in a maternity centre accused of selling as many as 21 newborn babies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh police arrests several men

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan said they had arrested several men in two villages near Karaganda in the centre of the country as they prepared explosives for a terror attack. Kazakhstan’s security forces have been on high alert since a series of attacks in Aktobe at the start of June killed around two dozen people. Officials linked the attack to radical Islamists.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan aims to reduce black economy

JUNE 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to reduce the size of the black economy and to increase the size of tax receipts, Kazakhstan has unveiled plans to force people to declare their income. Media reported that civil servants and employees of state-owned companies will have to declare their full income by 2017, with everybody else following by 2020. The black economy in Kazakhstan has been growing as people try to avoid paying taxes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan to introduce civil service code

ALMATY, JUNE 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s government said that it wants to introduce a code of conduct focused for its civil servants to improve their image with the public.

Maksat Musin, head of the Kazakh civil service, said in a statement on the government’s website that he wanted the new code to improve standards in general.

“The full aims of the code have not yet been set out but the general principles are already established, these are to be modest and ethical,” he said.

Kazakhstan’s government has previously tried to improve the quality and professionalism of its civil service. In 2013 it introduced a special set of exams to try and recruit a cadre of new, professional civil servants.

Still, ordinary Kazakhs were scornful of the potential decree. They said that the government was fond of making empty policy statements about improving government structures and employees which make little or no impact.

“I think it’s some kind of superficial idea to pretend that the government is doing something,” said Nurbek, an Almaty-based student. “The main problem with our government officials is corruption and this is really bad. That’s what they should be working on instead of pretending that they are doing something.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Oilmen strike in western Kazakhstan

JULY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Around 700 oil workers staged a two-hour strike, protesting against alleged pay cuts and job losses at the Burgylau oil service company in Zhanaozen, western Kazakhstan, the US-funded RFE/RL reported. Burgylau is linked to businessman Yakov Tskhai, who owns a majority stake in its parent company KazPet- roDrilling. In 2011, around 15 people died in Zhanaozen during clashes between striking oilmen and police.

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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)

Editorial: The UN Security Council

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government scored a major diplomatic victory when it was elected to a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council for 2017-18.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev said it was a “historic achievement”, one that will promote Kazakhstan as the face of Central Asia in the international arena.

It’s also a major achievement for the Kazakh diplomatic corps who have lobbied hard for a seat at the UN Security Council ever since Mr Nazarbayev made it a priority a couple of years ago.

Kazakhstan beat Thailand conclusively in the final vote and will now be the first country from Central Asia to hold a seat at the UN Security Council on behalf of the Arab-Asia bloc.

Importantly for Mr Nazarbayev, the position fits nicely with the narrative he has tried to build of Kazakhstan as a global power. In 2010, Kazakhstan hosted a summit of the OSCE, Europe’s democracy and security watchdog, and next year it hosts EXPO-2017.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kazakhstan imposes export ban

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s government imposed an export ban on ferrous and non- ferrous metals until the end of the year, to avoid shortages of scrap metal in the country. PM Karim Massimov said the shortage could prevent Kazakhstan from reaching its industrial goals. Kazakhstan plans to increase production of metals by 10% this year. Last year, production fell by 2.5%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Editorial: The SCO

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will expand next year to include Pakistan and India. Since its inception in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO has been led by China and Russia. It was formed to extend their influence over their shared near-abroad — Central Asia. SCO members include all the Central Asian states other than Turkmenistan.

Western analysts have previously referred to it as Russia and China’s version of NATO, mainly because of the very visible war games that it stages each year. But this is only one component of the SCO. More important, but less visible are the various social and economic projects conducted through the SCO apparatus. These have mainly involved China. Indeed it has given China a major footprint in the region and helped to extend its influence.

By opening up the SCO to Pakistan and India, the SCO is potentially changing its remit from a regional, Central Asia focused group to a far wider organisation that takes in the two most populous countries in the world. It may become less useful as an organisation to develop Central Asia and more useful as group for larger countries to discuss their problems.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyz Parliament approves BTA stake sale

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Parliament approved the sale of a 15.4% stake in BTA Bank Kyrgyzstan to Kazakh investors. The stake previously belonged to Daniyar Usenov, former Kyrgyz PM, who fled the country after a revolution in 2010 toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The new Kyrgyz government took possession of his stake in BTA and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for abuse of power in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)