The Astana Times

President Nazarbayev invited women of different professions to Akorda on the eve of the International Women’s Day to praise their achievements and role in development of the state.

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Wednesday, 13 March 2013 № 4 (25) www.astanatimes.kz

NatioN

Kyzylorda Governor Tackles Regional Issues New Law to Boost Defence Lawyers’ Rights

Page A2

EURaSia & WoRLD Deputy FM Attends Geneva Disarmament

Conference New Book Explores Kazakhstan’s

Multilateral Diplomacy Efforts Page A3

EDitoRiaL Helping Semipalatinsk: A Job Half-Done

Page A6

oPiNioNS TULL: UN System in Kazakhstan: 20 Years

of Sustainable Cooperation

TUSSUPBEKOV: Prevention Is New Strategy to Fight Corruption

Pages A6-A7

NatioN & CaPitaL Forum Showcasing People Success Stories

Tours Country First Tamgaly Tas Festival to Be Held in April

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World Anticipating Next Round of Iran’s Nuclear Programme Talks

By Nadezhda Khamitova

ALMATY – On February 27, after two days of talks between EU3+3 and Iran the parties agreed to hold a meeting of technical ex-perts in Istanbul on March 18, to be followed by another round of high level talks in Almaty on April 5-6.

While anticipations were low for the February meeting, it ended on a slightly more upbeat tone than pre-vious rounds of such talks last year.

The upcoming meeting in Istanbul is aimed at explaining the details of the world powers’ proposal, made in Almaty, which is said to include sanc-tions relief and “permission to resume gold and precious metal trade, inter-national banking activity, and petrole-um trade.” Iran is awaited to respond to the proposal when the countries gather in Almaty again in April.

The participants of the Almaty talks did not reveal the details of the updated proposal of the six powers to the Iranian side but the parties agreed that overall the ne-gotiations had a positive result.

Continued on Page A8

By Galiya Nurzhan

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s oil industry is entering a new era of growth. In the years of national independence oil exports have in-creased from 13 million tons to 71 million tons per year, about 4,000 kilometres (2,400 miles) of oil pipelines have been built and pipe-line export capacity has increased from 10 million tons to 58 million tons of oil per year.

This was announced by KazMu-nayGas Deputy Chairman Magzum Mirzagaliev during a forum of oil and gas companies “Oil and Gas: Local Content” which took place in Astana on Feb. 14.

Kazakhstan is developing many of the largest oil and gas projects in the world including the Tengiz field, the Karachaganak gas con-densate field, the Kashagan super oil field in the Caspian Sea, and the oil pipeline linking Atyrau with Russia’s Novorossiysk seaport.

In his annual state of the nation address on Dec. 14, President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev spoke about the results achieved over 15 years since adopting 2030 Development Strat-egy of Kazakhstan and the great po-tential to further expand the nation’s oil and gas and mining sectors.

Continued on Page A5

Oil and Gas Industry Enters Era of Growth

By Laura Tussupbekova

ASTANA – President Nursultan Nazarbayev has held his tradition-al annual meeting in the Akorda presidential palace with the Kok-tem Shuagy women public organi-zation to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Women representing different professions including military, business, medicine, teaching and art attended the meeting which

took place on March 7. In his re-marks, the President praised the women of the nation for their cru-cial role in securing its future and in bringing up the coming genera-tions.

“The birth rate in any country is known to be the impetus of its de-velopment rate,” the President said. “Over the past five years, the na-tional birth rate in Kazakhstan has risen by 11 percent and the natural population growth has amounted

to 37 percent. In 2012, 379,000 children were born, an increase of 150 percent on 2004. And behind each new life stands the enormous role played by the mother with her patience, endurance, love and kindness. Children are born when the parents are confident in the fu-ture.”

“During the years of inde-pendence, six million children have been born in Kazakhstan,” Nazarbayev said. “The main thing

is not only to raise them, but also to bring them up as responsible citizens. For we see that a lot of problems cannot be addressed by the laws and the economy of the nation, but by human qualities. We need thinkers, responsible citizens, patriots in our country. All these qualities are instilled in the family and through educa-tion.”

Continued on Page A2

President Celebrates Women’s Achievements

Kazakhstan, Japan Launch New Projects beyond Energy

By Nurzhan Galiyev

ASTANA – Kazakhstan and Ja-pan have agreed at a recent Tokyo meeting to dramatically expand their industrial cooperation and launch a new series of joint ven-tures beyond the energy sector.

The projects will raise Japan’s investment in Kazakhstan’s indus-try, oil, gas and nuclear industries to a whole new level.

Nine bilateral documents were signed at the fourth meeting of the Joint Commission of Kazakhstan and Japan on Economic Coopera-tion on Feb. 18 in Tokyo.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev led Kazakhstan’s delegation to the commission. The Japanese side

was led by Nobuhiko Sasaki, vice-minister of international affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He is also co-chair-man of the Joint Bilateral Commis-sion.

The commission discussed the mining and processing of uranium, rare earth metals, iron and non-fer-rous metals, as well as oil and gas development.

The participants agreed to con-struct new industrial facilities in Kazakhstan in the fields of IT and communications, machine tools, space exploration, medicine and biotechnology. They also ex-plored further cooperation on pro-tecting the environment from the side-effects of energy projects and discussed expanding the country’s use of energy-saving technolo-

gies such as thermocouples, solar cells, next-generation batteries, and light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs.

In Tokyo, Kaznex, the govern-ment agency responsible for pro-moting non-resource exports and attracting more foreign invest-ment to the Central Asian repub-lic, signed Memoranda of Under-standing (MoUs) with the Chiyoda Consulting Company on a plant to make molybdenum powder and plates with a production capacity of 120 tons per year, and with the Sumitomo Corporation on energy projects.

The provincial government of the Zhambyl region signed a MoU with the Cokey Systems Company to make a factory to process lico-

rice for domestic sales and for ex-port.

Kazakhstan Steel (KSP) signed a new deal with its Japanese partners for new projects in the domestic oil and gas industry and to boost steel exports.

Dala Mining and the Itochu Corporation agreed on a new project to mine and process tung-sten-molybdenum ore at the Kok-tenkol deposit in the Karaganda region.

The National Nuclear Center signed MoUs with the Japan Atom-ic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) to carry out a feasibility study on building a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan.

Continued on Page A4

Saudabayev Meets Norwegian, Int’lDisarmament Experts, Martin Sheen

By Arnur Aubakirov

OSLO – During a recent visit to Norway, Chairman of the Com-mission for the Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction under the President, Director of the Nazarbayev Center Kanat Sau-dabayev held a series of bilateral meetings with Norwegian and in-ternational policy makers and ex-perts in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Saudabayev met Vice President of Storting (Parliament) of Nor-way Marit Nybakk, global coor-dinator of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) Alyn Ware, and the well-known American ac-tor and nuclear disarmament activ-ist, Martin Sheen.

The parties talked over the cur-rent state of and prospects for cooperation between Kazakhstan and Norway and international or-ganizations, particularly in the key area of non-proliferation and re-duction of the nuclear threat.

“I feel deep respect for Kaza-

khstan for its consistent contri-bution to nuclear disarmament,” Nybakk said. Nybakk, who also serves as a PNND co-president, believes it is necessary to cultivate contacts and expand cooperation between Norway and Kazakhstan in this sphere and in the interna-tional format as well.

During their conversation, Kanat Saudabayev and Martin Sheen emphasized the importance of further expansion of the global efforts aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in the world.

Director of the Nazarbayev Center invited Martin Sheen to visit Kazakhstan and personally familiarize with our country’s ex-perience in nuclear disarmament. Martin Sheen, known, among oth-er things, as “U.S. President Jed Bartlet” from “The West Wing” series noted the importance of Kazakhstan’s contribution to the reduction of the nuclear threat and expressed his intention to strength-en and develop cooperation in this field.

Continued on Page A3EU3+3 and Iran representatives met in Almaty on February 26-27 (above) and are set to meet again for the next round of talks in Almaty on April 5-6.

Tasmagambetov Reports on Astana’s

Preparations for EXPO 2017

By Miras Abykov

ASTANA – At a town hall meet-ing at the end of February, Mayor of Astana Imangali Tasmagambetov reported on the progress of work that is planned to be conducted in the city prior to the international specialized exhibition EXPO 2017.

“Astana was chosen as a ven-ue for EXPO 2017. This is a big achievement for Kazakhstan and for the city of Astana. For construction purposes an area of 124 hectares was allocated,” the mayor said.

By that time, architectural won-ders and art sites as Opera and Ballet Theatre, Library and the Foundation of the First President, the National Museum, the Center for Space Stud-ies, National Defense University, In-door City, multifunctional complex “Abu Dhabi Plaza”, hotels “Hilton”, “Marriott”, “Ritz Carlton” and “Four Seasons”, and an Ice Palace for 10,000 seats will have been built and commissioned in Astana.

At the same time, the construc-tion of a new railway station has been started which will be located on “Mynzhyldyk Avenue” just four kilometers away from the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation.

Continued on Page B8

Norwegian disarmament and non-proliferation activists thank participants of the conference including The ATOM Project Honorary Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov (l).

Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesА2

NationDOMESTIC

NEWS IN BRIEf

● The festival of Nauryz will be celebrated from Thursday, March 21 to Saturday, March 23. Since Saturday is on the weekend, the last day of the holiday will be moved to Monday, March 25.

● Kazakhstan delegates par-ticipated in a meeting of the In-ternational Union of Lawyers in Moscow. IUL Chairman Andrey Trebkov said the organisation was expanding its scope to include co-ordinating lawyers’ activities in areas of international cooperation including integration processes of the Common Economic Space (CES). Lawyers from more than 15 countries attended the meeting.

● The International Physics Ol-ympiad will be held in Kazakhstan in 2014. The Ministry of Education expects at least 500 visitors to at-tend. The International Olympiad in Informatics, an annual competi-tion in computer programming for secondary school students, will be held in Astana in 2015.

● New rules and regulations for regular domestic commer-cial flights have been approved. The rules will start a new era of free competition on domestic air routes. They will require compet-ing airlines to have safety certifi-cates after meeting the inspection standards of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). All aircraft will be required to have valid operating certificates with offices and certified personnel at every airport where they are based. The new regulations will come into force in 2015.

● The Parliament of Kazakhstan is considering legalising entry for migrant workers to do house repairs and yard work. The bill would en-able people in Kazakhstan to hire migrants for such work for up to one year on contracts that would be renewable. Almost all migrant workers in Kazakhstan come from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Last week, the lower chamber of Parliament approved the first reading of the bill.

● President Nazarbayev ap-pointed two new deputy chairmen to the National Security Commit-tee, the Committee. Major Gener-al Nurgali Bilisbekov and Colonel Samat Abish were appointed to these posts. “On March 7 National Security Committee’s Chairman Nurtai Abykayev introduced his new Deputies to the Committee’s staff,” the Committee said. Mean-while, the deputy chairman of the National Security Committee, Major General User Mizanbaev was appointed as the head of the Kostanai region’s Department of National Security Committee.

● Nazarbayev University will admit 100 students for its gradu-ate programme courses in 2013. The first students will begin their Executive MBA courses on March 25. The course will last for two years. Three more courses are offered by the Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Public Policy for Mas-ters of Science (MSc) degrees in School Leadership and Higher Education. The programmes will last one year. Registration will be-gin on June 1 and the courses will start on August 19. Some 50 of the students will receive grants.

● An online labour exchange for young people will start operating in March, Nurlan Sydykov, execu-tive secretary of the youth wing of the Nur Otan Party said. The new service will provide young people with information on government programmes and projects. It is de-signed to help reduce the current 3.8 percent unemployment rate. Sydykov said the site was organ-ised according to geographical regions and would publicise avail-able jobs in budgetary organisa-tions, health, education and private companies.

● Some 60 artificial hearts are planned to be transplanted into pa-tients with serious heart problems in Kazakhstan this year as an alter-native to performing natural heart transplants, the National Cardiac Surgery Centre said.

● Kazakhstan mountaineer Andrey Gundarev has climbed Orizaba, the highest volcano in North America with a height of– 5,700 meters (18,700 feet) in Mexico.

Kyzylorda Governor Tackles Regional IssuesBy Zhuldyz Danabayeva

KYZYLORDA – Gov. Krymbek Kusherbayev faces a unique com-bination of challenges and envi-ronmental problems in his Kyzy-lorda region.

First, Kusherbayev is trying to revive the long-famous fishing industry in the Aral Sea, which was for generations a rich source of fish. Some 20 species were identified by biologists, includ-ing sturgeon and catfish. Today, fish caught there are exported from the Kyzylorda region with-out any processing. There is no coordination between fishermen, food processers, distributors and the officials who issue the license quotas. So the governor is trying to create a new system for fishing development.

Kusherbayev is also trying to end a long deadlock that has de-layed for years the construction of a new glass production plant by the Kazakhstan Glass Company (KGC) in a joint venture called PKZ with the Pilkington Compa-ny. Tenders were issued and con-struction work was originally due to begin in summer 2007. Funding for the project was provided in part by the Investment Fund of Kaza-khstan and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan. However, the com-pany could not reach agreement with the local authorities on some issues and decided to transfer their production line to the Aktobe re-gion instead.

Kusherbayev hopes to revive the project. He has raised the is-sue with President Nursultan Nazarbayev and won government approval to reconsider the location of the plant.

The Kyzylorda region has rich raw mineral reserves. It contains 15 percent of Kazakhstan’s zinc, 9.6 percent of its lead, 13.7 percent of its uranium, and 4.7 percent of its oil and gas. However, there

have been difficulties in reaching agreements to create the necessary plants to extract and process these resources

Kusherbayev said the mineral processing industry in the region was still poorly developed. He said a new project was planned to mine the vanadium reserves in the Shiyeli area. The Balausa Com-pany has started work at the Bala-sauyskandyk ore field and is using extracting the ore from black shale in a 35 billion tenge project that will eventually extract 800,000 tons of vanadium. The mining project in the region may be ex-panded to produce up to 150,000 tons of ferroalloy and 12,000 tons of sulfur concrete and silicon car-bide.

Kusherbayev said the region also

suffered from a lack of hot water supplies to many homes. He has launched a new programme using regional funds this year to provide all multistory apartment buildings with hot water. Heating systems for homes have been redesigned to heat water as well as living space. Starting in 2014, the programme will also receive state funds.

After the mayor has finished the report, citizens got a chance to ask Mr. Kusherbayev on issues of their particular interest.

Nurlan Akhmetov, resident of the main city of the region asked about the future of the local foot-ball club “Kaisar,” which has also been mentioned in the report. As Mr Kusherbayev has stated, all is-sues of the club are solved and he is looking forward seeing it in the

premier league again. Though, he admits that the financing of the club should not be connected with the regional budget. He offered major oil producing companies to support financially the “Kaisar” club.

The other issue raised by Adil-bek Aimbetov, who asked about the progress of building housing for young specialists, social condi-tions of residents of Saksaul sta-tion and establishment of the rec-reation zone at the Kambash lake.

“Budget has been already al-located and in the next year 30 houses to be built for young spe-cialists. Regarding Saksaul station we have talked with President of National Company “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy” Askar Mamin. I suggested moving main produc-

tion departments to Saksaul sta-tion, since at a number of factories at Kazaly and Shieli stations the cuts of staff to be held and those professionals should be employed. We have reached common ground on this question. A number of so-cial objects are to be built, which will be financed not by regional budget but by Kazakhstan Temir Zholy company,” said the head of the region. “Kambash is a unique lake and I believe it is necessary for touristic recreation to be cre-ated there. This issue has already been discussed and has received a positive approval of regional ad-ministration.”

Chairman of Uzbek national and cultural center Ashur Kha-midov asked about the House of Friendship. The project has been introduced a couple years ago. The House should have united repre-sentatives of all national and cul-tural centers of Kyzylorda under one roof. Mr. Kusherbayev has ap-proved that the project is underway and to be completed in two years.

On the question of Abkhantay Prnazarov, pensioner, regarding the lack and condition of munici-pal transportation, the mayor has answered that “money is allocated for acquisition of 22 buses and by the end of the year 50 more will be bought.”

At the end of the meeting Krym-bek Kusherbayev thanked citizens and his colleagues for coming. “There is no problem that cannot be solved by the united commu-nity” mayor said. “I want to call those who work with me in the government - employees of local executive bodies, representatives of national bodies. Dear colleagues! Each of us must constantly ask ourselves: what citizens do think about us and our work? I wish suc-cess to all of us, prosperity to our independent republic, and happi-ness to every home,” Kusherbayev concluded.

By Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – On Feb. 28, a round table on enhancing the role of de-fence lawyers in protecting con-stitutional rights and freedoms in criminal proceedings took place here.

The gathering discussed the on-going reform of the Criminal Pro-cedure Code and launched work on drafting new laws to protect and strengthen the procedural rights of defence lawyers.

“The protection of citizens’ rights remains one of the main aims of national legal policy in Kazakhstan. We believe the cur-rent reform of criminal procedure legislation will take into account the need to further support defence lawyers as the primary providers of legal counselling for citizens.” Minister of Justice Berik Imashev told the meeting.

Imashev said the debate would help produce sound and practical recommendations for the reforms.

Aurelia Bouchez, the European Union’s ambassador to Kaza-khstan, addressed the meeting.

“The right to a fair trial, which is an integral component of the rule of law, is enshrined in Articles 14 and 16 of the International Cov-enant on Civil and Political Rights, which Kazakhstan ratified in 2006,” she said. “The principle of a fair trial is based on the concept of equality between the prosecu-tion and defence during the trial. Under the current judicial reform, we welcome all efforts to enhance the role of defence lawyers in the criminal justice system of Kaza-khstan.”

Anuar Tugel, head of the Bar As-sociation of Kazakhstan, said that, under the proposed new Criminal Procedure Code, the defence law-yer would have “the right to enter the process only at the moment when a person gets the status of a suspect.”

Tugel said the proposed new code would abolish pre-investigation checks. This would fundamentally change the pre-trial process. This change would strengthen the rights of the accused person, he said.

“From the moment of register-ing the claim (of criminal conduct) to the moment of identifying the suspect (by the prosecution), the full investigation, collection and (the process of) securing evidence shall be held (as coming under the

purview of the legal process)... Ac-cordingly, the mechanism of im-plementing the right of citizens to be protected shall be significantly strengthened and the opportunities of the defence lawyer shall be seri-ously expanded,” Tugel said.

Tugel said that at the last meeting of President Nursultan Nazarbayev with the heads of law enforce-ment agencies, Prosecutor General Askhat Daulbaev raised the issue of empowering defence lawyers by strengthening the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. “The defence lawyer is a partici-pant in the legal process, whose actions are aimed at establishing the truth,” he said.

Representatives agreed to sup-port Daulbaev’s proposal to expand the powers and tools of defence lawyers working in cooperation with them.

The round table was attended by Justice Minister Imashev, First Deputy Prosecutor General Johan Merkel, Anuar Tugel, representa-tives of the President’s Office, deputies of the Mazhilis (the lower chamber of Parliament) and experts from several European countries, the United States and Russia. Ana-lysts Richard Sedio and Sergei Pa-shin represented the EU Project in Kazakhstan. The round table also discussed strengthening such legal principles as the equality of parties, collection of evidence, the adver-sarial principle and trial by jury.

The participants also noted that issues of access in criminal de-fence cases containing state secrets were not tackled in the new draft of the Criminal Procedure Code. They proposed studying legisla-tion in other countries to frame the necessary new articles of law

The event was organized by the Mazhilis, the Supreme Court, the Bar Association of Kazakhstan, the EU Project “Support of Ju-dicial and Legal Reforms in Ka-zakhstan,” the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Eu-rope (OSCE) Centre in Astana, the Legal Policy Research Centre and the Soros Foundation in Ka-zakhstan.

The EU Project in Kazakhstan has a budget of 3.4 million euros ($4.44 million) and is implemented by a European consortium led by the French Agency for Internation-al Legal Cooperation (ACOJURIS) working with ICON in Germany and Louis Berger in France.

New Law to Boost Defence Lawyers’ Rights

President Celebrates Women’s Achievements

from Page A1

“Motherhood is hard work, al-though for some reason this art is not taught. However, motherhood, family life and the upbringing of children must also be taught,” he added.

“Knowledge should be instilled from childhood,” the President said. “At times the schools shift the responsibility for this process on to parents, and parents put it back on to the schools, whereas they ought to share it.”

“The teacher’s role cannot be reduced to just being a transmitter of knowledge. We need a different system of education,” the President said.

Nazarbayev said the recently adopted education savings system will help to develop and improve national education standards. The system has been successfully ap-plied in developed countries. When a family saves money for its chil-dren’s education, it collects interest from the bank, and the state pays the extra premium. Account hold-ers can also take out educational loans on favourable terms.

“The earlier a family starts saving even a small amount, the more op-portunities there will be for its chil-dren to receive a good education,” the President said. “We have adopt-ed this programme in our national development strategy to 2050. Why do we plan this? To see our children, the next generation, enjoy the fruits of all this work. Every family does everything it can for its children. So Kazakhstan, as a large multi-ethnic family, is working for its future gen-erations,” he said.

The President noted that life expectancy has increased in Ka-zakhstan. He said the Salamatty Kazakhstan state healthcare pro-gramme has allocated 360 billion tenge ($23.88 billion) through 2015 to improve the national health standards.

The people of Kazakhstan are guaranteed free medical care and 21 new perinatal centers with modern equipment have opened across the country, Nazarbayev added. Infant and maternal mor-tality has dropped dramatically. New preschools are being opened around the country under the Bala-pan state programme. By 2020, all pre-school age children will have places in kindergartens.

