The Astana Times, May 15, 2013

The Astana Times

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Wednesday, 15 May 2013 № 8 (29) www.astanatimes.kz

NatioN First Battle Parade in Kazakhstan Marks

Defender’s Day

Page A2

EURaSia & WoRLD MFA Says Astana Working with U.S.

Authorities Regarding Two Students in Boston

Page A3 – A8

EDitoRiaL The Importance of National Unity

Page A6

oPiNioNS KADYRZHANOV: Young Scientists Are Key to

Kazakhstan’s Future OMYRZAKOV: Kazakhstan and China Share

Strategic Goals

Page A7

NatioN & CaPitaL Astana Joins New World Tourism Cities Group Cycling Culture Speeds Up in Kazakhstan MFC Kairat Claims UEFA Championship Title

Pages B1-B8

Chief Rabbi Praises

Freedom of Religion and Security in Kazakhstan

By Yelden Sarybay

ASTANA – On April 24, the Assembly of the People of Kaza-khstan (APK) held its anniversary meeting and representatives of more than 100 ethnic groups in the country attended it. The Astana Times interviewed Rabbi Yeshaya E. Cohen, head of the Jewish Cent-er of Kazakhstan and chief rabbi of the Jewish Chabad Lubavitch con-gregation in the country. He is also the current chairman of the Euro-Asian Rabbinical Conference.

How do you find conditions for your congregation?

I will tell you a little secret. I am currently writing a book, the theme of which is “the golden roadmap of peace and reconciliation.” I have lived in Kazakhstan since 1994 and I am very delighted at how President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the government relate to all the different nationalities and different peoples here.

The results of such relations can be clearly seen. In fact, I am con-fident that many countries in the world should send representatives here and learn this.

Continued on Page B2

Sixth Astana Economic Forum to Provide a

Platform for Contributions

from Global Experts

By George D. Gleboff

ASTANA – On May 22-24, the capital of Kazakhstan will host the Sixth Astana Economic Forum (AEF) and the first World Anti-Crisis Conference (WAC), which will take place with United Na-tions support.

The main result of the forum, usually bringing together up to 7,000 – 8,000 scholars, experts and politicians, is an annual open letter from the participants, con-taining recommendations for de-veloping the world economy. The letter is usually submitted for the consideration of G20 heads of state and heads of international and regional organisations for further discussion at the G20 summit.

In 2012, recommendations of the Fifth Astana Economic Forum were presented at the U.N. Gen-eral Assembly meeting. This year, Kazakhstan was invited as an ob-server to the G20 summit under Russian chairmanship.

Continued on Page A4

By Ruslan Usmanov

ASTANA – “The pension reform proposed by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan is aimed at ensuring worthy lives for the people of Kazakhstan in old age,” Kazakhstan Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said recently.

“Today’s reforms for modernizing the pension system are, of course, aimed at the development of our country,” Akhmetov said during a recent national television interview. Responding to critics of the reforms, Akhmetov said, “A human being by nature is cautious to changes and does not accept everything at once. Today, the average indicator of a pension, which consists of the basic labour and accumulative components, is a little above 40 percent of the average salary. This is approximately 40,000-42,000 tenge ($265-$278). This level of pension payments corresponds to international standards.”

The further task of the govern-ment is to maintain this level, which is the main objective of the modern-ization of the pension system.

“Fifteen percent of pension con-tributions will be transferred to the pension accounts of those employed in hazardous labour conditions. Ac-cording to calculations, those al-lowances will help our citizens ac-cumulate enough means to retire at the age of 50,” Akhmetov added.

The prime minister specified that only voluntary professional pension contributions on the part of the em-ployer were provided in the exist-ing system for the category of em-ployees in the mentioned sphere.

Unifying the pension age is something many countries are do-ing. “Realizing our responsibil-ity in this issue, we proposed not a one-time, harsh adjustment of the pension age, but its gradual increase during ten years, adding half a year for each year starting from 2014,” Akhmetov said.

Continued on Page B4

Government Seeks

Additional Pension Fund

Reform

By Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – On May 11, Presi-dent Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and President Gurbanguly Ber-dimuhamedov of Turkmenistan opened the Bolashak (Kazakhstan) - Serkhetyaka (Turkmenistan) rail-road crossing which is set to be-come one of the key links in the growing framework of railways

and road connections restoring the ancient Silk Road in the modern conditions.

