Late last month, Parliament passed a bill to present Nazarbayev with the honorific Halyk Kaharmany, Kazakh for “People’s Hero”, when the country marks its 20th independence anniversary on December 16.

Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov proposed the idea.

Speaking to parliament after the legislation’s acceptance on November 29, Masimov said: “I am now signing this document, which is probably the most important document I have ever signed in my life,” local media reported at the time.

But Nazarbayev told journalists Saturday he will not ink the document into law, according to the Kazinform news agency.

The president was speaking at a press conference at the new TV and radio complex, called Kazmediacenter, in the capital city Astana.

Nazarbayev, who has ruled the country since 1990, told the media he did not take exception to another proposal to name December 1 as First President’s Day, Kazinform reported.

He said that many countries recognize such a holiday.

Speaking at the opening of the International Forum for A Nuclear-Free World in Astana on Wednesday, President Nazarbayev said that in the absence of efficient control over nuclear arms races in South Asia and the Middle East, countries should take responsibility for preventing nuclear technology from landing in the hands of international terrorists.

The Astana forum is timed for the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in the east of Kazakhstan.

Resourse: Interfax

The move, which was widely expected after he won April’s presidential poll, will dilute the governing party’s monopoly.

Mr Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party, which has 98 of the 107 parliamentary seats, is widely expected to win most seats.

But the elections could pave the way for a second-placed party to have a presence in parliament.

The country’s one-party lower house of parliament, the Mazhilis, asked the president last week to dissolve the chamber ahead of the vote.

Oil-producing state

The first part of the poll, the election from party lists, will be held on 15 January 2012.

The next day, other deputies will be chosen by the People’s Assembly of Kazakhstan, a consultative body loyal to Mr Nazarbayev.

Analysts and poll observers say there has not been a fair poll in the country in the last 20 years and warn that any party that manages to come second is likely to be widely sympathetic to the governing party and pose no challenge to Mr Nazarbayev’s leadership.

In April’s presidential vote, which was criticised by international observers, Mr Nazarbayev won 95.5% of votes. In the 2005 election, he won 91.2%.

His current term was to have ended in 2012, but he called the early poll after a proposal to cancel the next two elections was ruled unconstitutional.

Under a 2007 constitutional amendment, there is no limit on the number of terms the former Communist Party boss may serve in office.

Mr Nazarbayev has argued that economic prosperity should come before democracy.

Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s largest economy and oil producer and, having reformed its market, has achieved annual economic growth of around 8% over the last decade. It has attracted more than $120bn ($76bn) in foreign investment since independence.

Resourse: ВВС

“Basing on the baseline scenario of the macroeconomic development of the country, there are formed next parameters of the national budget for 2012-2014: revenues will make KZT 4.751 trln in 2012, KZT 5.31 trln – in 2013, KZT 5.424 trln – in 2014,” B.Zhamishev said.

The budget income will make KZT 3.310 trln in 2012.

Resourse: www.inform.kz

The program is purposed to help upgrade the operating enterprises and establish new ones. It foresees tools, especially, in the area of innovations and implementation of new technologies.

Kazfosfat LLP modernization plan and modern managerial tools know-how implementation at Kainar battery factory were presented there. The Productivity 2020 program operators tabled conditions of support tools extension.

Resourse: www.inform.kz

“In addition, five billion tenge will be allocated from the budget to reduce the cost of Kazakh grain supplies for export,” Zhamishev said, presenting the project to clarify the national budget for 2011 at a government meeting in Astana.

He said that calculations were conducted based on the price of $40 per ton for transportation of Kazakh grain to Russia.

Kazakhstan intends to export this fiscal year, taking into account the flour and 8-9 million tons of grain equivalents.

“During the 2011-2012 marketing year, grain exports from Kazakhstan, accounting for flour -grain equivalency, are forecasted at 8-9 million tons,” Anna Buts, the director of the Agriculture and Phytosanitary Protection Department of Kazakh Agriculture Ministry said in an interview with Trend. He said grain harvest in Kazakhstan is forecasted at 18 million tons in 2011.

According to forecasts of the International Grains Council, the world’s gross wheat harvest in the 2011-2012 marketing year will hit 674 million tons, which is 23 million tons more than last year’s volume (651 million tons).

Buts said that during the current marketing year, in addition to traditional sales markets (Iran, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan), Kazakhstan’s grain is planned to be exported to North Africa, the Middle East (through Black Sea ports), as well as to China and Southeast East Asia (transit through China) markets.