“In accordance with the Em-

ployment 2020 programme, the proportion of women receiving small business loans has risen to 40 percent. The number of women in business is growing steadily, and their contribution in the GDP is nearly 40 percent,” the President noted.

He said the main objective of Strategy 2050 was to make Kaza-khstan one of the 30 most devel-oped and competitive nations in the world. “We have sufficient pre-con-ditions to do it,” he said. “Our posi-tions are rising on global indexes. Kazakhstan now ranks 31st among 135 countries on gender equality.”

Women make up more than 55 percent of the country’s man-agement force, well ahead of the global average of 21 percent, the president said.

In the most recent national per-formance assessment of police officers, women showed the best results. One of them, Valentina Oleshkevich, a senior police of-ficer in Semey’s task force to fight organized crime, attended the Ako-rda meeting.

Around the country, 260 women serve as akims (mayors) of differ-ent levels Among those attending the meeting was Azia Kystaubaeva, who runs the Sunakat district in the Kyzylorda region and under whose leadership various social facilities

have been built in her village.The President also praised

Nazymgul Kuangan, who in 2010 gave birth to quadruplets. Her family was given a three bedroom apartment in Almaty.

Marina Wening, an English teacher at the Enbek School in North Kazakhstan told the meeting she had long wanted to meet the President and her wish came true on that day.

Gaziza Ryskulova, a welder at Trans Asia Construction LLP, said she preferred her work to staying in an office.

President Nazarbayev said the women of Kazakhstan were the bulwark of its peace and harmony and the faithful guardians of its na-tional values. “May your hearths and homes be always bright,” he said.

“On March 1, I signed a decree establishing a new holiday, Fam-ily Day, on the second Sunday of September. We must strengthen the value of the family, as the state be-gins with it,” the President said.

Nazarbayev awarded Samal Makatova, 32, and the mother of seven children with the Al-tyn Alka gold medal. “With this award, I thank every woman, every mother for the love, care and attention that they give to the world,” he said.

Krymbek Kusherbayev addressed the issues of most concern during his report to residents of Kyzylorda region.

President Nazarbayev awards Samal Makatova, the mother of seven, with the “Altyn Alka” gold medal.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 The Astana TimesА3

ExTERNAL NEWS IN BRIEf

Eurasia and world

● President Nursultan Nazarbayev has sent a telegram of congratulations to Cuban President Raul Castro on his re-election. “I believe that dynamic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Cuba based on mutual trust and under-standing will grow stronger in the future for the good of our people,” Nazarbayev said.

● Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to China Nurlan Yermekbayev has received an invitation for President Nursultan Nazarbayev to attend the Boao Forum for Asia on April 6-8. The forum will be on the theme “Asia Seeking Development for All: Restructuring, Responsibility and Cooperation.”

● President Nursultan Nazarbayev has received a per-sonal invitation from President Vladimir Putin of Russia to par-ticipate in the next G20 Summit in St. Petersburg. Kazakhstan was the only post-Soviet republic apart from Russia to be invited to the meeting, reflecting Kazakhstan’s role in various Eurasian organisa-tions such as the Customs Union, the Common Economic Space and the Commonwealth of Independ-ent States.

● The Attorney General of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Askhat Daulbayev visited the city of Brno, Czech Republic, where his bilat-eral meeting with country’s At-torney General Pavel Zeman took place.During the meeting the sides exchanged opinions on the actual interagency issues, including the struggle against transnational or-ganized crime, religious extrem-ism and terrorism. The Attorney General of Czech Republic high-lighted the importance of further consolidation of efforts against the challenges of modern world. In this context he expressed his will-ingness to the exchange of special-ists between the two countries in order to achieve better exchange of experience in the sphere of crime control.

● The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK) celebrated its 18th anniversary on March 1. Participants discussed the APK’s achievements and its role in main-taining good interethnic relations. The APK has members in Parlia-ment and runs its own Scientific Council, Journalists Club and other groups.

● On February 28, Kazakhstan’s delegation to the International Atomic Energy Authority in Vi-enna met IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to discuss plans to set up the international nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan. The Ka-zakhstan delegates presented pos-sible locations for the bank, includ-ing the Ulba Metallurgical Plant and presented plans to launch the project to representatives from the United States, the European Union, Norway and Kuwait which have pledged financing for the project.

● Air Astana has officially opened direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Almaty with two flights per week, on Wednesday and Friday. The flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Almaty takes seven hours. The company will use Boeing 757s with 16 busi-ness class seats and 150 economy seats. A ticket costs $590, includ-ing taxes, airport fees and other charges.

● Some Kazakh tourism compa-nies have presented the country’s attractions at ITB Berlin 2013 exhi-bition, the Kazakh National Agency for Export and Investment Kaznex Invest under Industry and New Technologies Ministry reported on March 7. Kaznex Invest is one of Kazakhstan’s national develop-ment institutions designed to pro-mote diversification of the national economy by creating more favora-ble conditions for development and advancement of Kazakhstan’s non-primary commodity exports and foreign direct investment in prior-ity sectors of the economy.

● Two Kazakhstan citizens are among the owners of London’s most expensive apartments in One Hyde Park elite residential com-plex. The widow of the chairman of TuranAlem bank Yerzhan Tatishev, singer Anar Aitzhanova as well as president and major shareholder of Kazakhmys corporation Vladimir Kim own apartments neighbouring those of supermodel Naomi Camp-bell and her boyfriend Russian ty-coon Vladislav Doronin.

By Nadezhda Khamitova

ASTANA – On March 6, Kaza-khstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented the book “Kazakhstan in the International Community (Es-says of Multilateral Diplomacy)” edited by former Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov (April 2011–September 2012) at the National Academic Library in Astana.

The presentation was dedicated to the 21st anniversary of Kaza-khstan’s accession to the United Nations, which happened on March 2, 1992. This anniversary is one more milestone showing the devel-opment of Kazakhstan’s multilat-eral diplomacy through its 20 years of independence, Kazakhstan’s ac-tivity within major international and regional organisations and Ka-zakhstan’s president’s initiatives to promote peace and strengthen regional and global security.

Speakers at the presentation in-cluded U.N. Resident Coordina-

tor in Kazakhstan Stephen Tull, Deputy Head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Centre in Kaza-khstan Jeannette Kloetzer, Head of the Foreign Policy Centre of the Presidential Administration Yerzhan Ashikbayev, Director of the Institute of Diplomacy Saule-kul Saylaukyzy and Dean of the International Relations Faculty at Gumilev Eurasian National Uni-versity Baubek Somzhurek. The presentation was attended by rep-resentatives of the Foreign Minis-try, government agencies, educa-tional institutions and international organisations, as well as the mass media.

Guests were welcomed by Serzhan Abdykarimov, chairman of the Foreign Ministry’s Commit-tee for Foreign Policy Analysis and Forecasting, who read a welcom-ing letter from Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrissov.

“Today’s event is dedicated to

the 21st anniversary of the acces-sion of Kazakhstan to the United Nations. This date is of great his-torical and political significance for our young state, which then had received the opportunity to participate directly in discussions of global and regional issues and to be involved in decision-making on global issues,” stated the letter.

“Thanks to the creative and proactive activities of Kazakhstan, the international community has witnessed of the transformation of our country into a credible and re-sponsible partner in the promotion of peace, stability and develop-ment in the world… Kazakhstan’s land has become the venue for the different organisations’ high-level meetings,” Idrissov continued in his letter.

The Foreign Ministry also un-derlined that the book lays out the historical background, the process of entry and the main aspects of the country’s activities in major inter-

national and regional associations during its years of independence. The book marks the new contours and objectives for Kazakhstan’s diplomacy, which will promote the country’s national interests in the years to come.

In his speech, Stephen Tull un-derlined the importance of Kaza-khstan’s policies for preserving security in the region. He also emphasised the role of the country in today’s world politics. “Kaza-khstan is a country that has devel-oped a multilateral approach to the political system and established a good balance between the interests of foreign policy and the preserva-tion of its own interests,” he said.

Its location in the heart of Eurasia gives the country an understanding of both Asian and European men-talities. Kazakhstan’s unique ini-tiatives distinguish it in the global arena.

“The historical documentary ma-terial collected in the book focuses

on the most important principles of the foreign policy of Kazakhstan, making this a significant publica-tion,” Tull said.

The head of the United Nations Development Programme also called Kazakhstan a global model of success, serving as an example for its neighbours. Deputy Head of the OSCE Centre in Kazakhstan Jeannette Kloetzer highlighted the OSCE summit held in the country and Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in the OSCE in 2010 as milestones for the country and the world at large. These events are given spe-cial attention in the book.

“We wanted to cover the main as-pects of Kazakhstan’s policies under the leadership of the head of state in a multilateral format, achieving goals and objectives aimed at ensur-ing national and international secu-rity, the development of our country and society… the Foreign Ministry will continue to make every effort to protect national interests and strengthen the authority of Kaza-khstan in the international arena,” said Idrissov’s letter.

Organisers expressed hopes that the book will be of interest to the expert community, professors, stu-dents and all people interested in Kazakhstan’s foreign policy.

By Assem Kazybay

ASTANA – On March 3-5, a delegation from Kazakhstan led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrissov and including NAC Ka-zatomprom JSC Board Chairman Vladimir Shkolnik and JSC Kirov Machine Building Plant General Director Kanat Uskenov visited India.

During the visit, Idrissov held talks with Vice President and Chairman of the Upper House of the Indian Parliament (Rajya Sab-ha) Mohammad Ansari and Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khur-shid.

The foreign ministers of the two countries exchanged views on topical international issues, cur-rent bilateral cooperation and pros-pects for the future and reviewed the implementation of agreements achieved at the highest level dur-ing the visits of President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev to New Delhi in January 2009 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Astana in April 2011.

Idrissov noted that “since the establishment of diplomatic rela-tions, Kazakhstan and India have come a long way, laying a solid foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation.”

The sides appraised dynamically developing bilateral cooperation and confirmed their commitment

to strengthening constructive dia-logue on global and regional secu-rity, the rehabilitation of Afghani-stan and multilateral cooperation, including interaction within the framework of the U.N., the Con-ference on Interaction and Confi-dence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Shanghai Coop-eration Organisation.

Issues regarding developing co-operation in the oil and gas sector, the pharmaceutical industry and transport infrastructure were dis-cussed during meetings with Min-ister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Veerappa Moily and heads of India’s largest companies. The Indian company ONGC Videsh Limited has already acquired a 25% stake in the Satpayev Oil Block in the Caspian Sea, and In-dia is keen to expand cooperation in the oil and gas sectors.

A round table meeting with rep-resentatives of the business and scientific communities on “Pros-pects for Kazakh-Indian coopera-tion” has aroused intense interest.

Speaking at the meeting, Idriss-ov noted that the main goal of the new political course of Kazakhstan outlined by the president in the development strategy Kazakhstan 2050 is to join the top developed world countries.

The foreign minister called on Indian businesspersons to use in full the potential of bilateral coop-

eration, the favourable investment climate of the republic and the new opportunities provided by the Cus-toms Union for establishing joint high-tech productions.

During a meeting with political commentators of Indian media, Idrissov answered questions about prospects for regional and bilateral cooperation, Kazakhstan’s current development and the outcome of

the recent talks in Almaty on the Iranian nuclear programme.

Kazakhstan is one of India’s larg-est trade and investment partners in Central Asia. Trade between Kaza-khstan and India made 525 million dollars in 2012. Exports reached 190 million; imports 335 million.

The visit has promoted the fur-ther consolidation of strategic re-lations between Kazakhstan and

India and defined priority areas for further cooperation.

These regular meetings, held at all levels, demonstrate the dynamic development of bilateral coopera-tion between the two nations. The Declaration on Strategic Partner-ship between the two countries was adopted during the successful and productive state visit of President Nazarbayev to India in 2009.

By Altynai Sultan

ASTANA - On Feb. 26, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Volkov par-ticipated in the Conference on Disar-mament in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a leading nation in the global process of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament Kazakhstan gives great importance to the conference, which it has attended since 1999.

Volkov told the conference that Ka-zakhstan welcomed the growth in its membership and urged it to consider the peaceful use of outer space.

He said Kazakhstan urged all na-tions to sign a comprehensive, le-gally binding commitment to elim-inate the nuclear threat and noted President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s initiative for the development and adoption of the UN Universal Dec-laration of a Nuclear Weapons Free World. He welcomed the decision of U.S. President Barack Obama to seek ratification of the Compre-hensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty by the U.S. Senate and expressed concerns about the latest nuclear test carried out by North Korea in violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council.

Volkov said he hoped the Six Party talks in Almaty on nuclear issues would develop common ap-proaches and resolve the Iranian nuclear issue by purely diplomatic means.

Volkov told the UN Human Rights Council gathering in Ge-neva that Kazakhstan supported strengthening the international system to protect human rights. He said the human rights records of governments around the world needed to be measured on world-wide, regional and domestic scales. He also praised the work of the UNHRC in strengthening the confidence of its member states in its operations and developing con-structive dialogues with them.

On Feb. 25, Volkov held direct talks on bilateral issues with Rus-sian officials attending the Geneva conferences. He also met with Deputy UN Secretary-General and Director-General of the UN Of-fice at Geneva Kassym-Zhomart Tokaev, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and the heads of foreign delegations participating in the UNHRC talks.

During the 67th session of the UN General Assembly on Nov. 12, 2012, Kazakhstan was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the first time in its history, with 183 out of 193 UN member states voting for it. Kazakhstan has sat on the UNHRC since Jan. 1, 2013 and will do so until 2015.. Kazakhstan actively supports the work of the Human Rights Council and the pro-motion of human rights.

New Book Explores Kazakhstan’s Multilateral Diplomacy Efforts

Deputy fM Attends Geneva Disarmament Conference

foreign Minister Visits India to Advance Economic, Political Ties

The visit of Erlan Idrissov to India contributed to the development of cooperation between the two states.

Saudabayev Meets Norwegian, Int’l Disarmament Experts, Martin Sheen

from Page A1

Later on the same day, Kaza-khstan’s delegation met Direc-tor of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Ulf Sverdrup, co-president of PNND, Member of the Scottish Parliament Bill Kidd and oth-ers.

In a conversation with Ulf Sver-drup, referring to the similarity of objectives and priorities of the two institutions, such as conducting research on international political and economic issues, the parties noted the great potential for coop-eration in this field.

In his turn, Bill Kidd, who has visited Kazakhstan before, high-lighted the importance of the ex-ample the republic has shown in nuclear disarmament for the glo-bal efforts aimed at reducing the nuclear weapons and the need to more widely promote the practi-cal disarmament experience of our country to the international com-munity.

After viewing the works of Hon-orary Ambassador of the ATOM Project Karipbek Kuyukov, Bill Kidd stressed that “his paintings, such as the “First explosion”, clearly expresses the thought: nu-clear weapons are horrible and the mankind must find the strength to get rid of them.”

Kanat Saudabayev invited Hollywood actor Martin Sheen to visit Kazakhstan.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesА4

EconomyBuSINESS

NEWS IN BRIEf

● Verny Capital, a Kazakhstan investment company, said on Feb-ruary 20 that in partnership with Kazzinc it had acquired the Ray-gorodok gold deposit, located in the Akmola region and the Komar-ovsky gold deposit in the Kostanay region for 30 billion tenge ($200 million). Verny Capital will own 10.5 percent of the mines and Ka-zzinc will control 89.5 percent. Verny Capital manages the assets of unit investment funds and indi-vidual investors. It is a major fully integrated zinc producer with cop-per, precious metals and lead hold-ings. The company’s core opera-tions are in Kazakhstan, mainly in the East Kazakhstan Region. It was established in 1997 through the merger of Eastern Kazakhstan’s three main non-ferrous metal com-panies - Ust-Kamenogorsk Lead and Zinc, Leninogorsk Polymetal-lic and Zyryanovsk Lead. All three producers were majority-owned by the government. The controlling block of shares in Kazzinc has been sold to the private sector. Glencore International AG is its largest main investor.

● The Kazakhstan Agency for Statistics said the production of raw and semi-finished gold and powdered gold increased by 47 per-cent to 3,624 tons (117,000 ounces) in January 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. Production of raw and semi-finished silver and powdered silver increased by 54.8 percent to 76.69 tons (2.47 million ounces). The production of refined gold in January 2013 increased by 81.9 percent to 1.899 tons (61,100 ounces) and of refined silver by 55.9 percent to 76.541 tons (2.46 million ounces) compared to the same pe-riod in 2012. Total gold production in 2012 amounted to 40 tons.

● Kazakhstan has been ranked 56th in the globalization index of Ernst & Young, one of the world’s leading professional services or-ganisations. The annual index is based on five criteria: openness to trade, capital flows, exchange of technology and ideas, labour move-ments and cultural integration. The rating was based on a survey of 730 managers of major corpora-tions around the world. The list covers 60 countries. Kazakhstan is ranked 56th with 3.12 points, an improvement of 0.06 points on 2011. Hong Kong leads the listing with 7.81 points followed by Sin-gapore (6.31 points), Ireland (5.63 points), Belgium (5.49 points) and Switzerland (5.3 points). Britain ranked 10th (4.74 points), France 14th (4.58 points), the United States is 25th (4.33 points), China is 44th (3.53 points), Ukraine is 47th (3.31 points) and Russia is 48th (3.24 points). Iran came last with 2.16 points.

● The first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan will probably be built in Aktau, Kazatomprom Manag-ing Director Valery Shevelev told a meeting of the Central Communi-cations Service on March 4. “A de-cision has been reached to build the station, probably in the city of Ak-tau in the Mangystau region since qualified personnel and infrastruc-ture exist there,” Shevelev said. An international tender will be issued for the project. On January 23, President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed Kazatomprom to pre-pare a proposal to build the new plant within the next six months.

● A Kazakhstan-Belarusian IT forum took place in Astana on March 4, BNews.kz said. The fo-rum brought together government officials and business leaders from both countries. Vice-Minister of Transport and Communications Saken Sarsenov said the forum pro-vided an opportunity to exchange information about online govern-ment services, electronic com-merce, new software for business and government and new hardware. The forum’s participants discussed created new analytical systems for government, databases, interde-partmental information data flows, and the introduction of information technologies in municipal serv-ices. They also explored the use of information systems and safety technologies in schools. The forum explored the introduction of com-puteised automobile checkpoints on borders within the Customs Union and the interface of new IT systems with old ones. Other topics included the use of IT in the oil and gas sector, in banks and in indus-try. Kazakhstan and Belarus plan to intiroduce electronic signatures. More than 25 companies took part in the forum.

from Page A1

In his Facebook entry from To-kyo, Minister Issekeshev wrote, “The first day in Tokyo was suc-cessful. The forum brought togeth-er more than 350 people, including 140 businessmen from Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan Chamber of Com-merce and personally Sabr Es-imbekov, its president, brought a good group of businessmen from the regions, many small and medi-um-sized enterprises. The Kaznex Invest organized everything well.”

“Toshiba and Sumitomo have in-vested already. Toyota Motors starts working. Substantive negotiations on large industrial projects have been conducted with Itochu, Maru-beni and Mitsui. If these five major business empires start serious work in Kazakhstan, a wave of Japa-nese companies will follow them,” Issekeshev continued. “And, of course, a major conversation took place on the issue of technology transfer. For example, one major

steel company will work through a unique technology that recycles in-dustrial gases from the production, cleans and receives chemical prod-ucts, particularly ethanol, at a price lower than diesel. FS (feasibility study) is currently underway.”

Issekeshev also noted, “There are many technologies in energy, industrial automation, and use of new materials. And it is very im-portant for us to complete negotia-tions on an investment protection agreement, so that a legal frame-work is fully developed, without which the Japanese do not move.”

In an interview with The Astana Times, Sabr Esimbekov, the Ka-zakhstan Chamber of Commerce president said: “Our chamber aims to promote and protect Kaza-khstan’s small and medium-sized enterprises. This work includes the organization and participation in the so-called Business Coun-cils with business communities of different countries. Currently, the Kazakh-German Business Council,

the Kazakh-French, the Kazakh-Austrian, the Kazakh-Turkish and others are actively developing. I head the Kazakhstan-Japan Busi-ness Council. The essence of its work is to ‘measure temperature’ of bilateral economic cooperation. Our Council acts as a ‘window’ for businessmen of two countries to promote the ideas of how to im-prove interstate procedures to facil-itate trade contacts, and to increase the flow of goods and services. At the forum in Tokyo we managed to gather a very large delegation – nearly 100 people, including chair-men of the regional Chambers of Commerce, SMEs, research insti-tutes, etc. There were some very serious fruitful discussions. I hope all this will result in good projects. We have something to offer to Ja-pan, and above all – technology.”

Since establishing diplomatic re-lations with Kazakhstan, Japan has provided around one billion dollars in official development assistance, making it one of the largest foreign

aid donors. These funds have helped Kazakhstan close the Soviet nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, manage its water resources, and develop its trans-portation and other infrastructure, in-cluding reconstructing Astana Inter-national Airport. In the last few years, the relationship has become more balanced, with Kazakhstan offering Japan important natural resources and investment opportunities. Private Jap-anese companies now invest more in Kazakhstan than Japan’s government. The Japanese ambassador to Astana, Yuzo Harada, has said that his coun-try’s firms have found Kazakhstan’s business environment increasingly attractive in recent years.

According to Richard Weitz, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analy-sis at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, the Kazakhstani-Japanese partnership “appears to be a natural fit. Japan is eager to access Kaza-khstan’s rich mineral and energy resources, which include oil, gas, uranium and various rare earth min-

erals, while Kazakhstan wants to diversify its economic ties, obtain advanced Japanese technology, and strengthen its own Asian “pivot.”