Upon arriving at the station, the heads of state saw a presentation on the railroad transit and transport potential of Kazakhstan and Turk-menistan. The two presidents also gave the go-ahead via an online link to a set of train cars with Ka-zakhstan grain from the Kostanay

region to the Bolashak station. Af-ter the presentation, the two presi-dents talked with leaders of the railroad companies of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The presidents visited the station square, where they met with rail-way employees and local citizens. President Nazarbayev greeted the crowd and noted that Mangistau re-gion is of particular importance for

the country. The president said that the opening of the Kazakh-Turk-men section of the Uzen-Bereket-Gorgan railroad, which will cover territories spanning Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, will allow Mangistau to become the region that provides passage to the Cas-pian Sea and the southern seas.

Continued on Page A3

By Miras Abykov

ASTANA – On May 10-11, through a remarkable combination of stamina, strength, prowess, and tactical cleverness by the coaches, the Astana Arlans boxing team beat the Ukraine Otamans 6-5 in the fi-nal match of the third season of the World Series of Boxing in Astana.

At the end of ten bouts, held in Astana’s Sary-Arka velodrome in the presence of up to 6,000 boxing fans, the Arlans and the Otamans were tied 5-5, requiring an additional fight.That fight included Arlans box-er Baghdad Alimbekov and Otamans Moldovan fighter Alexander Riscan in the category up to 54 kilograms.

The Arlans had held back Alim-bekov, the WSB third-ranked ban-tamweight (50-54 kilograms), in anticipation of a sudden death bout. The Otamans, however, had al-ready used their best bantamweight in an earlier fight, which left only 23-year-old, 29th ranked Riscan to compete against the higher-ranked Kazakh fighter. The 29-year-old Alimbekov looked comfortable as

he took every round on his way to winning the tournament for the Ar-lans team.

Although the young Ukrainian bantamweight did not pose a real threat to the more-experienced Al-imbekov, Riscan deserves praise nonetheless for the effort he put into the fight.

“I am in an excellent mood,” Alimbekov said after the fight. “You all saw that the fight, for me, developed very successfully. We have been striving for this victory for three years. It was necessary to give our best and to win.”

Upon the unanimous decision giving the fight to Alimbekov, the hall exploded with applause as the Astana Arlans became champions of the World Series of Boxing.

Yet the road to this victory was not straightforward, even during these two days of heavy fighting.

The two days of finals saw fasci-nating and nail biting fights for fans of both teams and fortunes swung both ways on more than one occasion.

Continued on Page В7

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan Presidents Open New Railroad Crossing

President Nursultan Nazarbayev (second from left) and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov (second from right) put the finishing touches at the Bolashak (Kazakhstan) – Serkhetyaka (Turkmenistan) railroad crossing on May 11, as Kazakh and Turkmen railways officials look on.

Astana Arlans Win World Series of Boxing

By Galiya Nurzhan

ASTANA – Since the middle of 2012, Western media abounded with news mentioning unexpect-edly impetuous investment activity of Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakh busi-nessman. Coverage of investments by this mining magnate, who has not been previously noticed as expressing love for venture capi-tal business, sounded more like reports of Genghis Khan’s mili-tary campaigns in Europe: first, he becomes a shareholder and head of the board of directors of an American company, Net Element. Having received a nickname “The first Kazakh on Nasdaq”, he then invested $20 million in Mobli, an Israeli start-up, along with Holly-wood movie stars Leonardo DiC-

aprio and Tobey Maguire and ten-nis superstar Serena Williams.

Then Rakishev joined the Advi-sory Board of the Canadian Spry-logics International Company while financing the start-ups such as Ral-lee and TriPlay. At the end of 2012, according to BuzzSparks.org, he even entered the top 10 private in-vestors in the world alongside Peter Thiel, Yuri Milner and Sergey Brin, the founder of Google.

This year Rakishev’s advances in global venture capital market continued: He joined the board of Russia’s Fastlane Ventures ma-jor venture capital fund. Then, he launched the world’s largest private equity fund on investment in robot-ics in partnership with former Is-raeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

What stands behind such a business

activity? Is there any special strate-gy? It’s one thing when a famous ce-lebrity or a venture capital superstar invests in a start-up, and in addition to money, shares a fan-base and ex-pertise with it, and it is another thing when this is done by an enigmatic multimillionaire from a country with a difficult name to remember.

Kenes Rakishev, 33, explained his strategy in an exclusive inter-view with The Astana Times.

How did you start your investing in Western high-tech start-ups?

I was interested in venture busi-ness long ago, since I studied ad-vanced management and business strategy at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School.