“A prerequisite for expanding sales markets for Kazakh grain is deciding on partial reimbursement of transportation costs when exporting grain from Sept.1, 2011, taken by the state commission on the modernization of Kazakhstan’s economy on Aug. 22,” Buts said.

Resourse: www.inform.kz

As Kelimbetov said, mining and processing industries projected growth by 3.6% and 9.7% correspondingly will boost industrial-production growth.

Resourse: www.inform.kz

Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister will address today representatives of the 34 OECD member states in the Headquarters of the Organisation in Paris. This address supports a strong drive of the country to adopt OECD Standards and collaborate further with the different Committees of the Organisation.

Already an active member of the OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Program, Kazakhstan has applied to become an observer in four key Committees of the OECD. Prime Minister Karim Massimov said “For any nation that aspires to build strong institutions, hold government accountable, the OECD and its member states are the standard to follow.

When the OECD was created half a century ago, few could have imagined that Kazakhstan would become independent – let alone one of the ten highest-performing economies in the world, now embarking on systematic, system-wide reform.

We look to the day when a Kazakhstani ambassador might join the OECD’s ranks.”
In a sign of the growing cooperation between Kazakhstan and the OECD, the country will also introduce a visa free regime for citizens from OECD countries. This aims to further boost foreign investment in Kazakhstan, which recently entered the world’s top 50 states in which to do business – according to the World Bank.

Kazakhstan’s application to become an observer in different Committees comes ahead of the nation’s twentieth anniversary of independence on 16th December. In the last two decades, Kazakhstan has maintained strong economic growth, increasing per capita GDP 12 times over – from less than 700 US dollars to 9,000. The country ranks in the world’s top ten performing economies over the last decade and is now classified by the World Bank as an upper middle income nation.

The OECD, a global body whose members include the US, UK and Germany, aims to ‘promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.’

The presidents of the three former Soviet republics — which have recently set up a common customs union that allows a free movement of labor and goods between the countries — signed a declaration in the Kremlin targeting a full “Eurasian economic union” by 2015.

Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, Belarus’s Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan also signed an accord on the creation of a super-national executive body to oversee tighter economic integration.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev specified that the three nations would have to agree on inflation and debt levels in order to form the union.
Leaders of the three countries insisted that all the members will have an equal say in the commission’s policies.

Medvedev said any former Soviet republic would be welcome to join.

“We have taken a new and very powerful step on the path to forming a Eurasian Economic Union, a union that without a doubt will determine the future of our countries,” Medvedev said at the signing, televised live on Russian state TV.

Critics have said the project is aimed at recreating the former Soviet Union under another guise, but Kazakh President Nazarbaev rejected such a notion.

“How can anyone talk about a reincarnation [of the Soviet Union]? The Soviet Union existed under a firm administrative command system, with total state ownership of means of production, and a single communist ideology as the backbone of the Communist Party,” he said.

“Can anybody imagine the restoration of Gosplan or Gossnab [state planning and procurement bodies] now? We need to explain to people that these are just incomprehensible, phantom fears spread by our opponents, or simply, enemies, who simply don’t want any such integration to occur on this territory.”

The Eurasian Economic Commission will be headed by Russian Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko, and the Eurasian Economic Union will be headquartered in Moscow.

(Compiled from agencies reports)

“Kazakhstan will coordinate efforts to assist this Muslim country in Africa, as the Chair of the organization”, Omarov said.

Omarov said that the special meeting, to be held under the chairmanship of the OIC Foreign Ministerial Council, Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov, will be attended by the Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and the ministers of the organization’s member countries.

The OIC has already developed a special program to assist Somalia. The program is worth $150 million, and is aimed at the urgent solution of four most recent problems: ensuring food security, health, drinking water, and economic recovery.

At present, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the only international organization capable of fully dealing with humanitarian operations in Somalia.

In this regard, all the major international humanitarian institutions are working closely with the Organization in this direction, sending their assistance under the OIC auspices.

“Saudi Arabia has already announced the allocation of humanitarian aid, worth about $60 million. Iran has allocated $25 million, Kuwait $10 million, and Sudan $100,000.

Kazakhstan, acting as the OIC chairman, will provide $500,000 in assistance to the Somali people”, Omarov said.

Source: http://en.trend.az
Date: 17 August 2011