According to Kaznex Invest, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Japan during the past five years 2008-12 amounted to $7 billion, with Kazakhstan importing $3.4 billion in Japanese goods and ex-porting $3.5 billion in goods to the East Asian nation. Bilateral trade grew by 50 percent between 2010 and 2011, to $1.6 billion. Japanese total direct investment in Kaza-khstan has exceeded $4 billion since 1994, with some 45 active Japanese projects worth about $26 billion and more than 70 Kazakhstani-Japanese joint ventures, many involved in the mining of uranium and rare earth metals. Japan’s Inpex Corporation is one of the seven largest interna-tional oil and gas companies that are developing Kazakhstan’s enormous Kashagan field in the Caspian, and owns 7.6 percent of the shares in the consortium.

Kazakhstan, Japan Launch New Projects beyond Energy

By Yernat Mukhamadiyev

ALMATY – Almaty is the big-gest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1.5 million people, representing nearly 10 percent of the population of Kazakhstan. It is located in the centre of the Eurasian continent and known as the finan-cial, business, cultural, historical, scientific, education and industrial centre of the country. Alma-Ata, as the city was then know, was also the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic from 1929 to 1991, and then the first capital of an independent Kazakhstan until 1997, when the capital was trans-ferred to Astana.

Almaty has an ancient and rich his-tory. As а transit point on the Great Silk Road, the city was a center of international trade in Central Asia. Silk traders from China and sell-ers of ivory and spices from India would meet here to leave a unique mark on the culture of the city.

The traditions of modern Almaty are composed of cultural practices from various eras and nations, which are easily combined to form a unique multi-ethnic identity. Al-maty combines traditions of the East and the West, the ways of nomads and settled peoples. Here, one can see a combination of an-cient traditions, Soviet culture and modern global trends.

The new 2030 General Plan of Almaty was developed in 1998 and aims to form ecologically safe, se-cure and socially comfortable living conditions. The main objective is to promote Almaty’s image as a gar-den city. (Almaty former name of Alma-Ata was translated as The Fa-ther of Apples, with alma meaning

apple in Kazakh. The area around the city has been identified by both national and international scientists as the birthplace of apples.)

As the largest city in the coun-try and the nation’s capital at its independence in 1991, it was in-evitable that the success of those policies would transform Almaty into a major transportation hub and regional centre for visiting foreign businesspeople and inves-tors. Thus, despite losing its status as the capital, Almaty remains the major financial and business centre of Kazakhstan.

Its status as the financial and business centre of the country is supported by a high concentration of banking and industrial capital in Almaty. The headquarters and the management of the majority of fi-nancial institutions and industrial companies are located in the city. Key regulating and controlling institutions, such as the National Bank of Kazakhstan (central bank of the country) and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) are also located here.

Nowadays, the city provides:• 1/5th of the national GDP;• 1/3rd of all tax revenues;• Over 50 percent of wholesale

and retail operations;• The 1/6th of the foreign trade

turnover of Kazakhstan;• 14 percent of all new housing

commissioned;• 18 percent of all investments of

Kazakhstan; and• 1/3rd of all goods and services

produced by small and medium-sized businesses.

The economic growth and high concentration of financial capital became the basis of the foundation

of the Regional Financial Centre of Almaty City (RFCA). The project of the creation of the regional fi-nancial center in the city of Almaty was initiated by President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev.

The main objectives of RFCA have been identified as:

• Establishment of a world-class financial centre, which will facili-tate the successful integration of the Kazakhstan financial industry with international stock markets;

• Attraction of foreign invest-ment, further development of the Kazakhstan stock market, increas-ing its capitalization and liquidity, the attraction of private investors to the stock market, and creating conditions for the export of Kaza-khstan capital.

The mission of RFCA is the creation of conditions and effec-tive mechanism for Kazakhstan’s integration in world economy by the formation and successful func-tioning of the financial centre, at-tractive for all participants as an internal market of country.

According to many experts, RFCA will act as a financial hub, attracting international investment funds as well as listed companies. RFCA is a logical step to further diversify the Kazakhstan economy and reduce dependence on natural resources. The Kazakhstan gov-ernment expects that the centre will increase the domestic stock market and promote reforms of the real sector of the economy.

The establishment of RFCA in February 2007 has played a lead-ing role in this case, which per-forms the main tasks of not only attracting foreign investors into Kazakhstan, but also involving

the construction of the infrastruc-ture.

Senior Manager of Hong Kong Stock Exchange Jeffrey Tang says that cooperation of the exchange with Kazakhstan trade zones has been quite active. Thus, in Decem-ber 2007, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and RFCA signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement on recognition of each other, which is a good opportunity to continue constructive dialogue, develop relations between markets and share information.

According to the exchange rep-resentative, the growth prospects of the stock market in Kazakhstan are large and optimistic. He also noted that RFCA sets out to be-come a top Central Asian financial centre and offers the opportunity for Central Asian companies to be listed at the exchange are quite re-alistic and interesting. “Moreover, we are pleased to hear about RFCA success and development and that new project and regulations are be-ing introduced,” Tang said.

“We hope that there will be es-tablished a highly liquid, modern financial centre with its own listing rules, which can be acceptable for international investors. These are the priority expectations of the fi-nancial institutions, which want to enter the market of Kazakhstan for a long period,” the analyst stated.

However, any stock exchange needs a well-defined system with convenient and high-quality rules both for issuers and investors.

“This is enormously difficult work. It is hard to finish in 1-2 years; we spent 20-30 years in or-der to build such a system. We are ready to share the experience since

the evolution of the exchange is quite a long process. Our experi-ence shows that the development of the stock market and the Hong Kong exchange in particular helped Chinese companies in their search for capital; the first listing proce-dure was organised more than 15 years ago,” the Hong Kong Stock Exchange representative said.

According to sources close to the London Stock Exchange, generally the development of the stock mar-ket in Kazakhstan has been quite successful. Today, the results of RFCA work are obvious. One such success is the integration of Kaza-khstan Stock Exchange and RFCA Special Trade Floor. The source states that Kazakhstan has all the potential to become the leading fi-nancial center in Central Asia.

However, on the other hand, analysts are positive that it is nec-essary to focus on the attraction of domestic investors because the Ka-zakhstan stock market is still small for foreign retail and institutional investors. It also remains important to attract retail investors; in com-parison to the institutional inves-tors, the retail investors are more involved in stable investment and less responsive to various world market fluctuations.

Furthermore, the absence of de-veloped tenge based instruments will make it impossible to develop Almaty as a regional financial centre in the future. The focus on the devel-opment of secondary infrastructure factors for the stock market growth can deteriorate the security level of domestic financial markets.

Nowadays, many financial cen-tres with competitive advantages are emerging in the world. To compete with such centres, experts agree that it is necessary to con-tinue developing Almaty as a Re-gional Financial Centre, meeting international standards.

In addition to being a financial centre, Almaty is also recognised as a university town. Such uni-versities as the Almaty Institute of Power Engineering & Telecommu-nications; Kazakh-British Tech-nical University; Kimep (Kaza-khstan Institute of Management, Economics, & Strategic Research); Al-Farabi Kazakh National Uni-versity (KazUU); Kazakh National Technical University (KazNTU); SuleymanDemirel University (SDU); Kazakh-American Univer-sity (KAU); Kazakh Academy of Sciences; Almaty State University (named after Abay); Turan Uni-versity; Kazakhstan University of Global Relationships & Languag-es; Central Asian University are all providing international stand-ards of education to students from across the country and beyond.

It has already been announced that the Third Conference of Asian University Presidents will be held at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty in 2014. More than 20 universities of the Asia-Pa-cific Region fought for the right to host this event. The Steering Com-mittee made a decision to conduct the forum in Almaty based on the Al-Farabi Kazakh National Univer-sity's achievements and high posi-tions in the international rankings.

Moreover, Almaty won its bid to host the 2011 Winter Asian Games and it will also become the capital of the 28th Winter Universiade-2017. However, the city is working on future bids, including the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Almaty Seeks Role as Central Asian financial Centre

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 The Astana TimesА5

BusinessECONOMY

NEWS IN BRIEf

● Kazatomprom Managing Di-rector Valery Shevelev said a new factory to make wind turbines would be built this year in Kaza-khstan. The new wind turbines will be available for private purchasers. He also said the Kazakhstan Gov-ernment has settled on building a new atomic power station in Ak-tau, on the Caspian Sea shore. The selection of a partner for building this station will be done through an international tender, he said.

● The Kazakhstan Senate has adopted the draft law on ratification of the agreement between the gov-ernments of Kazakhstan and Russia on trade and economic cooperation in supplies of oil and oil products to Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz re-ports. “The agreement between the governments of the two countries was signed in Moscow on Decem-ber 9, 2010. It outlines the trade and economic cooperation in com-mon markets of oil and oil products and terms of oil products supplies to Kazakhstan to meet its domestic needs in the amounts specified in the indicative oil and oil products balances approved by the parties. The essence of the agreement lays in duty-free oil supplies from Rus-sia to Kazakhstan. The protocol will expire on January 1, 2014,” Kazakhstan Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said.

● The Fund for the Financial Support of Agriculture said agri-cultural manufacturers will be able to obtain loans of up to 13 million tenge ($90,000) for cotton produc-tion this year. Micro credits will be available for buying fuel and lu-bricants, seeds, pesticides, mineral fertilizers, materials and equip-ment, component parts for agricul-tural machines, leasing equipment, services payments and storing products.

● The government of Kazakhstan will provide 450 million tenge ($3 million) in subsidies for seeds this year, Agriculture Minister As-sylzhan Mamytbekov said. The funding will address a shortfall of 80,000 tons of seeds this year. The government will continue subsi-dizing fuel, herbicides and other goods for agricultural producers with 18.9 billion tenge ($126 mil-lion) this year.

● KazRosGas supplied 4.4 bil-lion cubic metres (bcm) of com-mercial gas from the Karachaga-nak field to domestic users in 2012. KazRosGas also exported 872 million cubic metres (mbc) from the field. The joint Kazakhstan-Russian company processed a total of 8.4 bcm of crude gas from the Karachaganak field at its Orenburg Gas-Chemical Plant in Russia near the Kazakhstan border last year.

● The city of Almaty gener-ated 305.6 billion tenge ($2 bil-lion) in revenues in 2012, Mayor Akhmetzhan Yessimov told the city’s annual public meeting. The revenues averaged 730,000 tenge ($4,900) per person and confirmed the city’s position as the country’s financial centre, the mayor said. “This is a contribution and a result of efforts by every Almaty citizen. And I would like to thank you for that,” he said. The municipal gov-ernment of Almaty received 18 per-cent more in taxes and payments in 2012 than in 2011. The city gener-ates 18 percent of the GDP of the country and 24 percent of the state budget. In 2012, the city produced 521.5 billion tenge ($3.5 billion) worth of goods, 3.3 percent more than in 2011, the mayor said. Retail sales grew by 6.7 percent to a value of 1.3 trillion tenge ($8.5 billion). Almaty was ranked the country’s leading city in its volume of trade.

● The government has set a target to generate 1,040 MW of renewable energy by 2020 by building four solar plants, 13 wind power plants and 14 hydropower plants. Media reports said the solar plants would have a total capacity of 77MW.The programme is part of the government’s 2012-2013 ac-tion plan to develop alternative and renewable energy sources.

● The municipal government of Astana and the VINCI Construc-tion Grands Projets Company of France signed a Memorandum of Mutual Understanding on March 3 to develop public transport serv-ices. VINCI will construct three car parks on the Left Bank of the Ishim River starting this year. The. VINCI will also work on construc-tion projects associated with EXPO 2017.

from Page A1

“We aimed to achieve feasible, sustainable and growing rates of development. We managed to achieve this goal in the shortest historical period. It was Strategy Kazakhstan 2030 where the focus has been shifted towards econom-ic growth. As a result, within 15 years our national economy grew from 1.7 trillion tenge in 1997 up to 28 trillion tenge in 2011,” the president said. “Over these years our oil output grew three-fold, natural gas output increased five-fold. We have channeled those commodity incomes into our Na-tional Fund. The National Fund became a reliable shield to protect us from possible economic and financial disturbances. This is a safeguard for current and future generations.”

On Jan. 11, KazMunayGas (KMG) discussed the new national Strategy 2050 at a conference of its senior management of KMG and subsidiaries.

The state-owned KazMunayGas has a major impact on the coun-try’s oil and gas industry. The company is involved in all major projects of the oil and gas indus-try including the Caspian shelf, the national pipeline network, the in-frastructure to support oil and gas operations, oil and gas processing and petrochemicals.

KazMunayGas Chairman Lyaz-zat Kiinov told the conference that President Nazarbayev had clearly determined the new political and economic development course for the state through the new national strategy.

“KMG is the national holding company. It participates directly or through its subsidiaries in the im-plementation of large-scale hydro-carbon projects. It has been given a special role in implementing spe-cific aspects of the national strat-egy,” the KMG chairman said.

In his address, President Nazarbayev noted that the world’s multinational energy corporations are currently working out their development strategies for half a century ahead. KMG is planning ahead too. It has adopted its 2022 Development Strategy and has established qualitative and quan-titative indicators that provide for sustainability and boost the eco-nomic performance of the entire company.

KMG plans to expand its geo-logical surveys on land and off-shore to find new oil and gas fields. It is going to increase its produc-tion of oil and gas, create a flexible oil and gas transportation system, increase the capacity of its refiner-ies and improve the quality of its oil products. It is also going to cre-ate an effective and transparent as-set management system, fulfilling a series of presidential directives.

“In the next 10 years, KazMu-nayGas will stabilise the produc-tion level of its extraction opera-tions, working with its partners and subsidiaries. And it will increase its total crude oil and gas conden-sate output to 35.4 million tons per year (mtpa) from 21.1 mtpa in 2011 thanks to the Tengiz, Kasha-gan and Karachaganak projects,” Kiinov said.

Kliinov said oil production was being increased in the Atyrau re-gion’s major projects.

“Oil production from Teng-izchevroil will be increased to 38.6 million tons (per year), thanks to the implementation of the Future Growth Project. KazMunayGas has

a 20 percent share in this project and will get 7.7 million tons of oil (from it),” he said.

The Kashagan oil field is sched-uled to come online in June and to produce 13 million tons of oil per year by 2015. KMG’s 16.81 percent share in the field amounts to 2.3 million tons of that out-put. Eventually, oil production at Kashagan will increase to 51 mil-lion tons per year at its peak. KMG is also serving as an agent for the development of the Kalamkas off-shore field.

Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said the Norway Statoil Company was withdrawing from the project to develop the Abay offshore oil block in the North Caspian Sea, after seven years of unsuccessful negotiations to start production. KazMunayGas would explore developing this site with another partner.

Mynbayev said Kazakhstan would not incur losses from Sta-toil’s withdrawal. KazMunayGas is entitled to a 50 percent share in all new projects in Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian shelf. Statoil was responsible for all expenses at the exploration stage of the project.

The oil and gas minister said Kazakhstan would quickly find an-other partner for the development of the Abay block.

Previously ConocoPhillips pulled out of the Kashagan devel-opment project. Experts believe the reasons were the expenses, which grew to $46 billion in the first phase and took eight years longer than planned.

Nadir Karimov, director general of the Oil Science and Engineering Centre at the National Engineering Academy believes the withdrawal of some Western companies from oil projects would not stop the de-velopment of the richest reserves of the Caspian shelf.

Kazakhstan is currently entering a new phase of developing the shelf and making increasing demands on the companies involved about the development timetables, quality and sustainability of their work. Some $90 billion has already been spent on constructing an extensive oil infrastructure there. Experts believe the Kashagan oil field will come online this year.

Analyst Rasul Rysmambetov said ConocoPhillips and Statoil’s withdrawals were for economic reasons such as the reallocation of corporate capital expendi-tures. He said other major com-panies with huge experience in offshore drilling wanted to work with Kazakhstan, including PetroVietnam and the China Na-tional Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Both companies have already sent delegations to Kaza-khstan and studied its investment potential.

Marat Shibutov, an analyst with the Cross-Border Cooperation As-sociation, noted that ConocoPhil-lips was spinning off all its assets in many countries, including Ka-zakhstan. He said Statoil may not have found the proposals of the Kazakh side attractive enough and that it may have regional political concerns and worries over the cost of extracting and transporting Cas-pian oil.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Oil and Gas announced recently that on Dec. 6, 2012 ConocoPhillips had requested permission to sell its 8.4 percent share of the North Cas-pian Project consortium to ONGC Videsh. The government of Ka-

zakhstan is currently considering ConocoPhillips’s request.

In 2012, ConocoPhillips an-nounced its withdrawal from its projects in other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) coun-tries and from those in Algeria and Nigeria. The company has also withdrawn its capital from sup-porting Lukoil in the H project.

The Ministry of Oil and Gas said that, on Jan. 22, Statoil informed KazMunayGas by an official letter about its decision not to continue negotiations on the Abay project. Statoil said that in late 2012, the company re-evaluated the project and studied its high geological risks and rising capital costs to drill additional wells.

The Karachaganak gas conden-sate field will be developed in three phases, with a projected production of 10.1 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LMG) per year.

In addition, KMG as a partici-pant in the Future Growth Project at Tengiz with a 10 percent share, will credit to its operational indi-cators up to one million tons of oil per year. Further expansion of annual production capacity is ex-pected.

KMG plans to produce an ad-ditional 10.9 million tons of oil by 2022 by opening new oil fields including Urikhtau and the North Zhambyl, Zhemchuzhina (Pearl) offshore blocks and up to 13.9 mil-lion tons thanks to its subsidiar-ies and joint ventures such as the KazMunayGas Exploration and Production Company (KMG EP), Embamunaygas (EMG), Mangis-taumunaygas (MMG), Karazhanb-asmunay and others.

“In the refining sector, where KazMunayGas controls all three existing refineries in the country, we should move from raw mate-rial supplies to cooperation in the sphere of energy processing and exchange of the latest technol-ogy,” KMG Chairman Kliinov said.

“Production process moderni-zation programmes are currently being implemented at the Atyrau, Pavlodar and Shymkent refiner-ies,” he said. “The construction of the Aromatics Production Com-plex and Deeper Hydrocarbons Conversion Complex has started at the Atyrau Refinery, costing 1 bil-lion tenge ($150,665,000). Major international engineering compa-nies are participating in the project and we will get modern enterprises capable of producing raw materials for development of the petrochem-ical industry.”

“The annual processing capacity of the three refineries will increase to 21 million tons by 2022, from 11.4 million tons in 2011. The con-version rate will increase to 90 per-cent of the original crude oil. The quality of motor fuels will meet the Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards,” Kiinov said.

Kiinov told the conference he had instructed all KMG’s refin-ing divisions to ensure full control over their refinery modernisation programmes to completely meet domestic demands for fuels and lubricants and meet new environ-mental standards by 2025. He said KMG would boost its share in the local oil products market from 18 percent to 30 percent by acquiring new assets and constructing new service stations under the KMG brand name.

Kiinov said in the gas sector the company’s focus would be on three major projects: construction of the Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipe-

line with a total throughput capac-ity of 10 billion cubic metres (bc) per year, construction of the C line of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipe-line with a capacity of 25 bcm per year (currently, this gas pipeline has a total capacity of 30 bcm on its A and B lines that started oper-ating in 2009 and 2010), and con-struction of the Tobol-Kokshetau-Astana gas pipeline with a capacity of 1.5 bcm per year, costing 213 billion tenge ($1.41 billion). The construction of these pipelines will provide gas supplies to 900 towns and villages, including the city of Astana.

In the engineering industry, KMG plans to construct a ship-building/ship-repair plant in part-nership with investors in the vil-lage of Kuryk, an industrial park in Znanaozen, a factory to make oil country tubular goods connections (casing, tubing and line pipes) and other oil and gas industry equip-ment.

On Jan. 22, KMG E&P, one of the top three oil and gas companies in the country, announced its op-erating results for 2012, including its stakes in Kazgermunai (KGM), CCEL and PetroKazakhstan (PKI). The company produced 12,191,000 tons of crude oil (247,000 bpd bar-rels per day), 150,000 tons or 1 percent less than in 2011.

Uzenmunaygas (UMG) pro-duced 4,950,000 tons (100,000 bpd), 131,000 tons less than in 2011. JSC Embamunaygas (EMG) produced 2,816,000 tons (57 bpd, the same amount as in 2011.

KMG E&P’s share in the pro-duction from KGM, CCEL and PKI amounted to 4,425,000 tons of crude oil (90 bpd) in 2012, about the same as in 2011 and in accord-ance with the production plans of those companies.

In 2012, KMG E&P’s export sales from UMG and EMG amount-ed to 6,091,000 tons (122 bpd) and domestic sales to 1,646,000 tons (33 bpd). KMG E&P’s share in sales from KGM, CCEL and PKI came to 4,410,000 tons of crude oil (92,000 bpd), including 3,428,000 tons (71,000 bpd) or 78 percent, of total sales supplied to export mar-kets.

KazTransOil, a KMG subsidi-ary, is the largest oil transportation company in Kazakhstan and owns a diversified network of oil pipelines and water lines 8,000 kilometres (4,800 miles) long. It transported 53,459,000 tons in 2012, 4 percent higher than the projected figure of 51,650,000 tons, but 1 percent, or 560 tons, less than in 2011.

The Analytical Oil and Gas In-formation Centre said the volume of oil and gas condensate produced in 2012 dropped to 79,215,787 tons in 2012, or 1.1 percent less than in 2011. Oil production is expected to reach 82 million tons in 2013.

The volume of crude oil supplied to the nation’s refineries in 2012 amounted to 13,980,000 tons, 20 percent higher than the projected figure of 11,650,000 tons and 6 percent higher than in 2011. Ex-ports of crude oil are expected to reach 70 million tons in 2013.

Oil and Gas Industry Enters Era of Growth

ZETA Company Makes furniture, Creates JobsBy Aigul Turysbekova

ALMATY – The ZETA Company is expanding to take opportunity of growing markets for its furniture at home and abroad.

The government has approved a 75 million tenge grant under the Business Road Map 2020 for the company to expand its production facilities and upgrade its equipment.

ZETA has built a new four-level complex in Almaty’s Kulager dis-trict to make cabinet furniture and theatre chairs with equipment im-ported from Italy.

Today, ZETA consists of sever-al divisions. In 2012, its turnover exceeded 8 billion tenge (US$1 = KZT150) and it invested eight mil-lion dollars in expanding its pro-duction capacity. Last year, it also paid 400 million tenge in taxes and another 1.3 billion tenge in cus-toms charges.

ZETA now employs 1,400 peo-ple. Its founder and CEO, Kanat Omarov, travels around the world raising new investment and seek-ing new ideas and technologies. He has built ZETA into one of the largest industrial enterprises in Al-maty. Last year, it sold the largest number of chairs in the country. It has a sales list of 1,200 products through 22 direct sales outlets.

The company has prospered, despite being located next door to China, one of the world’s largest furniture-producing economies.

“With our country’s entry into the Customs Union (with Russia and Belarus), conditions for the development of domestic produc-tion became much more favour-able,” ZETA Deputy Director Gen-eral Mahsut Omarbekov told The Astana Times. “Then, we reduced our imports of finished products from China after customs duties

increased. Also, we recognized that developing local manufactur-ing means creating jobs for people in Kazakhstan.”

“President Nazarbayev is abso-lutely right to say that the Customs Union is a rehearsal for domestic manufacturers before Kazakhstan joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” Omarbekov said.

Ukrainian furniture companies are eager to enter the Kazakhstan market and they already account for 28 percent of it; Russian com-panies account for another 18 per-cent. Belarus, too, has always been famous for its furniture industry, the ZETA executive said.

“Now, ZETA’s production volume allows us to be the leaders in Kaza-khstan,” Omarbekov said. “Our ad-vantage also lies in the fact that ten-ders favour domestically-produced goods. But accession to the WTO will create new challenges to us.”

ZETA has always concentrated its main production in Almaty, but now it is also expanding to Astana. The company has already bought a land plot there and plans to build a 5,500 square metres industrial complex there. It has already built a 2,500 square metres pipe rolling production plant.

The company gets most of the raw materials for its furniture from the Russian city of Ufa. The metal for its chairs, armchairs and sofas comes from Temirtau in the Kara-ganda region.

In 2013, the company plans to expand on a total of 12,000 square metres of industrial space in Al-maty and Astana, thanks to new in-vestment from its Italian partners.

The company began to ex-pand rapidly six years ago when it bought two hectares (20,000 square metres) of land at an aban-doned bakery plant in the city of

Talgar, near Almaty. Today it is ZETA’s main production centre for pipe rolling and plastic production and employs 600 people. The Tal-gar plant’s products are 10 times cheaper than similar products from Russia (or only 10 percent of their unit cost). ZETA is also developing the leather goods industry in Kaza-khstan. It has published a children’s book with a print run of one mil-lion to educate its readers how to sort trash and save secondary raw materials for future production.

ZETA remains committed to in-troducing further innovation in the domestic furniture industry, sub-stituting for foreign imports and creating new jobs. It is also com-mitted to improving the living con-ditions of its workers and has pur-chased 18 apartments in Almaty and another 38 in Talgar to house them, as well as constructing a new building with 15 apartments.

KMG plans to expand its geological surveys on land and offshore to find new oil and gas fields in the nearest future.

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Wednesday, 13 March 2013

А6 The Astana Times

By Abat Nurseitov

KazMunayGas Exploration & Production (KMG E&P) has launched an ambitious, three year, 100 billion tenge plan to dramatically expand its oil and gas production.

The company is also under-taking new social projects to improve the living and working conditions of its employees that are unprecedented in scale at its Uzen facilities. We are build-ing a new plant for the diagno-sis and repair of underground drilling equipment, which will be the most modern and best equipped of any in the 12 Com-monwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations. It will em-ploy 300-350 workers of Uzen-munaygas (UMG).

UMG is also constructing a complex of oil storage tanks, two factories to make fluids for killing spent oil wells, a com-plex to service and repair oil-field equipment and a mainte-nance centre for 1,000 vehicles operating there. UMG is also investing in the replacement of water injection and liquid trans-portation systems.

Our Embamunaygas (EMG) subsidiary will build a refinery to remove sulfur from sour gas pumped from the Prorvinsky group of oil fields, and will re-construct the DSP Prorva-NPC Tengiz pipeline.

The construction of refineries to process gas from the Balgim-bayev and Zhana Makat oil fields will soon be completed and a 61 kilometre (36 mile), high pres-sure pipeline is being built from Akingen to Akkuduk.

A new network of roads will be built to speed up the transpor-tation of personnel and cargos in the region and boost produc-tion efficiency. The company’s new programmes are designed to improve working conditions and environmental and indus-trial safety.

In 2012, KMG EP assessed more than 10 new potential oil and gas development projects in the country. Our robust fi-nancial condition gives us a wide range of choice of assets that we can buy.

Our experts study potential oil and gas fields in every prov-ince in the country. We have experience in the production of both light and heavy oil.

In 2011, we found a new partner for the Karpovsky North exploration project. The Hungarian oil company MOL bought a 49 percent share in it, paying KMG $8.75 million. They will share in the explora-tion and investment in future oil fields.

This deal allowed KMG to gain access to the Hungarian company’s experience and tech-nologies. We still experience a shortage of qualified personnel within our country. Therefore this partnership is another op-portunity for us to raise the level of professionalism of our specialists and introduce the tools of modern management and principles of corporate gov-ernance.

KMG did a great deal of work in 2012 to streamline its struc-ture and to improve its control of its subsidiaries. Our oper-ating subsidiaries UMG and EMG were transformed into joint stock companies. This has expanded their opportunities to address industrial and social is-sues.

After the December 2011 events in the city of Zhanaozen, President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed KMG to employ pre-viously dismissed workers and improve the working conditions of its current employees.

In January 2012, KazMu-nayGas created two new sub-sidiary companies to handle workers issues and improve their conditions. A management body to handle drilling opera-tions was created in Zhanaozen and another one to run trans-portation and logistics and the servicing of oil wells was set up in the city of Aktau.

A new residential camp to house 400 UTTiOS workers at a time was constructed at the Karazhanbas heavy oil field. It includes a cafeteria, a baths and laundry complex and a gym. Another complex of residential camps was built at the Kalamkas oil field. More than 300 units of new machinery were purchased for the industrial needs of these fields: These new KMG subsidi-ary companies will provide serv-ices not only to the KMG EP, but also to other oil producing enter-prises.

In accordance with KMG EP’s ongoing strategy, we con-tinue to reduce our non-core

activities. Therefore in 2012, the company sold a 51 percent share in Kazakhstan Petro-chemical Industries for $32.4 million.

Social policy is a key com-ponent of our activity. We pay special attention to the devel-opment of regions and to the social and living conditions of our workers and their families. We also recognize our direct re-sponsibility to the state and our moral obligation to the people of the areas where we operate.

In 2012, our company spent 907.4 million tenge ($6.04 million) to build new social projects in the Mangistau re-gion. Another 200 million tenge ($1.33 million) was provided to the Mangistau regional admin-istration during the year to cre-ate 800 new jobs for people in Zhanaozen city.

In the Atyrau region, KMG spent 286.6 million tenge ($1.91 million) on social infra-structure and we provided an-other 350 million tenge ($2.33 million) to run social projects there. Another 5.4 billion tenge ($40 million) was spent to relo-cate residents from two villages to the regional centre.

KMG plans to continue fund-ing projects to improve social conditions in the regions where it operates and to promote the training and professional growth of the younger genera-tion of oil workers, while ad-dressing the issues of ecology and safety.

Our company has already proved itself as a responsible extractor of mineral resources, a reliable partner and a profit-able enterprise. Our task today is to maintain these standards and this reputation.

The strategic objectives of KMG EP remain the same: We are steadily increasing our ca-pacity to operate as one of the leading oil and gas companies in Kazakhstan. Our key goals are to increase our annual pro-duction of oil and gas and in-crease the volume of our proven hydrocarbon reserves through the acquisition of new assets, geological exploration and op-timization of production in our main oil and gas fields.

The author is Director Gen-eral of KazMunayGas Explora-tion Production

KazMunayGas E&P Launches Major Development Plan

The following is an interview with Rashid Tussupbekov, Chair-man of the Agency on the Fight against economic and Corruption Crimes (Financial Police).

What main objectives did the Fi-nancial Police seek last year?

Last year was an intense and a busy one for the Financial Police. We had to radically change repres-sive mentality, used to be based on pursuit of performance indicators and feeling of imaginary superiority, which had been formed over many years and become inherent in all law enforcement agencies, including the Financial Police.

We determined the strategic ob-jectives of the Agency as strength-ening the prevention of corruption instead of sweeping accusations of corruption. We prioritized the suppression of its systematic and organized forms and counteraction of the shadow economy, avoiding groundless interference with busi-nesses.

In order to successfully reach these tasks, the Agency radically revised criteria for evaluation of the activity of the Financial Police from quantitative to qualitative.

However, we continue to work identifying and investigating crimes, but detecting crimes, which are of organized and systematic nature, and cause significant harm to the interests of citizens and the state, was deter-mined as the priority.

Taking into account new strategic objectives, as well as a new system of evaluation of the activity of the Agency, can we say the Financial Police was reformed?

Over the years of independence, Kazakhstan has created the optimal structure of law enforcement agen-cies, legally demarcated their func-tions and competencies, and mini-mized the options for alternative jurisdiction.

These aspects excluded inconsist-ency, duplication of functions and departmental conflicts in law en-forcement agencies’ activity.

Work on improvement of activ-ity of the Financial Police has been done.

Record-registration discipline has been put in order. Electronic reg-istration of claims and reports was introduced for the formation of ob-jective statistics on crime. Facts of concealment from crime reporting were uprooted.

Legal procedural decisions in criminal matters, which have been motionless for a long time, have been adopted. This allowed for res-toration of the rights of hundreds of citizens.

Duty investigation groups have been established, in which the in-vestigator gives legal assessment of the applications and reports.

In order to improve quality of in-vestigative work, the principles of ‘police’ investigation have been in-troduced.

In December last year, I signed a new Instruction that enhances the status of the investigator, as a lead-ing figure in the pre-trial criminal process.

Last year, the certification of law enforcement officers was held. Upon the outcomes of the attesta-tion, the Financial Police has seen more personnel changes then in other bodies. What is the reason for that?

Indeed, the certification has be-come a challenge and test of pro-fessional and moral fitness of our employees. The senior management of the Agency was renewed by 85%, the middle rank management – by 27%, and the rank and file personnel – by 6.5%. High standards and con-ceptual attitude of the members of the Evaluation Commission led to such a high percentage of turnover of the staff. This applies particularly to the management.

You have said the fight against corruption must begin with your own staff. What has been done in this area?

We believe the financial police itself should be an example of com-pliance with anti-corruption laws, thus service in the financial police is not for corrupt or random people.

In 2012, we identified 21 cor-ruption offenses committed by our employees. These figures do not determine the level of corruption in the financial police, they point to the growth of the detection of

such crimes. We are not going to hide these facts because of the un-willingness to spoil our perform-ance reports and lower “esprit de corps.”

In June 2012, I signed an order which established the principle of personal responsibility of the admin-istration for discipline among the subordinates. In accordance with the instructions of the President, a new concept of law enforcement per-sonnel policies is being developed aimed at creating a “new genera-tion” of law enforcement officers.

Earlier, the financial police was often accused of putting pressure on businesses. How would you de-scribe current situation?

We set a goal of becoming one of the main defenders and allies of law-abiding businesses. I declared a moratorium on inspections of busi-nesses, except for the subjects of the shadow economy, and citizens occu-pied in implementation of projects financed from the state budgets.

As a result, the number of inspec-tions of entrepreneurs was reduced by two fold. And, as a result, there have not been any unfounded com-plaints towards financial police at the “Presidential Protection of Busi-ness” web page.

Moreover, we can talk about the growing reliance of entrepreneurs. They address us with complaints on the activities of government officials more often. Last year, we initiated 307 criminal proceedings against of-ficials of the regulatory and inspec-tion bodies for illegal interference in businesses, which was 1.5 times more than in 2011.

In his annual state-of-the-nation

address to the people of Kazakhstan, the President instructed to dramati-cally step up the fight against cor-ruption.

What goals have you set for em-ployees to combat corruption?

A Specialized Situation Centre has been established at our Agency which is based on information con-tained in databases of government agencies and other public sources. It reveals the structures and schemes of criminal ties, and finds the rela-tionship of subjects. It allows us, without leaving our working places, to detect potential crimes analyti-cally at early stages and to prevent them from happening.

For example, during the analysis of a public procurement plan of the Ministry of Transport and Com-munications we have found that 784 million tenge is provided in the state budget for major repairs of the Zhizak – Saryagash road with the length of 7.5 kilometres, i.e. 104.5 million tenge for one kilometre. Meanwhile, in 2012, major repairs of another road cost the state 57.4 million tenge for one kilometre, or twice cheaper. As a result, the tender was canceled.

After our intervention, about 31 million tenge was saved in other several areas where state authorities also intended to purchase goods at inflated prices.

In addition, we have developed a “corruption risks passport” for each region with the definition of the most corrupt sectors and departments, to ensure their enhanced operational support.

Last year, the financial police de-

tected more than 1,800 corruption crimes. About 1,650 officials were prosecuted.

At the same time, I ordered to put an end to the pursuit of mass numbers. We should work for not showing off, but in order to carry out deep developments and identify organized and systemic corruption schemes that cause billions of dol-lars worth in damage to the state.

The President ordered to improve anti-corruption legislation. What legislative changes would you sug-gest?

We are currently developing new versions of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, and our Agency is actively involved in this work.

We offer, in addition to imprison-ment for bribery, to establish a new penalty in the type of a fine, calcu-lated by multiplying the amount of bribes.

If a person within a certain time does not pay the fine, the amount of which will exceed ten times the re-ceived bribe, he or she will be liable for imprisonment with confiscation of his or her property. We also offer to limit legally the size for the cash funds of legal entities, defining the limit sufficient for economic activi-ties.

Uncontrolled mass of cash creates favourable conditions for the devel-opment of the “shadow” economy, corruption, extremism and terrorism financing.

In 2012, Kazakhstan’s entities cashed 1,680 billion tenge, and this figure has a tendency of annual growth. The proposed measure will lead to significant tax revenues to the state budget, disrupt the basis of corruption and complicate the financing of terrorist and extremist groups and organized crime.

Prevention Is New Strategy to fight Corruption

EDITORIAL

The Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan was the location for almost a quarter of all nuclear weapons tests in the world since 1945. Their total number exceeded 2,000. From 1949 to 1989, 456 of them were carried out at Semipalatinsk, including more than 120 in the atmosphere. Their total destructive power was 2,500 times that of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.

The nuclear tests in Kazakhstan affected more than 1.5 million people. They contaminated vast regions of the country, equal in size to the total area of Germany.

Despite the fierce resistance of the Soviet leadership and their military-industrial complex, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, even before the country became independent, issued a decree, on Aug. 29, 1991, closing the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

This historical step has had a great impact. After the clo-sure of the Semipalatinsk test site, thanks to the example of Kazakhstan and the actions of the world community, other test sites in the world in Nevada, Lop Nor and Novaya Zemlya stopped their activities. The nuclear club powers signed on to documents prohibiting nuclear tests, and com-mitted themselves to adhering to a moratorium on further nuclear weapons testing.

Since 2009, August 29 has been declared by the UN as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

At independence, Kazakhstan inherited a Soviet nuclear arsenal which included 1,040 nuclear warheads for inter-continental ballistic missiles and 370 nuclear warheads for cruise missiles carried on strategic bombers. This arsenal exceeded combined nuclear forces of Britain, France and China. Thanks to the decision of President Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan not only closed the test site, but also expelled all nuclear weapons and their means of delivery from this country.

Throughout independence Kazakhstan has consistently pursued efforts in non-proliferation and disarmament. So it was with great interest that the people of the country watched as world’s leading powers and Iran met in Almaty at the invitation of the president of Kazakhstan at the end of February for another round of talks on Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme.

The talks in Almaty, which ended with an agreement to fur-ther search for the solutions at the level of experts in Istanbul in mid-March and to have another round of talks in Almaty on April 5-6, became a considerable step in building confidence and mutual understanding between the parties and in strength-ening of the understanding of the need to solve this problem through peaceful, diplomatic means.

Kazakhstan was not a direct participant of the talks. However, it worked to create all conditions for their fruit-ful holding. Prior to the talks, President Nazarbayev per-sonally received their co-chairs, Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Security Council, and Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Even such small progress in this difficult negotia-tion process cannot but please all of us, especially since it happened on the Kazakh soil.

Back in the 20th century, the nuclear tests that were car-ried out over four decades at the Semipalatinsk test site had a detrimental impact on the humanitarian, social and eco-nomic situation of the population and the environment. The effects of those nuclear tests still negatively influence the health of people living near the site. Today, 70 percent of victims of nuclear weapons testing are children and grand-children of the people exposed to radiation fallout from those tests.

Since independence, the Government of Kazakhstan has been committed to the rehabilitation of the victims of nu-clear tests and it has provided economic and social support

to the population in the region. The government has adopted a number of targeted programmes aimed at addressing the problems of the Semipalatinsk region. Kazakhstan’s Parlia-ment has passed a law for the social protection of victims of nuclear tests.

With the assistance of the international community, Kaza-khstan has organized an electronic data base of the personal records of the people affected by nuclear tests. Electronic registers have been set up. Those listed receive privileges in obtaining medical care and treatments in their respective rehabilitation centres and hospitals, as well as other social benefits and payments.

As of today, the register includes the passport and medi-cal data for 194,124 individuals. Some 90 percent of them are from the East Kazakhstan region, and 10 percent are from the Pavlodar region. Every year, the Research Insti-tute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology updates the regis-ter and expands the number recorded by about ten thousand people.

According to UN data, the Government of Kazakhstan provided 600 million dollars in official aid to the Semipal-atinsk region for the period from 1999 to 2010. However, the social, economic and environmental rehabilitation of the region still requires very serious and prolonged inter-national assistance.

International public opinion has been sympathetic to the tragedy of the people of Kazakhstan. The UN General As-sembly, in its Resolution No. 63/279 on April 25, 2009, called upon the global community to provide further sup-port to Kazakhstan for the environmental, social, economic and humanitarian rehabilitation of the region. From 1997 to 2009, the UN General Assembly adopted six such resolu-tions.

At the Tokyo International Conference on Semipalatinsk, organized by the Government of Japan and the UN Devel-opment Programme in 1999, the member states agreed on the feasibility of recruiting international donors, as well as organizing cooperative actions, to assist Kazakhstan in eliminating the consequences of nuclear tests, and helping to rehabilitate the population and the environment of the region.

The major donors to help the victims of Semipalatinsk nuclear tests have been the UN Development Programme, the European Union, Japan, Britain, Norway, Switzerland, UNICEF, the USAID, the IAEA, the Korea International Cooperation Agency, the OSCE, the Red Crescent Society of Kazakhstan and the Canadian International Develop-ment Agency.

The Government of Kazakhstan and the world community as a whole have done a great deal to rehabilitate the victims of the nuclear tests and to restore the environment at the Semipal-atinsk test site. Kazakhstan officials say they are grateful to the international community for its assistance in eliminating the consequences of the Soviet nuclear tests, and in supporting the human and ecological rehabilitation of the region. At the same time, as noted by Kanat Saudabayev, chair of the presidential commission on non-proliferation of weapons of destruction and director of the Nazarbayev Center, at the recent confer-ence in Oslo, it is obvious that the people of Kazakhstan look forward to the continuation and strengthening of targeted hu-manitarian assistance from the international community and above all, from nuclear weapon states, main participants in the global arms race, which caused such severe trials and tribula-tions to the people of Kazakhstan through the long decades of the Cold War. People in Kazakhstan hope the appeal of the UN General Assembly to its member-states to provide support to this country in its efforts to rehabilitate the Semipalatinsk region will be heard by the leaders of all nations in the inter-national community.

Helping Semipalatinsk: A Job Half-Done

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

А7The Astana Times

opinions

By Roman Vassilenko

The participation of Kaza-khstan’s delegation in two major conferences on the humanitarian impact of the use of nuclear weap-ons in Oslo in early March offered a unique opportunity to remind the world that the pain of the Semipal-atinsk tragedy lingers even today, 20 years after the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

And it also has given an idea of the great number of countries, or-ganisations and individuals con-cerned with nuclear disarmament issues which will hopefully soon reach a critical mass and trigger a chain reaction of global nuclear disarmament.

On March 2-3, a delegation in-cluding Honorary Ambassador of the ATOM Project Karipbek Kuy-ukov participated in the Interna-tional Civil Society Forum in Oslo organised by the non-governmen-tal organisation ICAN (Interna-tional Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons). This event brought together more than 400 participants from nongovernmen-tal organisations from more than 100 countries.

On March 4-5, a delegation led by Chairman of the Commission on Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction under the President of Kazakhstan and Di-rector of the Nazarbayev

Center Kanat Saudabayev took part in the international conference “Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons” organised by the Gov-ernment of Norway. More than 500 representatives of the world’s governmental and international or-

ganisations, research fellows and experts in the field of disarmament, non-proliferation and provision of humanitarian assistance to nuclear weapons victims participated in the event.

What made these events memo-rable?

Firstly, they were marked with an atmosphere of burning desire to stir up international public opinion and to urge world leaders to find an alternative to nuclear weapons as an absolute guarantee of secu-rity and to abolish them. Dozens of governments and dozens, if not hundreds, of NGOs and think tanks around the world are engaged in this problem. I want to believe that their efforts will bring results both in terms of helping victims of nu-clear tests and in moving the proc-ess of nuclear disarmament for-ward at a global level. The ATOM Project, which the Nazarbayev Center presented at this platform, is one of thousands of voices around the world calling for help for victims of nuclear tests and for more concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament around the

world. Large-scale involvement in the anti-nuclear movement and the participation of different countries and different organisations is its strength. The power of the ATOM Project, initiated by President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev on August 29, 2012, is that it provides a medium for the voices of people for whom the consequences of nuclear tests are an everyday reality.

Secondly, the events in Oslo were marked with the confidence in the rightness and the ultimate success of the idea of a world free of nuclear weapons, a notion that seems utopian, and therefore pointless, for many. Among the arguments cited by politicians, ex-perts and activists from around the world in favour of the attainability of this goal, I would highlight the following:

1) Mankind has found the cour-age to abandon two other weapons of mass destruction—biological and chemical weapons—by sign-ing relevant U.N. conventions, so why wouldn’t it give up the most destructive weapons in the world? Although it should be noted that the Convention on the Prohibition of Bacteriological Weapons and the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which are in force now, were signed not by all countries.

Syria’s chemical weapons are a current topic of discussion, for example, and reserves of chemical weapons in the world are being de-stroyed more slowly than the docu-ment required.

2) A number of countries, in-cluding South Africa, Ukraine, Be-larus, and, of course, Kazakhstan, have had the courage to abandon

their nuclear weapons programmes and/or nuclear arsenals, and their experience can be an example to be emulated by others.

3) There is growing awareness in the world that the use of even one of the 19,000 nuclear weapons in a “limited regional war” would lead to disastrous consequences not only for the region but for the en-tire world by undermining the glo-bal economy and the environment.

Of course, one can argue with these positions. One could say that humanity is, in fact, moving in the opposite direction, toward expan-sion rather than reduction in the nu-clear club, as evidenced by recent tests in North Korea, for example. However, according to representa-tives of governments and civil so-ciety organisations from 132 coun-tries in Oslo this month, this only makes the efforts of committed supporters of nuclear disarmament more important and relevant. (By the way, the five recognised nu-clear powers were not present at a conference at the official level, which was noted with great regret by dozens of speakers and speaks to the challenges of the dialogue in the field of disarmament.)

Certainly one of the most con-sistent and strongest supporters of this process is the president of Kazakhstan, who for more than 20 years has demonstrated his convic-tion not only with words, but with concrete actions.

“Despite the fierce resistance of the Soviet leadership and their military-industrial complex, Presi-dent Nursultan Nazarbayev of Ka-zakhstan, even before our country became an independent state, is-sued a decree, on August 29, 1991,

closing the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, the world’s largest,” Kanat Saudabayev said in his remarks to the conference.

“This historical fact, expressing the will of the people of Kaza-khstan, is of great importance to world civilisation. After the clo-sure of the Semipalatinsk test site, thanks to the example of Kaza-khstan and the actions of the world community, other test sites in the world—in Nevada, Lop Nor and Novaya Zemlya—stopped their ac-tivities. The 'nuclear club' powers signed on to documents prohibiting nuclear tests and committed them-selves to adhering to a moratorium on further testing.”

I was also deeply impressed by the active life philosophy of celeb-rity supporters, Martin Sheen in particular, who played the presi-dent of the United States in the TV series “The West Wing” and has been an anti-nuclear activist for many years.

I was glad to know that celebri-ties in Kazakhstan will be actively involved in this process too. We have already had good conversa-tions on these topics and support-ing the ATOM Project with such prominent people in Kazakhstan as Ilya Ilyin and Serik Sapiyev, Aruzhan Sain and Farkhad Ab-draimov, among others. I want to believe that together we will con-tribute in achieving progress in this complex issue.

I would also especially like to note the active role of the govern-ment of Norway. This state for many years has played the most active role in bringing the world towards the goal of liberation from nuclear weapons, sparing neither

money nor effort. In this case, Norway and Kazakhstan are like-minded partners and allies.

Finally, I want to say a few words about Karipbek Kuyukov, a great man. Through his courage and faith in life, he has shown that spirit is greater than substance. He is a talented artist, a leader of pub-lic opinion, a lifelong activist for nuclear disarmament and Honorary Ambassador of the ATOM Project.

It is impossible to listen impas-sively while he tells the story of his life and calls for urgent action in order to build a world without nu-clear weapons. His story inspires first tears, then hope and finally ac-tion. Judge for yourself:

“We, as survivors and witnesses of horrific madness, strive to warn the world before it is too late about the consequences of nuclear weapons,” Kuyukov said. “If billions of people around the world would realise the consequences of nuclear weapons testing, global public opinion united as one would have enough power to eliminate atomic bombs forever. My appeal for a nuclear-weapons free world is expressed in my paintings. I put part of my soul and part of my heart into them...The nuclear arms race, the desire to conquer the world with nuclear weapons is growing. We need to stop it.”

I sincerely bow to Karipbek Kuy-ukov and people like him. Thanks to these people, I can believe that humankind will think more deeply and the goal of a world without nuclear weapons, which seems utopian for many, will become achievable.

The author is Deputy Director of the Nazarbayev Center.

Striving for a Nuclear Weapons free World

By Stephen Tull

In 2012 UN team marked its 20 years anniversary of presence in Kazakhstan. The first UN of-fice was opened in Almaty back in 1993, right after the conclusion of an agreement between President Nazarbayev and then Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali on 5 Octo-ber 1992.

Over the course of these 20 years the UN has been partnering with the Government and people of Kazakhstan to help the country achieve sustainable and inclusive development.

Starting with serving the coun-try’s immediate humanitarian and political needs, the UN’s work then evolved to focus on develop-ment assistance using international expertise. Among the early initia-tives, for example, was the provi-sion of humanitarian aid to flood victims in the Caspian Sea region in the spring of 1993.

The UNICEF Vaccination campaign, commenced in 1993, played an important role in the development of cooperation be-tween the new independent state and the United Nations. Supported by the Ministry of Healthcare, the vaccination programme achieved tremendous success in reducing the incidence of various childhood diseases. Around the same time, UNDP UNICEF and UNESCO started working in the environ-mental disaster area of the Aral Sea region, helping to address the pressing problems of rising pov-erty, ineffective water resources management and health deteriora-tion.

Over the past 20 years, the UN Agencies have supported the drafting of a wide number of strategies, programmes and legis-lation dealing with social issues, improvement of health and educa-tion, environmental management, macro-economic reform, human rights, migration and others. The UN Agencies also carried out pilot projects at the local level.

Working within the United Na-tions System, every agency has its own area of expertise, focus and mandate. As of today there are 18 UN agencies, programmes and funds working in Kazakhstan with offices in Astana and Almaty.

Work of agencies, programmes and funds at the country level is guided by the United Nations De-velopment Assistance Framework (UNDAF). UNDAF is a strategic programme document that de-scribes the collective response of the UN system to national devel-opment priorities and needs within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other international development

commitments. It is based on five inter-related programming prin-ciples: human rights based ap-proach; gender equality; envi-ronmental sustainability; results based management and capacity development.

The overall goal of the UNDAF 2010-2015 is to assist Kazakhstan in achieving its national competi-tiveness agenda with a focus on human development for all. The programme covers 3 strategic ar-eas of cooperation:

Economic and Social Well-Be-ing for All, with particular atten-tion to vulnerable groups, includ-ing women, children, migrants, refugees, youth and aged people, and people with disabilities.

Environmental Sustainabil-ity, focused on improved and en-hanced Government capacities for integrated natural resources management, including the adap-tation to and mitigation of climate change, as well as an increase in the capacity of the Government and communities to deal with nat-ural disasters and other emergency situations.

Effective Governance, including deepened institutional capacities, civil society and media empower-ment, and stronger attention to hu-man rights.

Since the Millennium Summit, the work of the United Nations Agencies has been guided by a set of goals derived from the Mil-lennium Declaration, signed by world leaders in New York in Sep-tember 2000 including President Nazarbayev. Called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they set well-defined and measurable targets for states to achieve by the year 2015 to improve the lives of millions of people. MDGs cover such crucial development areas as poverty reduction, improvement of child and maternal health, gen-der equality, combating major dis-eases, enhanced access to primary education and environmental sus-tainability.

Kazakhstan already achieved some of the MDGs, including on poverty reduction, access to pri-mary education and promotion of women’s rights, and the Govern-ment has made further commit-ments under the MDG+ agenda. These comprise expanded targets for those MDGs that have already been achieved in Kazakhstan. Our joint work with the Government on MDGs has led to notable progress in the area of child and maternal health by means of introduction of effective technologies (such as effective perinatal care, integrated management of childhood illness-es, and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV).

The United Nations has solid experience in identifying and ad-

dressing the challenges vulnerable groups face and in institutional and human capacity development in Kazakhstan. This includes, in particular, translation of policy into delivery of integrated quality education, health, nutrition, water/sanitation and social protection services, including at the district, community and family levels for vulnerable groups, particularly in rural areas. One of the models employed in that domain is joint programming, through which the UN organizations and national partners work together to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate the activities aimed at reaching the national goals in a more coherent, effective and efficientway.

One of the examples where that model proved to be successful is the joint programme in Semipalat-insk region. Semipalatinsk region turned out to be the best exemplar, where UN organizations and na-tional partners joined their efforts and addressed the complex issues of the region in order to improve child and maternal health and so-cial services, support young peo-ple, promote local development and citizen participation.

The international community, represented by the UN General Assembly, recognised the Semi-palatinsk Testing Site (STS) as the cause of all negative after-effects for the human lives and health and environment in the region, and made several commitments to render assistance for Kazakhstan to rehabilitate the environmental, social economic, and humanitar-ian sector in the region affected by nuclear testing at the Semi-palatinsk site. On 16 December 1997, the 52nd session of the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution entitled ‘International Cooperation and Coordination of Efforts to Rehabilitate the Popula-tion, Environment and Economic Development of Semipalatinsk Region in Kazakhstan’. The Res-olution was the starting point for

various efforts of the international community, donors, and the Gov-ernment to resolve the problems of Semipalatinsk Region. The UN Secretary’s General Report to the 53rd session of the UN General Assembly identifies four priority areas for international assistance to Semipalatinsk Region including (a) environment; (b) health; (c) economic rehabilitation; (d) sup-port to humanitarian development. These priorities were identified following the recommendations of experts.

Since then, the General Assem-bly accepted six resolutions be-tween 1997 and 2009, urging the international community to assist the Government and the people of Kazakhstan in their efforts to reha-bilitate the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site and the surrounding affected areas. The day of August 29 was proclaimed as the “Interna-tional Day against Nuclear Tests” by a General Assembly Resolution adopted at its 64th session in De-cember 2009. The 6th resolution on Semipalatinsk (A/RES/63/279) adopted in April 2009, invites the international community and the Government of Kazakhstan to shift from humanitarian assist-ance to a more comprehensive development-oriented approach that addresses the medium- and long-term problems of the Semi-palatinsk Region.

The Tokyo International Confer-ence on Semipalatinsk arranged by the Japanese Government and the UN Development Programme in 1999 has become the entrypoint for the international assistance rendered between 1999 and 2010 to the regions suffered from the nuclear tests at STS in the years of the Cold War. The Conference resulted in the recognition of the necessity to rehabilitate the region by the donors, and agreement on joint actions to resolve the various problems of which the community still experience.

Six Resolutions of the UN Gen-eral Assembly and Reports of the UN Secretary-General on Semipal-atinsk identifying the multi-sector nature of the issues of the region affected by nuclear tests have played a key role for international assistance. The UN Development Programme led the international community policy implementation in the process of assistance to the region and became the key driver of the donors’ efforts, having es-tablished the International Trust Foundation for assistance to Semi-palatinsk Region.

International assistance provided between 1999 and 2010 by vari-ous donors in the four key aspects, covered different problems of the region, comprising environment, health and social care, economic

rehabilitation and humanitarian development.

Launched in 2008, the UN joint programme in Semey region pro-moted local development, and was aimed at reduction of unemploy-ment, poverty, and social exclu-sion. Under the programme more than 150 rural households benefit-ted from rural microcredit serv-ices, local entrepreneurs gained better access to financial markets, over 5,000 vulnerable families received social counselling and family support services, and up to 50% of women and new-born ba-bies received quality health care services.

As the Secretary-General’s lat-est report indicates, strengthening of coordination among interna-tional donors and the Government could bring to greater achieve-ments in this region. All partners should share a new vision for development of Semey areas that addresses not only humanitarian problems, but pursues longer-term development-oriented approach to environmental sustainability, economic development and social welfare. Semey should shift from being just a nuclear test ground to the place of prosperous growth as hoped by its people.

Three years later the programme was expanded to a wider UN-Government joint programme in East Kazakhstan, using Semey programme as an example. A new UN joint programme for 2011-2015, “Raising competitiveness of the region through innovative ap-proaches to regional planning and social services”, is jointly funded by the Government of Kazakhstan and the United Nations. It builds on the success of a previous inter-agency programme and is aimed at accelerating the progress on human development indicators and supporting sustainable devel-opment of the East Kazakhstan region. The Joint programme con-sists of five components covering social and economic development and health-related issues. The pro-gramme addresses in particular the needs of vulnerable people in the cities of Semey, Kurchatov and Ust-Kamenogorsk, as well as fourteen other affected areas of East Kazakhstan Oblast.

Much has been done in the past years. Today, we see that the re-gion has an impressive array of projects and research on radiol-ogy and ecology, better healthcare infrastructure, dedicated social support, a growing business com-munity, more active civil society organisations that contribute to the discussion about remaining chal-lenges.

While taking stock of these re-sults and reflecting on the past ex-perience, an important lesson has

been learned: the investments made in human development need to be upscaled and supported in the up-coming years, to maintain a stable pattern of development and growth.

We need to focus on long-term development; this should be our new vision, guiding our efforts in the near future. To achieve this ob-jective, we need a strong partner-ship between the Government, the UN and all development partners.

Strategic relationships of the United Nations with the Govern-ment of Kazakhstan are very firm and unique. We in the UN Coun-try Team feel that our agencies are appreciated as a trusted partner by the authorities and people, and we strive to be a provider of high-quality advice, a supporter with flexible and efficient response mechanisms, and a model of ac-countability.

Many of the initiatives imple-mented together with the Govern-ment of Kazakhstan have proved successful, and set a leadership tone for other member states. Due to successful partnership with government agencies – central or regional – we are able to imple-ment wide assistance programmes aimed at improving the quality of lives of people of Kazakhstan.

We will keep nurturing our part-nership. Kazakhstan is unique in the sense that despite the fact it is young and ambitious it has the wisdom to pursue a multilateral approach in its foreign policy and find the right balance between pro-moting the national interests and strengthening cooperation with other member-states.

While the general wealth of Ka-zakhstan has increased and poverty has declined, inequality becomes an increasingly important challenge. The growing disparity among the regions, and between rural and ur-ban dwellers, needs to be addressed. The revival of rural communities and agricultural regions needs to be at the centre of job-creation and social programmes. Also, access to clean water, sound sanitation facili-ties, and top-quality health, educa-tion and social services needs to be universal.

The future of the UN-Kaza-khstan’s partnership will be guid-ed by the country’s development goals outlined by the President of Kazakhstan in the 2050 strategy. The most relevant directions will include supporting country’s eco-nomic, social and political mod-ernization for inclusive sustain-able development and promoting Kazakhstan’s initiatives in mul-tilateral cooperation and regional integration.

The author is UN Resident Co-ordinator in the Republic of Kaza-khstan.

uN System in Kazakhstan: 20 Years of Sustainable Cooperation

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

А8The Astana Times

Nation & Eurasia

from Page A1

“We collectively have developed a number of constructive sug-gestions for Iran. Today, we have voiced our concern to the Iranian side, which, in turn, should study and analyze our proposed meas-ures and provide an answer at the next meeting in Almaty,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ash-ton said.

Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator and secretary of that country’s Supreme Security Coun-cil, said the six powers, including China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, made an attempt in Almaty to “get closer to our viewpoint” and expressed hope that after the Istanbul meetings, the parties will

assess the proximity of their posi-tions.

“We consider these talks a posi-tive step, which could be completed by taking a positive and construc-tive approach and taking reciprocal steps,” the Iranian statement said.

“If Dr. Jalili has said it is posi-tive, then I am pleased,” Ashton said addressing journalists in the press hall organized in the ball-room of the Intercontinental Hotel of Almaty. “But we have to look at the results.”

Many believe the upcoming talks face tough challenges in bringing the positions of the negotiating parties closer together. To recall, the key topic for negotiation dur-ing the talks in Almaty was the failure of Tehran to meet the de-mands of the UN Security Council and its refusal to suspend uranium

enrichment, which gave reason for various parties to doubt its nuclear programme’s peaceful nature.

Sanctions introduced by the United States and its allies have considerably affected the Iranian economy. The US has sought to introduce a series of measures on Iran’s crude exports to persuade Tehran to cooperate with the in-ternational community on its nu-clear programme. The US and the EU suspect Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapon capabilities, meanwhile Iran maintains its posi-tion that it simply seeks to develop peaceful nuclear industry.

Oil exports account for a ma-jority of Iran’s revenues, thus the sanctions significantly impacted the country’s incomes and caused the growth of unemployment.

According to a January 2013

BBC report, Gholam Reza Kateb, MP on the national planning and budget committee, stated that in a parliament report announced by Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi “the oil sales are down by 40% and in-come has dropped by 45% in the last nine months.”

International sanctions on Iran include a UN embargo on arms exports and nuclear technology as well as EU bans on most financial transactions as well as the purchase of crude oil. The United Stated pro-hibits almost all trade with Iran.

It was said during the Almaty talks that all sides are unanimous in seeking a diplomatic resolution to international concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear programme based on the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Pro-liferation of Nuclear Weapons) and the full implementation by Iran of

the UNSC (United Nations Securi-ty Council) and IAEA (Internation-al Atomic Energy Agency) Board of Governors’ Resolution.

“As in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow, the EU3+3 remain ab-solutely unified in seeking a dip-lomatic resolution to international concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, based on NPT and the full implementation by Iran of UNSC and IAEA Board of Gover-nors’ Resolutions. The EU3+3 has tabled a revised proposal which we believe is balanced and a fair a constructive basis for construc-tive talks. The offers addresses the international concerns on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme, but is also responsive for Iranian ideas,” the EU statement said.

Just as the parties – participants

of the Almaty meeting, the world community awaits the outcome of the next round of talks.

Representatives of the five per-manent UN SC member states (China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA), as well as repre-sentatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Germany and the European Union participated in the Almaty talks. The meeting attracted major international press with more than 200 journalists being accredited for the talks.

The April talks are expected to attract similar international atten-tion. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already an-nounced in its official statement its readiness to host the next round of talks in April.

World Anticipating Next Round of Iran’s Nuclear Programme Talks

BThe Astana Times

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Nation & CapitalYoung Ballet Stars Shine on inter-national arena

Page B3

Kazakhstan’s Best Falconers Com-pete in National Championship

Page B7

First tamgaly tas Festival to Be Held in april

Page B6

National Theatre of Opera & Ballet named after Kulyash Baisseitova

March 14 at 12.00 “The Snow Queen in Astana” March 16 at 17.00 “Giselle” (ballet in 2 acts)March 22 at 15.00 “Kamar-Sulu” (opera in 2 acts)

Russian Drama Theatre named after Maxim GorkyMarch 16 at 11.00 Fairy Tale “The Thumbelina” by Hans Christian AndersenMarch 21 at 18.00 Play “Single apple-tree” by Alimbek Orazbekov March 22 at 18.00 Drama “Sultan Beibarys” by Rakhimzhan Otarbayev

Kazakh Music and Drama Theatre named after Kairat Kuanyshbayev

March 14 at 18.30 Drama “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare

March 15 at 18.30 Comedy “Marriage” by Erkin ZhuasbekMarch 21 at 18.30 Musical play “Aiman-Sholpan” by Mukhtar Auezov

Museum of the First PresidentTill March 28 Exhibition of the museum’s Chess collection

Exhibition Complex “Korme”March 13-15 The 8th International Exhibition of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Agritek Astana 2013”

Things to Watch in March

By Miras Abykov

Kazakhstan’s champion skier Alex-ey Poltoranin won the silver medal in the 15 km (9 mile) race in the 13th stage of the World Cup which was held on March 9-10 in Lahti, Finland.

Poltoranin had an almost per-fect start into second place. Later, he fell back to sixth place but fought his way back to the second spot.

Another Kazakhstan skier Nikolay Chebotko took 20th place.

university of Arts Holds Anniversary ConcertBy Maral Zhantaykyzy

ASTANA – On March 6, the University of the Arts held its 15th anniversary concert in the Central Concert Hall.

The dean of the university, inter-nationally acclaimed violinist Aim-an Mussakhodjayeva and the Aigo-lek Children’s Ensemble opened the programme playing the Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani by Fritz Kreisler.

The concert also included con-temporary works and those at-tributed to the beloved, legendary composer and musician Korkyt-Ata who lived 1,200 years ago and who created the kyl-kobuz stringed instrument.

The Samghau (Floating) and Eli-gay (Fawn) children’s choirs that have won international competi-tions, sang in a cappella President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s song “Ush-konyr” accompanied by stills from the film “The Sky of My Child-hood.” Young musicians performed pieces from around the world on dombras and the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s “Prince Igor.”

The children’s choirs and ensem-bles are set to perform the same concert in major concert halls in Milan, Turin, Florence, Rome, the Vatican, Paris, Tokyo, Washington, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Secretary of State Marat Tazhin, Minister of Culture and Informa-tion Mukhtar Kul-Muhammed, Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov and Presi-dential Advisor Gulshara Abdyka-likova attended the event.

Continued on Page B2 Aiman Mussakhodjayeva and the Aigolek Children’s Ensemble opened the evening dedicated to the 15th anniversary of KazNUA.

In a tough race, Alexey Poltoranin (r) won silver.

Poltoranin Wins SilverResidents of Astana, Other Cities and Towns Celebrate MaslenitsaBy Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – Maslenitsa (or Butter Week in Russian) is the most cheer-ful and brightest among Orthodox Christian holidays, symbolizing the end of winter and the expectation of the awakening of nature in spring-time. Usually celebrated during the last week before the Great Easter Lent, this year Maslenitsa falls on March 11-17.

This holiday is considered to come from pre-Christian times, when the Slavic tribes in Eurasia were still pagans.

The most characteristic food of Maslenitsa is bliny (Russian for pancakes). Round and golden, they are made from the rich foods still allowed by the Orthodox tradition: butter, eggs and milk. According to an old belief, the more pancakes one eats during Butter Week, the more successful and the more sat-isfactory the year will be.

During the week of Maslenitsa, meat is forbidden. The old word for Maslenitsa, ‘Myasopust’, means “empty of meat.” The Russian Or-thodox Church, however, prefers

calling it a ‘Cheese Week,’ because the meatless diet still allows cheese, butter and cream, which then are forbidden during the seven weeks of Lent.

In Kazakhstan, people also cel-ebrate Maslenitsa.

The Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Astana holds cel-ebrations to mark this holiday. The Embassy of Russia in Kazakhstan and the International Union of Cos-sacks “Ataman” have supported the event.

According to Chairman of the Astana City Branch of the Republi-can Slavic Movement “Lad” Alex-ander Zaripov, the centre celebrates Maslenitsa each year. This year, guests from ethnic and cultural or-ganizations such as the Belarusian and the Ukrainian cultural centres, the Russian community in Kaza-khstan, as well as ambassadors and representatives from diplomatic missions in Kazakhstan, have been invited.

The Organizing Committee of the Russian compatriots of Astana (“Union of Cossacks of Steppes,” a branch of “Union of Russian,

Slavic and Cossack associations” in Astana, “Russian Cultural Centre” of Astana, the branch of “Russian compatriots”) with the support of the Akimat of Astana, the Russian Embassy, and Art pro LTD jointly hold festivities under the Great Maslenitsa programme.

A festival is held at a scenic area near the Zhastar Palace. It includes a meeting with the heroes of Rus-sian fairy tales along with sport games and street trade with vendors selling sweet tea and pastries. The winners of contests and competi-tions receive prizes and refresh-ments, along with the main symbol of Maslenitsa – pancakes (bliny). The festive concert programme in-cludes arts groups of ethno-cultural centres of Astana such as Cossack Choir “Stanichniki”, an ensemble of the Polish Centre, and others.

Every day of the Maslenitsa week is devoted to special rituals.

On Monday, Maslenitsa is wel-comed. On that day, people make the straw-stuffed figure of winter, dress it in old women’s clothing and, singing, carry it on a sleigh around the village. Then the figure

is put onto a snow-covered slope that people used for tobogganing, which is considered not just fun, but the ancient rite, because it was thought that the one who came down the hill more than once was likely to have tall flax in summer.

Tuesday is called “zaigrysh” (an old Russian for game day). From that day, the entire village starts all sorts of activities: sleigh riding, folk festivals, skomorokh (Russian for travelling fun actors) and pup-pet shows. The streets are getting full of people in carnival costumes and masks who visit homes of their neighbours and organize impromp-tu concerts. Large companies ride troikas and simple sleighs.

Wednesday – a day of gourmand – opens feasts in houses with bliny and other dishes. Each household has tables with delicious food, baked pancakes, and brewed beer. Tents selling all kinds of food ap-pear everywhere.

On Thursday – revelry – comes the climax of games and fun. It was then that the hottest fistfights usu-ally took place in the past.

If on Wednesdays sons-in-law were treated with pancakes in the homes of their mothers-in-law, on Friday it was their turn to arrange dinners with bliny. A day before, mothers-in-law had to send to the homes of their sons-in-law every-thing necessary for making bliny: pans, ladles etc., and fathers-in-law had to send a bag of buckwheat and some butter. The disrespect of the tradition from the part of a son-in-law was considered dishonour and insult; and it could even be a reason for life-long enmity.

Saturday is devoted to the visits of relatives paid to young wives.

Sunday is named “forgiveness”. On that day, people used to ask each other for forgiveness for all griev-ances and troubles; in the evening people used to go to cemeteries and “bid farewell” to the dead.

On the last day of Maslenitsa comes the most interesting event – saying goodbye to Maslenitsa – a burning of the stuffed figure of winter. People throw the remnants of pancakes and food into the huge bonfire explaining to their children that all the nourish-ing food disappears in the fire to pre-pare them for the Lent.

Maslenitsa ends on the first day of the Lent – Clean Monday, which is considered the day of purification from sin and food forbidden during fasting.

forum Showcasing

People Success Stories Tours

CountryBy Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – A unique forum, “My Country’s Destiny is My Destiny,” kicked off its nationwide tour on Feb. 14 in Yereimentau and Feb. 18 in Korgalzhyno districts in the Ak-mola oblast. On Feb. 27, the forum took place in the Issatai district of the Atyrau oblast. And on March 1, other forums in Taldykorgan city, the town of Tekeli, and Karabulak village of Yeskeldy district in the Almaty region took place. Soon, district forums will start taking place in all other oblasts across the country, as well as in Astana and Almaty cities.

A cheerful event united partici-pants of the district forum in Yes-keldi (Almaty region).

The forum is designed to show the success Kazakhstan has achieved in its years of in-dependence through the prism of the changing lives of the na-tion’s people. The forum was originally launched in July 2012 by the Nazarbayev Center and attracted wide attention, after which it was decided to hold fo-rums annually in all regions of the country.

Continued on Page B5

Burning of the stuffed figure of winter is the most interesting event of Maslenitsa that completes the Butter Week.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesB2

People

By Maral Zhantaykyzy

ASTANA – Today, 8,000 wom-en in Kazakhstan have dedicated themselves to the defence of their country, operating rockets and artil-lery, serving as air defence troops and in other forces. The history of the steppe has many examples of women whose actions made them the pride of their people. Legends and national folklore bring us songs from akyns (poet-improvis-ers) about heroic steppe women: daughters, mothers, wives, teachers and batyrs (“warriors” in Kazakh).

Kazakh people have always ad-mired their daughters for their beauty, intelligence and courage. The women of the great steppe always held high status in the socio-political hierarchy of Kazakh governments. In Kaza-khstan’s nomadic tradition, women have always been equal to men in everything, including work and war.

Women have been powerful in what is now Kazakhstan since the early Iron Age, when women joined men on the battlefield. The percentage of female warriors fluc-tuated at times, but they were al-ways present.

Queen Tomyris is one of the earliest examples of a woman in a position of great prominence. Hav-ing lost her husband and son, the Saka-Massagetae Queen Tomyris (approximately 570-520 B.C.) was able to lead her nation and her peo-ple and protect their native land. The famous story of the victory of Tomyris over the Persian King Cyrus still inspires writers, movie directors and artists.

Another Saka Queen, Zarina (about 558-518 B.C.), killed her husband to ensure peaceful rela-tions with their stronger neigh-bour, the Medes, and preserved the integrity and independence of the nation. In gratitude, the Saka peo-ple built her a pyramid topped with a gold statue after her death. Kaza-khstan’s medieval history consists of numerous invasions and wars. Invaders always coveted the rich land, countless flocks, fertile fields and thriving cities. Hero-batyrs had to stand up for their native land. Oral folklore and other chroni-cles have preserved the names of many women-batyrs. The wife of Karakerey Kabanbay-batyr, Gaukhar-batyr, was also his ally in combat. Their daughter Nazim-batyr continued in their footsteps and defended her clan against the Dzhungars.

In the Aktobe region there is a mausoleum in honour of Botagoz-batyr (about 1667-1757), daughter of Yeset-Tarkhan. Botagoz became famous for defending her clan’s lands with her brothers against the raids of the Kalmyks. According to legend, the Kalmyks killed her father, and she immediately assem-bled a squad of 150 dzhigits (horse riders and fighters), defeated the Kalmyks and returned relatives and cattle that had been held prisoner.

Princess Bopay-Khansha (daugh-ter of Kassym Khan) participated with her brother Kenesary Khan in a battle against Russian colonisers. After the death of Kenesary Khan, she continued the battle.

During World War II, Kazakh women worked in the rear and

went to the front to protect their motherland from the Nazis. Of all the women of the Soviet East, it was two women from Kaza-khstan, machine gunner Manshuk Mametova and sniper Alia Mold-agulova, who were posthumously awarded the highest award of the Soviet Union, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, for their feats in battle.Mametova was only 20 years old when she decided to go to the front. At first she was a clerk of military staff; while at the front she finished the machine gunners’ course. In 1943, during heavy fighting for the liberation of Nevel City, she killed 70 enemy soldiers before dying from shrap-nel wounds.

In 1942, Aliya Moldagulova asked to join the army at the front, but because she was not yet 18 years old, she was sent to study shooting. A year later she was fighting at the front; a year after her arrival at the front, she was killed in battle.

Altynshash Nurgozhinova was posthumously awarded the Or-der of the Red Star for her hero-ism. At the expense of her life, she saved a Soviet squad from being surrounded. Kazakh wom-en-partisans Nurganym Baysei-tova, Turgash Zhumabayeva and Zhamal Agadilova also defended the Soviet Union.

Hiuaz Dospanova was the only Kazakh woman pilot of World War II. For her courage and bravery she was awarded the Orders of the Red Star and of the Red Banner.

Dospanova flew more than 300 mission sorties. The brave pilot was twice seriously wounded, but she rejoined the ranks and was on hand for the victory in Berlin. In 2004, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev awarded Hiuaz Dospanova the title of Kha-lyk Kaharmany (Hero of Kaza-khstan).

“Kazakhstan, through the activ-

ity of its female population, took 31st place among 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s rat-ings of gender equality,” Advisor to the President and Chair of the National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy Gulshara Abdykalikova reported recently at the national meeting of the chairs of regional politicians’ clubs.

Nation Remembers Warrior Women of the Great Steppe

By Miras Abykov

ASTANA – Ministers, govern-ment officials and deputies of the Mazhilis of Parliament of Kaza-khstan, as well as guests from the United States, South Korea, China and Malaysia gathered Feb. 22 at the Lev Gumilyov Eurasian Na-tional University for the interna-tional scientific conference “Hu-man Capital in Kazakhstan: Status and Growth Perspectives.”

The conference was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the fa-mous Kazakh scholar, statesman and public figure, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Kaza-khstan Kenzhegali Sagadiyev.

“Human capital is the basis, the foundation, formed in the modern world, including in Kazakhstan, of the innovative economy and the knowledge society,” Sagadiyev wrote in his recent publications.

Half of Kazakhstan’s teachers will pass a training course on a system developed by Nazarbayev Intellec-tual Schools and the University of Cambridge. This was announced by Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov.

“In the field of secondary educa-tion, the introduction of the mod-ern system of teacher training, developed by Nazarbayev Intellec-tual Schools in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, was a fundamental step. This system has been already launched. In five years about half of the teaching staff of our country will have been trained there,” Zhumagulov said.

“About 1,000 citizens of Kaza-khstan study abroad on applica-tion-oriented specialties,” Deputy Prime Minister Kairat Kelimbetov told the event.

“This trend indicates that the state programme of training Ka-zakhstan’s citizens abroad in a planned mode increases the training of specialists on technical special-ties. Therefore, personnel prepara-tion in our country on application-oriented specialties will go on to a new level,” Kelimbetov said.

He noted that in 2012, the

number of graduates of the Bolas-hak programme in application-ori-ented specialties increased by 23 percent compared to the previous year. This year, growth of techni-cal specialties will increase by 93 percent.

“If by the quantitative indices of higher education Kazakhstan is in 60th place in the World Index of Competitiveness, in quality it is in 101st place among 144 other coun-tries, and in innovative potential only in the 90th place. The rapid growth of the number of higher education institutions and students has led to contradictions between the quantity and quality of special-ists’ training,” Sagadiyev noted in his report.

“The solution… advanced by the president of the country in Strategy Kazakhstan-2050 is directly con-nected to education, to human cap-ital and to investment attachments in this sphere,” he continued.

“The policy of active financial support of the state will provide for the successful solution of three cardinal tasks facing higher educa-tion in Kazakhstan: to bring it to a new qualitative level, to reform higher education institutions in research universities and to enter into the world educational space as

an equal partner. These problems have already begun to be success-fully resolved in Nazarbayev Uni-versity, around which a scientific innovation cluster has been formed, optimising the network of universi-ties, each year expanding their co-operation with foreign educational institutions. We have started the implementation of the programme, which will bring establishments of primary and secondary profes-sional education out of the status of so-called social ‘piggy-backers’ and into the mass of training pro-fessions,” Sagadiyev added.

The event also covered topics such as reforms and their impact on human development in Kaza-khstan, knowledge-based economy in the world today and in the fu-ture, international best practices in human capital, the prosperity and growth prospects of households in Kazakhstan, the innovative poten-tial of society and environmental quality of life.

The conference was organised by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Edu-cation and Science, the Committee on Social and Cultural Develop-ment of the Mazhilis, the Founda-tion of the First President of Ka-zakhstan and the Lev Gumilyov Eurasian National University.

Experts Discuss Progress and Prospects for Education Improvement

Aliya Moldagulova, national hero of Kazakhstan.

Hiuaz Dospanova was the only Kazakh woman pilot of World War II.

Education in Kazakhstan will go on to the next level.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 The Astana TimesB3

Culture

from Page B1

Other guests included Count Pe-ter Sheremetev, the president of the Rachmaninov Conservatory in Paris; Armen Smbatyan, executive director the CIS Interstate Human-itarian Cooperation Fund; and the rectors of the largest higher music education institutions in Azerbai-jan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyr-gyzstan, Latvia and Italy.

The Kazakh National Academy of Music (KazNAM) was created on March 31, 1998 with the sup-port of President Nazarbayev. On Oct. 12, 2009, the government upgraded its status and renamed it the Kazakh National University of Arts (KazNUA). In 2010, the uni-versity moved into the Shabyt Pal-ace of the Arts.

The KazNUA teaches primary (grades 1-8), secondary (grades 9-12), higher (1-4 courses) and postgraduate programmes in 21 specialties. They covers all areas of art, acting, directing, painting and sculpture, movie camera work, photography, choreography, bal-let, folk dances, design, set design,

popular entertainment and artistic management.

The university prepares its graduates for positions not only in Kazakhstan but also around the world. It has one teacher for every five students.

The prestigious faculty of the university includes such eminent figures as composer Yerkegali Rah-madiev, writer Akim Tarazi, zhyr-shy (narrator of folk poems) Almas Almatov, composer Kenes Duyse-keev, theater critic Ashirbek Sygay, film critic Bauyrzhan Nogerbek, directors Asiya Suleyeva and Alma Utekesheva, singer Kairat Baibo-synov, dancer and choreographer Rinat Musin, director and producer Bauyrzhan Ibragimov. The govern-ment provides more than 2 billion tenge ($13.27 million) annually in education grants.

“The main goal of our university is to develop a classical tradition of the highest global standard and a tradition of Kazakh musical cul-ture. Our students are close to the melody of Korkyt’s kobyz and to the sounds of Stradivarius’ violin,” Dean Mussakhodjayeva said.

The university’s anniversary celebrations will also include the International Forum of Art in Astana which will be attended by Princess Caroline of Monaco, Count Sheremetev, Azerbaijani actor, singer and diplomat Po-lad Bulbuloglu, Russian cultural ambassador Mikhail Shvydkoi and other well-known artists and the presidents of more than 20 higher education institutions of culture and arts from around the world.

The celebrations will also in-clude the premiere of the movie “The Sword of Victory,” the meeting of the Council of Rectors for the support of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Coop-eration (IFESCCO), concerts by the Symphony Orchestra and the Baisseitova National Opera and Ballet Theatre, classical piano works, Kazakh folk music and vocal, choral, and violin concerts. Master cellists Kirill Rodin from Russia and Kazakhstan’s Ravil Kulmametov will perform and vi-olinist Maxim Fedotov will give a solo concert.

university of Arts Holds Anniversary Concert

By Yelena Kuznetsova

ASTANA – Kazakh artists suc-cessfully represented the country in the gala concert “Young Stars of World Ballet” held in the German city of Mainz.

In a letter to Kazakhstan’s Min-ister of Culture and Information Mukhtar Kul-Muhammed, Direc-tor General of the International Federation of Ballet Competitions (IFBC), first vice-president of the International Union of Choreog-raphy, Honored Artist of Russia Sergey Usanov expressed gratitude for successful performance of our young dancers.

Amid young talented artists from different countries, prize winners of the international competition of Yuri Grigorovich “Young Bal-let of the World,” and other most prestigious national and interna-tional contests, a duet of soloists of the Kulyash Baisseitova National Opera and Ballet Theater, Aigerim Beketayeva and Tahir Gatauov showed their skills.

In his letter, Usanov noted that Beketayeva and Gatauov, with their inspirational performance, contributed significantly to the in-ternational programme of classical ballet, thereby entering into a co-hort of young talents of the world choreography.

“The International Federation of Ballet Competitions congratulates the Ministry of Culture and Informa-tion on the success of young danc-ers from Kazakhstan in Germany and expresses gratitude to the artists and their teacher Galiya Buribaye-va, the management of the theater and chief choreographer Tursynbek Nurkaliyev for consent in principle to participate in important interna-tional event,” the letter read.

Last year was an eventful and a good one for Kazakhstan’s young artists.

Aigerim Beketayeva for the first time took part in the international competition “Young Ballet of the World” of Yuri Grigorovich. De-spite the lack of experience, to-gether with Tahir Gatauov they

won diplomas. Their performance in Sochi received accolades from the press. Many journalists wrote that the Kazakhstan’s artists danced even better than the winners. That is why Beketayeva and Gatauov had been invited along with the winners to participate in the gala concert in Germany.

Having returned from Sochi, they immediately began preparing for a trip to the Bulgarian city of Varna for the oldest ballet competition in the world where Aigerim Beketaye-va took bronze and Tahir Gatauov was awarded with a diploma.

“I am lucky,” Beketayeva said. “Just after my coming to the theater I had an opportunity to participate in two international competitions which provided a strong impetus for further development. I have understood what the theater is. In each concert, each performance, the artist discovers something new and gains experience.”

The young dancers are very thankful to their teachers Galiya Buribayeva and Tursynbek Nurka-liyev who trained them for the competition and supported in dif-ficult times.

“They must have an iron pa-

tience to endlessly repeat with us the same thing, perfecting every move. If it were up to me, I would put them a monument while alive,” Gatauov says.

The young artists received pro-posals from other companies.

“But we will not swap our theater for any other,” Gatauov said, “espe-cially since in the near future a new “Astana Opera” theater will open.”

Now the young artists are work-ing hard. Aigerim Beketayeva recently premiered in the “Les Sylphides” and “Swan Lake,” and on March 6 for the first time she danced the part of Gamzatti in the ballet “La Bayadere” by Ludwig Minkus.

In late March, Beketayeva and Gatauov are going to participate in the Rudolf Nureyev contest in Budapest. In the summer, the duet will take part in the Moscow Inter-national Competition. In Septem-ber, together with Honored Artist of Kazakhstan Madina Basbayeva, the winner of international compe-titions Tahir Gatauov will perform in the gala concert “World Bal-let Stars” in the Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

Ballet Stars Shine on International Arena

By Natalya Kurpyakova

ASTANA – Kazakh National University of Arts students in the visual arts, musicology and cho-reography recently discussed im-pressionism at a student confer-ence held on the premises of the Kulanshi Art Center.

The discussions centered around a project called “Impressionism in arts and music,” which is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the establish-ment of diplomatic relations between the European Union and Kazakhstan and marks the 15th anniversary of the Kazakh National University of Arts (KazNUA), said the head of the Kulanshi Art Center and professor of the KazNUA Leyla Makhat.

“I am confident that interactive forms of education are the best,” Makhat told the conference. “The history of arts and pictorial art are not only the theoretical subjects. Artists have to obtain different techniques, but they must first un-derstand the reasons behind chang-

es in styles of painting and what their artistic predecessors thought and felt. The ultimate goal of the conference is for the youth to be-come creators themselves.”

Participants of the conference prepared performances, including the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The type of impressionism they intro-duced in the music has had the same effect as those who laid the basis for impressionism in art in the last third of the 19th century.

A month prior to the conference, young artists were assigned the task of creating their own impres-sionist paintings to be displayed in a mini-exhibition “European Wind in the Kazakh Steppe.”

Their work sought fresh perspec-tives on nature, cityscapes, movies, scenes from life. A separate genre was portrait, which allows experi-mentation with mood, lighting and contrasting strokes. The young art-ists did serious work and eagerly defended their creations. For some

artists, such as Leyla Makhat who prefers realism, it is difficult to use open colors and large strokes.

“I like the feeling of freedom in Impressionism, the ability to dream. It teaches us to watch,” said Julia Pulatova, “I had a period when I was looking for ideas from someone. But then there is no de-velopment, you start to get stuck. You have to move and look for yourself.”

The project was pleasant, useful, and fun. Participants of the confer-ence discussed their own style, the place of the artist in society, recog-nition and oblivion. “I want to be known as Van Gogh, but not to live the way he did!” claimed young pragmatists.

In conclusion, young artists pro-duced works in the best traditions of modernism. It will not destroy the canons or overthrow author-ity. It will be a path to discipline. Talent deserves to be noticed, seen and heard. Understanding can come later.

Young Astana Artists Create Impressionist Works

Soloists of Kazakhstan’s ballet impressed international public with their skills.

One of the art pieces presented at the “Impressionism in arts and music” conference demonstrates young spirit.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesB4

Country

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – Tattoos and body decorations have been traditions in many cultures for thousands of years. They demonstrated mem-bership in groups, showed status, served as good luck charms, indicat-ed religious beliefs or, as is common now, were just fashionable. In an-cient times, tattoos often belonged to royal or privileged classes. In the more recent past, that notion was turned on its head and tattoos were thought to be a sign of savagery.

Different cultures had their own tattoo traditions. Often, knives or nee-dles were used to scratch the skin in a pattern, which a shaman would then rub with dye, leaving a permanent mark. Other methods used needles, sharp stones or bones inserted into a wooden handle, which was used to puncture the skin in a pattern.

Today, most tattoos are done un-der professional, hygienic condi-tions and are relatively common. Some tattoo fans are looking back to older tattooing traditions, however, and ancient designs are gaining pop-ularity. Today, Scythian (known also as Pazyryk style) tattoos are increas-ingly popular.

“A Scythian (animal) is a con-glomerate including traditional dec-orations inherent to different nation-alities. They may be images of one or many animals. The Scythian style is rich in design techniques, forms and the complexity of its patterns. However, it would be good to use a style similar to Scythian. I think that to make a tattoo more interesting, you should draw a background like a rocky flat on which it is possible to stylize those tattoos,” says Astana tattoo artist Ruslan Batyrbaev.

The Scythians respected the hunt-ing skills and admired the beauty of the big cats of the region, the snow leopard and the Siberian tiger. They may have believed the cats’ images

would transfer the animals’ fearless-ness and hunting skills to the bearer of their image. The animal images were important sources of protection for a people who needed strength and cunning to survive.

Archaeologists have excavated a tomb in the Altai region belonging to the Pazyryk culture, which belongs to the so-called Scythian circle. In the sixth to third centuries BC, these people lived in the territories now belonging to Kazakhstan, Mongo-lia and Russia. Due to the climatic conditions in the region, mummies, decorated with complicated tattoos, have been perfectly preserved in the mounds. Today they are the oldest surviving examples of tattoos in the world.

Pazyryk tattoos were made using bone needles and a mixture of soot. The tattoos are located on shoulders, arms, hands and legs and appear to have been used for luck rather than decoration. These protective talis-mans were thought to confer hunt-ing prowess and protect the wearer from harm. Some tattoos that cov-ered most of some Scythians’ bodies depicted real and imaginary beasts and events from their mythology. There was a belief that the more tattoos a person had, the longer he would live and the higher his status in society.

“From personal experience, I can confidently declare that to become a tattoo master, first, one should be an artist. People are often afraid to make a mistake in the size, colour or location of a tattoo, but these are not as important as choosing a good tattoo artist... Remember, a tattoo is painful, expensive and will stay for-ever!” Batyrbaev counsels.

Prices for tattoos vary widely globally and locally, depending on the complexity of the tattoo, the skill and experience of the art-ist, the attitude of the customer and other factors. A small, simple design

might take 15 minutes, whereas an elaborate sleeve tattoo or back piece requires multiple sessions that may last several hours at a time and can go on for weeks.

Attitudes toward tattoos have changed. Where not long ago, they were seen as the markings of shady characters, now they are often treat-ed as an art form that allows for self-expression. People get tattoos about their jobs, about hardships endured or places visited. Some women use tattoos as a form of makeup, using tattoos with natural colours to per-manently enhance eyebrows, lips, eyes or moles or neutralising skin discolourations.

“As the owner of a Scythian tat-too, I would like to share my feel-ings, because I know that people are afraid of tattooing, taking into account the prejudices of an over-whelming majority of Kazakhstan. They usually ask, ‘Why did you decide to get a tattoo? It hurts, it’s not beautiful, and it’s not for wom-en…,’” says Renata Uspanova who is proud about her tattoo. “Well, first of all, it doesn’t hurt at all! I like tat-toos: tattooing is a way I can express my feelings. The main thing about tattooing is to choose the right one, one you can be proud of. I chose my own tattoo; it depicts my feelings and my way of living,” Uspanova says.

“The tattoo industry in Kaza-khstan is in a primitive state of de-velopment compared to Western countries. I would like to organise a tattoo convention in Kazakhstan that could be a great platform for professionals and experts who could not only share their plans for the fu-ture and tell the history of tattooing, but also find new clients. The finest tattoo artists in the world will be in-vited here. But there are difficulties, the main being finding sponsors for this kind of event in Kazakhstan,” Batyrbaev says.

Scythian Tattoos Gain Popularity in Astana

By xenia udod

ASTANA – To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ka-zakhstan and the European Union, the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan and the embassies of EU member states are organising a series of political, cultural and educational events.

On Feb. 19, European diplomats visited 28 schools in Astana to ed-ucate their students about the 27-nation EU under what is known as European Union Hour initiative.

Ambassadors Aurelia Bouchez of the EU, Jaan Hein of Estonia, Efthymios Pantzopoulos of Greece, Manuel Larrotcha Parada of Spain, Jean-Charles Berthonnet of France, Juris Maklakovs of Latvia, Rokas Bernotas of Lithuania, Imre Las-zlóczki of Hungary, Wolfgang Bán-yai of Austria, Mikko Kinnunen of Finland and Manne Wängborg of Sweden personally visited the schools. They were accompanied by senior diplomats from Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ger-many, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and the EU.

The diplomats held interactive sessions with the students in Eng-lish, French and German on the history of the European Union, its achievements, economy, policies, culture and values, and on the re-

lationship between the EU and Ka-zakhstan.

“This year, the European Union and Kazakhstan celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. In terms of human life, 20 years is young. And that is why the first event, among many others to be held this year, takes place in schools,” EU Am-bassador Bouchez told children at Lyceum No. 1 in Astana. “It is al-ways a pleasure to speak to young and intelligent people, and to have open and candid conversations with them. This motivates our efforts to contribute to a bright future.”

Aidarbek Mendybayev, principal of Lyceum No.1, said the event was “of huge significance for school-children. It gives them new knowl-edge and a feeling of involvement with other countries. You are giving our children the feeling that their opinions are important. And you are giving them confidence through their experience of talking and de-bating with foreign diplomats. I be-lieve it will contribute a lot to their future careers. Who knows? Maybe one of our lyceum’s students will become Kazakhstan’s foreign min-ister in 20 years.”

The European diplomats found that many of the children they met already spoke fluent English, Ger-man and French. Many have vaca-tioned or taken language courses in

the EU countries and many of them plan to study in European universi-ties.

Students questioned the Europe-an envoys about the EU reactions to the conflicts in Libya, Syria and Mali and about European projects for space exploration, green tech-nologies, academic exchanges and youth employment programmes.

The diplomats quizzed the stu-dents about their knowledge about the European Union and its insti-tutions. The students, for example, were asked to list all the EU Mem-ber States with their capitals or to guess which European countries are not members of the EU. Some of the schoolchildren turned out to be real experts in the EU, providing excellent answers to the quiz, and were given gifts and souvenirs.

By the end of the event it was clear that it was not an ordinary school lesson but a very intense discussion, full of new knowledge and fun for both students and EU diplomats, who said they would be happy to meet such interesting and smart audience again.

The “European Union Hour” is a first initiative in a series of events marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the European Union.

On 2 February 1993, the par-ties signed an agreement that set

up diplomatic relations between the EU and Kazakhstan and since then, bilateral cooperation in trade,

economy, energy, transport and the environment has been expanding every year. The EU is investing

in youth projects in Kazakhstan in education, science and social poli-cies.

Eu Envoys Celebrate Ties, Go Back to School

Ambassador Aurelia Bouchez of the EU taught students to play chess.

Students of school No. 48 played Kazakh national instruments for the guests. Ambassador of Finland to Kazakhstan Mikko Kinnunen held an open lesson in one of Astana’s schools.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 The Astana TimesB5

society

forum Showcasing People Success Stories Tours Countryfrom Page B1

The district forums gathered rep-resentatives of state bodies, public and political figures, representa-tives of culture, arts, education and healthcare, representatives of creative, scientific and sports com-munities as well as rural youth and people who wanted to express their patriotism.

These included Deputy Mayor of Yereimentau District Serik Kush-kunbayev, Honoured Architect of Kazakhstan and honorary citizen of Korgalzhyn Serik Rustambekov, as well as members of the board of veterans and others.

“They say that politicians and great people write history, those who have special qualities, like a strategic vision of any situation and ideal ways to address it, a sharp analytical mind and phenomenal memory, unbending will and faith in the justice of their choice... The past 20 years have convincingly proven that Nursultan Nazarbayev has all these qualities,” Kush-kumbayev said in his welcoming speech on Feb. 14. Serik Kush-kunbayev was born in Yereimentau District and devoted his life to the development of his native land. He is an economist-organizer of agri-cultural industry by education and is one of contributors to the devel-opment of Yereimentau.

Serik Rustambekov, honored Master of Fine Arts of the Repub-lic of Kazakhstan and honorary citizen of the district, said on Feb. 18, “I am delighted to be helpful to the country, I am proud that I have worked with worthy people, real patriots... Our country gives every citizen of Kazakhstan the opportu-nity to realize their dreams, to use their powers, to believe in them-selves and to become an independ-ent person.”

In Tekeli (Almaty region) the start of the Forum was marked with motorcycle rally.

Today, Serik Rustambekov is an owner of numerous awards and ti-tles in professional activities, and perhaps one of the most significant awards for him is the title “Hon-orary Citizen of Korgalzhyn Dis-trict”. More than four decades ago, a curious boy had no idea what his life would be, but later he became an acclaimed architect contributing to many projects in Astana.

Forum participants noted in their remarks that conditions for self-realisation and the improvement of the lives of youth had been created in the Akmola region. The number of labour youth student groups in 2012 rose to 112 and about 3,000 young people have made socially useful contributions to the devel-opment of the region under the auspices of the Zhassyl Yel nation-al youth initiative. Civil society institutions were represented by 62 youth organisations in the region. At the forums, the most active resi-dents of the districts received di-plomas and letters of appreciation for their active participation in the social life of Yereimentau and Ko-rgalzhyn.

In Korgalzhyn, Irina Deyeva, head of the “Russian Song” en-semble and a blind poet-performer, said, “I am Russian. I was born, grew up, and made myself in Ko-rgalzhyn, on this blessed land, which I consider my home. My poems and songs are heard here, I

feel happy. I am sure that our chil-dren and grandchildren will have a bright future.”

“My fate is directly tied to the fate of the country. I witnessed formation of the young state,” ma-chine operator Alexey Rush, also of Korgalzhyn, said. “I would like to appeal to the young people of Kazakhstan: Strive forward! The country’s future is your future.”

Rush, an ethnic Russian who spoke in perfect Kazakh, had ear-lier been recognized with the Or-der of “Kurmet” (Honour) and had been a delegate of the 17th annual session of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan in 2012 called “20 years of peace, accord and creation’.

Participant of the Forum Serik Rustambekov is an owner of nu-merous awards, one of which is the title of “Honorary Citizen of Kor-galzhyn District.”

A labour veteran, Tatyana Krivoruchko, chair of “Prosvita Zhetysu” Regional Ukrainian Ethno-Cultural Center named after Taras Shevchenko, is a member of the Assembly of the People of Ka-zakhstan. She was born and grew up in Karabulak village of the Yes-keldy district in the Almaty oblast.

Since 1971, she has been work-ing in education, including 24 years as principal of the high school named after Shestakov. In 2003, the Ukrainian Ethno-Cul-tural Center was established under this school. In 2005, this center be-came a part of the regional Ukrain-ian Ethno-Cultural Center. Tatyana Krivoruchko was awarded with honorary certificates of the mayor of the district, the district education office, a certificate of the Minister of Education of the Kazakh SSR. In her remarks at the district forum on March 1, she said, “Kazakhstan, over the years of independence, has not only created and enhanced its nationhood. Kazakhstan has also demonstrated to the world its own model of development, attracting interested glances of politicians from other states.”

According to Kanat Saudabayev, director of the Nazarbayev Center, “Kazakhstan, over the short pe-riod of its independence, has trans-formed from an unknown former Soviet Republic into an economi-cally strong, democratically de-veloped and respected country due to the strategic vision and ac-tions of its first president, Nursul-tan Nazarbayev. These impressive achievements were made possible by the contributions of the citizens of Kazakhstan, on whose creative potential the president always re-lied.”

On March 1, the district forums in Almaty region took place in Tekeli and in Yeskeldi.

In Tekeli, the event began with the planting of pines and firs in the center of the city. After, par-ticipants accompanied by motorcy-clists waving national flags headed to the local Palace of Culture, where in the lobby of the building the exhibition “My city is my hap-piness” was organized. Start to the official part was given by Kanybek Aitzhanov, the mayor of the city, who congratulated participants, organizers and guests of the forum with the outstanding event.

Meanwhile on the same day, in Yeskeldi district the audience met participants of the forum amid

which were the chairman of the district council of veterans Bimurat Boranbayev, editor of the regional newspaper “Zhetysu shygilasy”, holder of the title “Madeniet kai-ratkeri” (Cultural worker in Ka-zakh) Sabit Bibolov, teacher of the secondary school named after Shes-takov, Tatyana Krivoruchko, May-or of Aldabergen disctrict Tolegen Musaripov, businessman Herman

Nam, the primary care physician at the Yeskeldi Central Hospital Elmira Beisembaeva, head of the “Telman” farm Aben Taizhanov, and teacher of the school named after Shestakov Bakyt Tusupova.

Regional forums will highlight residents whose life stories are the most striking examples of the unity of the country’s fate and the fate of its citizens, who continue to make

valuable contributions to the ongo-ing development of independent Kazakhstan.

Delegates and speakers at the forums are the real everyday life heroes of our times: prominent public and political figures; rep-resentatives of state bodies, arts and sciences, ethno-cultural asso-ciations and various sectors of the economy; war and labour veterans;

soldiers; famous athletes and youth leaders.

Regional forums are to be held in two stages: first at the district level, then at the level of the oblasts and the cities of Astana and Almaty. The best participants will be delegated to Astana for participation in the national forum, which will be held as part of the celebrations of the Day of the Capital in July 2013.

By Maral Zhantaykyzy

ASTANA – The Kazakhstan TV channel and Zhas Otan, the youth wing of the Nur Otan political party, organised a charity concert, “Heart to Heart,” at the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall in support of a small child with a rare bone dis-ease.

The four-year-old girl, Aruzhan Orazbekova, suffers from osteo-cytes, which makes her bones so fragile that she cannot walk on her own and has trouble with ba-sic movements. Her parents can’t even carry her in their arms for fear of hurting her. To date, Aruzhan has had about 45 fractures. Un-fortunately, Kazakhstan’s doctors cannot help her—but specialists at the European Medical Centre in Moscow treat children with her condition. Moscow surgeons have declared their readiness to perform surgery on Aruzhan and predict a good chance of rehabilitation. The cost of multiple courses of treat-ment and surgery is four million

tenge, which Aruzhan’s parents cannot afford.

So in addition to the Feb. 22 concert hall event, other charity

concerts organised by youth move-ments in support of the little girl were launched in Pavlodar and Uralsk.

In January, the Kazakhstan TV channel reported on Aruzhan on the Zhan Zhyluy Show (“Warmth of Spirit”). Immediately after the broadcast, people from all over the country started calling Aruzhan’s parents to offer moral and financial support. Abinukas LLP Director Bauyrzhan Kasse-nov transferred 100,000 tenge to the family’s bank account. People across the country contributed ac-cording to their abilities. To help create a structure for collecting donations, Zhas Otan organised a charity concert.

“We are all from one house, one family. When misfortunes come and disease makes an attempt to attack, we come together to defeat it and we have nothing to fear. ‘If you share joy, the joy is doubled; when you share grief, it decreases,’ says a Kazakh proverb. I thank you for coming today,” Deputy of the Mazhilis of Kazakhstan Orazkul Asankyzy said at the opening of the concert.

“In this hall people have gath-

ered who believe in the possibil-ity of healing and a brighter future for Aruzhan. After the first airing of Aruzhan’s story, after only two days, 500,000 tenge was trans-ferred to her family’s account from people like you. This first contri-bution has given them hope for the future,” chair of the board of the Kazakhstan TV channel Nurzhan Mukhamedzhanova said.

“The Zhan Zhyluy Show first aired in 2009. During this time, we helped raise money for the sur-geries of six other children; eight families from Almaty and Mang-istau, supported by local akimats (city halls), received housing and 17 children found the new lov-ing families. I think the television show, which airs only once a week for 30 minutes, has a huge social impact and good results. Our work is evaluated by your participa-tion. Belief in the good gives us strength,” Mukhamedzhanova added.

Artists from the bands Garysh and Dabyl participated in the con-

cert along with well-known singers Kydyrali and Karakat, Dosymzhan Tanatarov and Ibraghim Iskendir. Even little six-year Bibimariam Omarova, who won the interna-tional competition “Happy Child-hood” in Los Angeles, came to support her young fellow country-man.

Aruzhan’s mother, Gulnaz, tear-fully thanked all the participants at the event. “I want to thank every-one who responded to our trouble. Thank you for your good deeds, for your attention. I want to thank the Kazakhstan channel, Astana aki-mat and Zhas Otan. I want to thank Maslikhat Deputy Arnur Iskakov individually. Being confined to a wheelchair himself, he decided to help Aruzhan. Arnur was one of the first to respond, actively call-ing for Internet users’ participa-tion through social networks,” she said.

The organisers managed to raise the necessary funds and on Febru-ary 26, Aruzhan and her parents flew to Moscow for treatment.

Nationwide Donations Offer Hope to Sick Child

To help little Aruzhan Orazbekova, 4, who suffers from osteocytes, Kazakhstan’s celebrities organized a charity concert “Heart to Heart”.

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Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesB6

Tourism

Natural beauties of Tamgaly Tas open new horizons for tourist attractions.

By Maral Imanbayeva

ASTANA – The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has declared 2013 the year of tourism, ecological culture and environ-mental protection. As part of the events of this year, on April 26-28, the first Kazakhstan Tamgaly Tas (“stones with signs” in Kazakh) In-ternational Tourist Festival will be held in the valley of the same name 100 kilometres away from Almaty.

In anticipation of this interna-tional event, The Astana Times in-terviewed Chairman of the Organ-ising Committee of the Tamgaly Tas Festival Timur Eleusizov.

What aims does the festival have?

The festival is aimed at promot-ing and popularising the identity and cultural heritage of the Turkic-speaking peoples as well as promot-ing various non-traditional sports competitions for family holidays, active leisure and the development of ecotourism. We also want to at-tract the attention of international institutions to Kazakhstan’s nature preservation efforts.

How did you come up with the idea for the large-scale festival?

The idea came from my father, Mels Eleusizov (chairman of the Tabigat Ecological Union). Over a 12-year period, Tabigat con-ducted a variety of events and environmental forums and the Ile-Balkhash Regatta. This year, we decided to combine various types of sport and entertainment and eth-nographic and environmental con-tests and competitions, which from year to year are gaining popularity among Kazakhstan’s citizens, un-der one brand. The Tamgaly Tas Festival is a big event. In 2001 the first Ile-Balkhash Regatta brought together 400 people and in 2010

it was 5,000, so we plan to attract more than 10,000 people to the Tamgaly Tas Festival.

Who is the official organiser of the Tamgaly Tas Festival? Do you have sponsors?

The Tamgaly Tas Organising Committee and the Tabigat Eco-logical Union are the initiators and official organisers of the event, which is supported by the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, the Ministry of Emergency Situa-tions and Almaty City Hall.

Who has confirmed their par-ticipation so far?

Our traditional regatta and climb-ing competition participants will definitely come. Our ranks have been extended with new teams from France, Denmark, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Hun-gary.

Who can participate in the festival as a competitor and as a guest?

Tamgaly Tas is open for anyone to participate, including people with disabilities. In accordance with the organisers’ intentions, guests and participants of the festival can stay in the tent camp. Anyone can bring a tent or lease one from the organ-isers. A special bus will run to and from Almaty city. The huge tract of land is divided into zones. Several events will take place at the same time and everyone will be able to choose and participate while en-joying the picturesque landscape of the valley.

Can you tell us more about the programme?

The Ile-Balkhash Regatta com-petition in sailing and rafting con-sists of a series of races for dif-ferent classes of ships. Expect the participation of 30 teams at least.

Popular since the days of Zo-roastrianism among the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Tatars, Uzbeks and other Central Asian peoples, the game “kokpar” will unite teams from these countries at the festival. In parts of the Middle East, a version of this game is called buzkashi; a similar sport in Europe is called horseball and in South America, it is called pato.

We invite fans of motorcycle sports to participate in the Endur-akross race developed for special sports bikes and quads on a closed track with artificial and natural im-pediments. For the climbing com-

petition, we’ve prepared 50 routes of varying difficulty.

The public will be invited to par-ticipate in competitions in beach volleyball, soccer and paintball.

For the first time in Kazakhstan, fire dancers will meet to take part in a festival of fire called Atash, where they’ll be able to demon-strate their skills and share their experiences.

The beautiful half of the festival guests will take part in the Miss Ecotourism 2013 contest, and the best chefs from restaurants in Al-maty and the Almaty region will compete in the Best Chef of the Steppe competition.

To promote respect for nature and the formation of an active position on waste management among citizens, we will organise a campaign called Clean Up Your Stuff, which includes cleaning the festival venue and the surrounding areas of the Ili River.

The Tamgaly Tas Valley is fa-mous for its rock paintings more than 2,000 years old. The Tamgaly petroglyphs are under UNESCO protection, but unfortunately some tourists want to leave their own mark, scribbling on the relics. The Tamgaly Tas Festival will create a “Mound of Good Wishes,” import-ing stones for participants to leave

their writing on, which will be piled into a mound of their messages.

The festival will close with a gala concert in the open air, where Kazakhstan’s celebrities will per-form alongside foreign artists. The festival jury will announce the re-sults and award winners.

What are your expectations for the festival?

The festival will have a great influence on the country’s image and tourist development, since it opens up the Year of Tourism in Kazakhstan. It will be the basis of the formation of Kazakhstan’s new brand.

first Tamgaly Tas festival to Be Held in April

By Galiya Nurzhan

ASTANA – Sheraton style and luxury are coming to Aktobe.

On Jan. 11, 2013, the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide of America and the Akcept Con-traction Company of Kazakhstan signed a contract to build a new Sheraton Aktobe Hotel to open in 2013.

It will be the first hotel of the famous international chain in the fast-growing city on the Ilek Riv-er.

The opening of the Sheraton Ak-tobe Hotel is part of the company’s strategic plan to launch more than 60 new hotels and resorts around the world in the next three years. It will mark Sheraton’s entry into the Kazakhstan market.

“We are delighted to cooperate with the Akcept Contraction to open the Sheraton Aktobe Hotel – the first Starwood hotel in Ka-zakhstan,” said Roland Vos, presi-dent of Starwood Hotels & Resorts

in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

“Entering new markets is a prior-ity for the expansion of the compa-ny and the opening of the Sheraton Aktobe Hotel will be an important step in developing the chain in Eastern Europe,” he said.

Bart Carnahan, Starwood’s sen-ior vice president for development in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, noted the continuing popular-ity of the Sheraton brand.

“Due to the impressive number of hotels in the overall portfolio of the Starwood Company, and as the most recognized of the company’s brands in the world, the Sheraton continues to be extremely popular among hotel owners and property developers in the primary and sec-ondary markets of Europe,” he said.

Samat Urmagambetov, who owns the Sheraton Aktobe, said, “I am honoured to cooperate with Starwood Hotels & Resorts to open the first Sheraton hotel in Aktobe.

This hotel will start a new era in the development of the hotel busi-ness in Kazakhstan.”

The Sheraton Aktobe Hotel will be located in the heart of the city and will have 177 rooms, all-day restaurants, an exclusive restaurant and two bars with panoramic views of the city.

The hotel will have modern con-ference halls and a ballroom for spe-cial occasions. It will offer guests international brand services, in-cluding SweetSleeper luxury white beds, the Sheraton Club Lounge, an Internet cafe called Link Shera-tonSM established in partnership with the Microsoft Company and Sheraton Fitness – a revolution-ary health and fitness programme created by the Core Performance Company. Guests will also be able to enjoy the Sheraton Shine Spa Centre and indoor pool.

The Sheraton Aktobe Hotel will offer the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty programme (SPG) with its offer for members of no closed

dates for free nights. The SPG programme allows its members to earn and use bonuses for booking rooms, enjoy exclusive bonus pro-grammes, the services of many Eu-ropean hotels, golf clubs and other special programmes.

The SPG has recently announced new privileges including termless status, all-day registration and the services of a personal assistant.

The Akcept Contraction Com-pany is part of Centre Group Construction Holding, one of the largest development companies in Western Kazakhstan, with a dec-ade of experience in the construc-tion market. It includes subsidiar-ies specializing in residential and commercial real estate and has a staff of 700.

The company provides a full range of services, ranging from designing projects to construct and maintenance. It has built more than one million square metres of resi-dential real estate. It is construct-ing three new projects with a total

area of 100,000 square metres in Aktobe using respected architects and designers from other Com-monwealth of Independent States nations and from Western Europe.

The Sheraton chain is the larg-est and best known of Starwood’s brands. Starwood is one of the world leading companies in the hotels and leisure business. It manages 1,134 properties in 100 countries with a staff of 154,000 employees in their own hotels and hotels that it runs directly.

Starwood Hotels also owns and operates such famous global fran-chises as St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, Westin, Le Méridien, Four Points, Aloft and ElementSM.

The Sheraton chain has more than 400 hotels in 70 countries. It has just completed a worldwide programme of upgrades costing $6 billion and has launched a $5 bil-lion global expansion plan over the next three years.

Starwood also plans to open its

200th Westin Hotel this year. In 2013, at least 11 new Westin hotels will open around the world, includ-ing seven in China, India, Singa-pore and Panama, increasing the regional portfolio of the brand to 50 hotels by the end of this year.

In China, Westin will open the Haikou, Sanya Haitang Bay Re-sort, Chongqing Liberation Square and Qingdao hotels.

In 2013, Westin will also open the Westin Singapore Marina Bay Hotel and the Chennai Velachery Hotel in India.

The rebuilt Westin Houston Downtown, the Westin Sacramen-to and the Westin San Jose will all open this year in the United States.

The group also plans to open three new hotels over the next four years in the Middle East: the Westin Aqaba Harbour Resort & Spa in Jordan in 2014, the Westin Muscat in Oman in 2016 and the Westin Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road in the United Arab Emirates in 2017.

New Sheraton to Open in Aktobe This Year

Wednesday, 13 March 2013 The Astana TimesB7

Sports

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – The best falconers from across the Kazakh steppe gathered in the Almaty region’s district of Nura Feb. 21-23 for the annual National Berkutchi (falcon-er in Kazakh) Championship Sonar 2013.

The championship is organised by the Kyran Federation with the support of the regional gover-nor’s office and the Kazakhstan Agency for Sports and Physical Training.

Traditional hunting with birds re-mains popular among the people in Kazakhstan: the championship was held this year for the 16th time.

A total of 42 falconers from As-tana, Akmola, Atyrau, Zhambyl, Pavlodar and Almaty regions came to take part in the tournament, bringing 39 golden eagles and three hawks.

The competition was held in three categories over two days. Golden eagle falconers from the Almaty region demonstrated the best hunting skills; first places went to representatives of Almaty

Omirhan Bayetbay, Eltay Mupt-ekeev and Ermukhan Bayetbay.

Hawk competition winners were Gazizhan Bauyrzhan from Zham-byl region, who took first place, Yermek Emanzaiyyp from Pav-lodar region in second and Adil Shalimbetov from Zhambyl region in third.

Golden eagle hunting is one of the oldest methods of food hunt-ing. Kazakh ancestors in the Eura-sian steppe mastered eagle hunting several thousand years ago, back in the Andronov Age, and depicted it in Bronze Age petroglyphs. In Aktobe Gorge in the west of Ka-zakhstan a second “Golden Man” has been found, buried with his precious golden eagle.

In the past, hunting birds were extremely expensive: a golden ea-gle could cost five or six camels and a falcon cost one or two cam-els.

Different types of birds are used to hunt different animals. Golden eagles usually catch foxes and hares; hawks are used to hunt for geese and bustards and sparrow-hawks are good for hunting hares.

Golden eagles are very rare birds and are included in the Red Book of Kazakhstan. The Berkutchi Mu-seum, 160 kilometres from Almaty, is dedicated to the history of falcon hunting.

Hunting with these birds is one of the most unique features of Kaza-kh life, but it is not a simple thing. Expertise in wild bird training was gained by Kazakh berkutchi over centuries, the secrets imparted from father to son. Now, only a few hold these secrets.

Today, in Kazakhstan there are about one hundred berkutchi, mas-ters with an innate gift for wild bird training.

When training a young eagle, the berkutchi must sacrifice his sleep for a long period. The grow-ing bird must be rendered sightless under its hood for weeks until its dependence on its master becomes complete. Such intimacy must turn into a lifelong trust. It is said that as the man trains the eagle, so does the eagle train the man. A Kazakh proverb says “There are three things a real man should have: a fast horse, a hound and a golden

eagle.” The bird becomes a part of the owner’s family and is named according to its appearance and battle characteristics.

The birds also have names that correspond with their ages. Up to one year of age, they are called balapan; at two years, kantubit; three years, tyrnekl; four years, tastulek; five years, muzbalak; six years, koktubit; seven years, kana; eight years, zhana; nine years, may-tubit; ten year, barkyn; 11 years, barshyn; 12 years, shogel.

Eagle hunting season starts with the first frosts and continues from November through February. This schedule was set because animals have the best fur in winter.

This type of hunting requires special equipment: a coverlet, cap, cushion, leash and a bardak, a spe-cial wooden shield for the hand. A shyrga, a stuffed animal made from hare or fox skin and filled with straw, is used for training. The hunter drags the shyrga on the steppe with a long rope and teaches the golden eagle to attack its prey. The training requires immense pa-tience and persistence.

Kazakhstan’s Best falconers Compete in National Championship

By Yuri Lifintsev

ALMATY – Women’s ice hock-ey star Zarina Tukhtieva has just struck gold at Kazakhstan’s Third Winter Games tournament leading Almaty’s Aisulu team to the na-tional championship.

The 25-year-old Tukhtieva is a forward for Aisulu and a standout on the national team.

Tukhtieva talked with The Astana Times after Aisulu won a 7–2 victo-ry over their rivals East Kazakhstan to win the Winter Games title.

How did you start playing ice hockey?

First I did short track speed skat-ing. To tell the truth, I would not say that I was skating the whole year, we had no ice. We just had physical training such as running and working out. I went to the ice rink just once. I remember I was taken to the middle of the field, I stood there, got frozen, received a pair of ice skates and left. Six months later a friend asked me to join her ice hockey team.

How did you learn to play at the top level?

Everything depends on the coach. I wanted good coaches to pay attention to me and even show me how to do the most basic things like how to stand on skates. And I was lucky. Playing ice hockey, I had exactly the coaches I needed at every stage of my development.

Were you a fast learner?Yes, I rose quickly through the

ranks. Within a couple of years of

starting I made the junior national team, I mastered skates and stick quickly. The most difficult thing was to stop, at first I kept running into the boards all the time.

Who was your most important coach?

At first, I had many coaches but each of them gave me something. I went to an ordinary school, I had classes in the mornings and train-ing in the evenings, I played hock-ey occasionally. Then everything changed after Alexander Malt-sev invited me on to the national team when I was only 15 years old. Now, I can confidently say that everything I know in hockey and everything I have achieved is thanks to Mr. Maltsev. He is also the coach of the Aisulu team, but when I started 10 years ago and he took me on to the national team,

there was no Aisulu club playing in Almaty. He took me straight from the junior team right on to the na-tional team of Kazakhstan.

What are your main achieve-ments in your decade of playing on the national team?

It is hard to recount them all. I do not remember exactly how many times, I think, seven or eight times, I played in the World Cham-pionships and in European club tournaments. I played twice in the Asian Games in the Chinese city of Changchun and in Almaty where our team won the gold medal. Re-cently, I have played in the Olym-pic qualifying tournament, and in the championships of Kazakhstan.

Fans remember your perform-ances in the 7th Asian Winter Games. Experts rated you as the most technical proficient and the fastest player on the Kazakhstan team and that you scored its most important goals.

I don’t agree with that: Did other girls look weaker? Not at all! We are a team, ice hockey is not an indi-vidual sport. I was not the only one to score, our goalkeepers didn’t let anything through and our defend-ers neutralized the forwards of the other sides. We won as a team.

Have you ever regretted that you chose such a dangerous sport?

Never in my life! I love the game – its speed, its teamwork and its variations in play. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What is the secret of your high technical skills?

In training, we all work the same way, we get a comparable work load for each player. The only thing is that every athlete focuses on some specific elements. I pay most attention to my hands: work-ing with the stick and with keeping control of the puck.

Do you have another career outside sport?

Yes, I am a second year student at Kainar University in the depart-ment of accounting and auditing.

You were not a part of the team before the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Was that because of professional or family obliga-tions?

Yes and now I have a four-year-old son. I will try to prevent him from becoming a professional ice hockey player but I will let him play as an amateur.

Almaty has just won the Winter Games tournament confirming it as the champion team in the coun-try. Do you feel your team has no real rivals in the country?

Why do you think so? The girls from Ust-Kamenogorsk become better with every year. I will tell you honestly, in the recent game, I was exhausted because I skated too much, and this is an indicator that the rivals were worthy. They were a real challenge. We win be-cause we always come to our train-ing sessions focused. That’s why in every match we are strong. Our philosophy is, if you come to play – play to the fullest.

Zarina Tukhtieva Shines as Ice Hockey StarBy Miras Abykov

Kazakh boxers Birzhan Zhaky-pov and Merey Akshalov both won gold medals in the prestigious Chemistry Cup which was held on March 6-9 in the Sports Centre in Halle, Germany.

Zhakypov fought in the light flyweight division (up to 49 kilo-grams, 107.8 pounds) and defeated LV Bin from China on points by a score of 18-12.

Akshalov won his close contest in the super lightweight class (up

to 64 kilograms, 130.8 pounds) against Artem Harutyunyan from Germany by only one point 19-18.

In the semifinals, Rustam Svayev in the middleweight division (up to 75 kg, 165 pounds) lost to Xhek Paskali from Germany 18-14. In the cruiserweight or light-heavy-weight division (up to 91 kg, 200 pounds) Anton Pinchuk lost to Emir Ahmatovic, also from Ger-many, with the score 21-17. Both Kazakhstan boxers, Svayev and Pinchuk, still won bronze medals of the competition.

Kazakhstan Boxers Win Gold Medals in Germany

By Oleg Tarasov

ASTANA – In the midst of the Fourth FIDE Women’s World Team Championship held in As-tana, The Astana Times met Inter-national Grandmaster Konstantin Landa, who, along with coach Pavel Kotsur, did his best to pre-pare Kazakhstan women’s nation-al team for the competition.

Is it hard to work with a wom-en’s team?

Actually, this is my first experi-ence but we worked with the team prior to the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul and demonstrated good results.

In fact, working with the wom-en’s team is not much different from training the men’s team, ex-cept for the fact that girls need to be more prepared psychologically, while men are satisfied with clear and logical explanation.

What can you say about the prospects for our players at this championship?

They are young but promising. All of them – Guliskhan Nakhbaye-va, Dinara Saduakasova, Madina Davletbayeva, Gulmira Dauletova and Zhansaya Abdumalik – are very capable players. I think in the nearest future, the Kazakhstan team will be one of the strongest national teams of the world, noting that they will continue to work on the plan that we have developed for them, enhance training, and participate in major competitions.

As for the current tournament,

according to the capabilities of the clubs participating in it, they could be divided into three groups.

A number of teams, including Rus-sia, China, Georgia, India, and pos-sibly Ukraine, will actually fight for the first place [Ukraine did win the tournament on March 12. Kazakhstan finished in the 7th place]. They are objectively stronger than other par-ticipants and they have higher rating and class. Our team might be ranked in this on the 6th – 9th place. I would rank the Turkey team, which was included at the last moment by the order of FIDE president Kirsan Ily-umzhinov, as in the tenth place.

Will you reveal a few of coach-ing secrets? For example, in oth-er sports they study the perform-ances of potential rivals using the video. Is there something like that in chess?

Certainly. There is an electronic database for each opponent. We study his (her) strengths and weak-nesses, and apply this knowledge in games. We also form the data-base of our own players.

Is it true that our team is called a “dark horse”?

Yes, we have all the signs of a “dark horse”. Much depends on the attitude of our players. They can jump off to a good start and excel. But our girls do not have, so far, such “hardening”, like their rivals, and we should not expect a miracle from them. I am sure the Astana championship will give them great experience that will allow them to achieve new victories!

Women’s Chess Sees Boost as Young Talent Grows up

Kazakhstan’s boxers once again showed prowess.

Zarina Tukhtieva

Revival of traditional sports gives impetus to patriotic feelings.

Madina Davletbayeva Gulmira Dauletova

Wednesday, 13 March 2013The Astana TimesB8

Capital

By Azat Abyroi

ASTANA – On one night in ear-ly March, with the lights dimmed and the stage set in a newly opened café, a community of strangers en-veloped deep into words of love, grief, soul-searching and self-ex-pression.

Approximately 50 people came to watch as the new talent flooded the recently opened Chekhov café with passion and energy. While it

may not have seemed so to the pas-sers-by, the importance of the event could not be underestimated.

The purpose of the event was to bring together authors of poet-ry, short stories and other literary works and let them share their work with people who value the culture. The event was free of charge, and those who wished to perform on stage could do so by submitting their names to the organizers. By bringing together original content,

sharing it with fellow citizens, the organizers hoped to foster the crea-tive potential of the city. In the fu-ture, a compilation of works will be published to show the world that prose and writing are not only developing, but also thriving here in Astana.

The mission of the event was supported by Aizhan Berdina, co-owner of the newly opened café, affiliated with the café of the same name in Almaty.

Chekhov’s central location in Sary-Arka, one of the popular malls of Astana, as well as its so-phisticated design provided an ideal space for a gathering of lit-erary artists. And of course, the very name Chekhov automatically brings to mind the masterful short stories of the 19th century author and physician.

The event started with a wel-come note from co-hosts Anvar Toykenov and Yelden Sarybay, young activist organizers.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done something like this in Astana, please be lenient towards us,” Sarybay said, holding a micro-phone and trying hard not to show his nervousness. As the evening progressed, the barrier between stage and audience broke down and disappeared making every-body feel like a star and the subject of the lines of the authors.

Anuar Duisenbinov started his performance with an illustrative statement. “Have you come here to eat and talk?” he asked, with much frustration. After letting the crowd know that he will not abide such rude behavior at a poetry reading night, all eyes turned to the stage. Duisenbinov had all the ears. If culture is to be respected, it must be respected with sincerity. The people who arrived and told sto-ries, shared their poems were giv-ing bits and pieces of themselves to the people. Duisenbinov set the tone with a very clear understand-ing of culture that he managed to convey in his own unique style.

Other participants of the event included Andrei Yaroslavtsev with a very fiery performance, Olga Nekrashevich, a guest in Astana

from St. Petersburg, Alexandra Pro-schenko who has made everything around her seem minute, Kanat Omar with a confident, sometimes shocking, attitude and Dido, editor of “Dialogue” literary magazine. The most popular act by far was the audience sweetheart, Daniyar Alshinov. “I only write poetry when I break up with a girl,” he told and everybody started laughing. The feeling of closeness in such a di-verse and random environment is something to be wondered.

Special guests who also said a few words to those who came were cultural authorities in their own right. Professor Leyla Makhat de-livered an impromptu poem and Bakhyt Kairbekov, a famous Kaza-kh poet, screenwriter, and film di-rector, gave a few words of advice for the future of the young partici-pants and thanked everybody who pays tribute to works of art, espe-cially those produced in Astana. Finally, the last word was given to Anisa Berdina, Director of the “Kazakh TV” Channel, part of the Khabar agency, who came scouting for talent, thanked the owners of the venue and everybody involved in the project.

The importance of such nights for the cultural life of Astana is unquestionable. Nothing can compare with the feeling of satis-faction after such a culturally fill-ing evening. The organizers are planning to hold such events on a monthly basis, preliminarily set-ting the date on the first Tuesday of every month. The first literary night at the Chekhov café can be considered a dip into the ocean, the depths of which are yet to be explored.

Poetry Readings Reveal New Talents

from Page A1

The network of social objects will be significantly extended. In particular, by 2017 it is planned to build 50 kindergartens, which will reduce the shortage of preschool places by 12,000, 30 schools for

36,000 students; and 15 healthcare facilities, including five centres of primary medical care, three poly-clinic complexes for 1,000 visits per shift and four 1,000-bed hos-pitals.

Production capacity of the capi-tal will also significantly amplify. Up to 2017, there will be 12 large enterprises in the city includ-ing a pharmaceutical factory for the production of bioequivalent drugs, a refinery, a plant for the production of electro-optical de-vices, etc.

It is also planned to build a mod-ern botanical garden with a park area of 100 hectares.

“At the same time, a lot of work is to be done on arrangement of future districts of the city. The projects of boulevards, parks and squares are underway and the construction will be completed by 2017. For the next years we have

scheduled the construction of a new park along the Yessil River, and a unique ethnic village,” Tas-maganbetov explained.

To date, the city’s central park of culture and leisure, which covers an area of 67.4 hectares, is under reconstruction. After the comple-tion of all works, the number of visits to the park is expected to increase twice and will make more than 100,000 people a day.

“But the most important moment of the EXPO is the involvement of every citizen in this significant process for our city. We declared the name of the exhibition as “Fu-ture Energy”. Therefore, it is im-portant now for everyone to realize the role and idea of this exhibition, since basic economy of the electric power in each apartment is directly reflected in the implementation of “green economy” projects,” the mayor said.

Tasmagambetov Reports on Astana’s Preparations for ExPO 2017

the importance of such nights for the cultural life of astana is unquestionable. Nothing can compare with the feeling of satisfaction after such a culturally filling evening. the organizers are planning to hold such events on a monthly basis, preliminarily setting the date on the first Tuesday of every month.

Both guests and participants of the event enjoyed the evening of poetry.