Continued on Page A5

Kazakh Businessman Flourishes in Global Venture Business Market

Idrissov Visits Spain, Portugal to Advance Economic Ties, Promote EXPO 2017

By Gulnaz Kalikhanova

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Min-ister of Foreign Affairs, Erlan Idrissov, began his official visits to Spain and Portugal on May 13 seeking to advance both political and economic ties, and promote the upcoming international specialized exhibiton EXPO 2017 in Astana.

On May 13-14, in Madrid, Id-rissov met King Juan Carlos I, Sen-ate President Pio Garcia Escudero, President of the Congress of Depu-ties Jesus Posada, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, and heads of leading Spanish compa-nies. The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s planned visit to

Kazakhstan in the autumn of this year was one of the main topics of discussions.

The two countries established dip-lomatic relations in February 1992. Spain is one of Kazakhstan’s key po-litical partners in Europe. It was the second European country that signed a strategic partnership agreement with Kazakhstan back in 2009.

In preparation for Mariano Ra-joy’s upcoming visit, officials of the two countries reviewed the progress achieved in implement-ing agreements reached during Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to Spain in Feb-ruary this year.

Continued on Page A3

Meirbolat Toitov (l) sent his team on a road to a hard-won victory in WSB finals on May 10 with a resounding win over Ukraine Otamans’ Viktor Gogolyev (r).

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesА2

NationDOMESTIC

NEWS IN BRIEF

● The Government of Kaza-khstan has adopted a comprehen-sive plan to promote employment of persons older than 50 years (50+ Initiative), developed by the Min-istry of Labour and Social Protec-tion in the framework of the mod-ernization of the country’s pension system. The plan provides for the creation of jobs in the framework of the currently implemented state and sectoral programmes. Thus, the plan envisages the participation of women in the State Programme of Accelerated Industrial and In-novative Development, promotion of entrepreneurship among people over 50 years of age under the Busi-ness Road Map 2020 programme. Also, for the development of pri-vate farms under the Employment 2020 programme it is planned to implement projects in the field of cattle breeding, crop production and processing of products. In ad-dition, through a new Agribusiness 2020 programme it is planned to increase the access of older farm-ers to financial resources and new technologies. The Government is considering measures to promote employment of older persons based on remote forms of employment, establishment of rural cooperatives and family farms, Minister of La-bour and Social Protection Serik Abdenov said. The Government is expected to discuss the European experience of job quotas for the employment of persons older than 50 years, training and retraining, advanced training of employees in this age group, working in the budgetary institutions and enter-prises with state participation.

● According to Chairman of the National Space Agency of Kaza-khstan Talgat Mussabayev, this summer Kazakhstan plans to put into operation a backup ground control complex for KazSat satel-lites. The system of satellite com-munication and broadcasting for KazSat will effectively solve the problem of communication and broadcasting across the country, and will give an impetus to the de-velopment of the communications industry, communications and multimedia services, such as the Internet, 3G, digital TV, IP-teleph-ony, etc. According to Kazcosmos, KazSat-2 satellite is functioning in normal mode and is designed to provide television broadcast-ing and transmission of data in the satellite communication system on the territory of Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the central part of Russia, as well as to meet the needs of Ka-zakh satellite operators. It currently operates at 64% of its full capacity. The main goal of the satellite com-munication system KazSat is to provide mutual support and back-up of all satellite and broadcasting networks to meet the needs of na-tional telecom operators.

● A total of 99,560 or 72% of the total number of school graduates in Kazakhstan expressed their wish to pass Unified National Testing this year, the press service of the Min-istry of Education and Science an-nounced. According to the recently created database entitled “Gradu-ate”, 99,560 graduates, account-ing for 72% of the total number of graduates, expressed a wish to participate in the UNT, including 68,315 with the Kazakh language and 31,245 with the Russian lan-guage of instruction. On the basis of the results of the database, the Na-tional Testing Center will draw up a schedule of the Unified National Testing. According to the Ministry, about 78% of school graduates, or 121,000 people, passed the UNT in 2012.

● In the first quarter of 2013, the infant mortality rate has decreased by 12% to 12.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the press service of the Kazakhstan Minis-try of Health. “In the first quarter of 2013, the infant mortality rate in Kazakhstan reduced by 12% to 12.5 per 1,000 live births com-pared with 14.2 at the same period last year,” the press service of the Ministry said. The maternal mor-tality rate decreased by 4.4% and made 15.4 deaths per 100 thousand live births, compared to 16.1 in the first quarter of 2012. The dynamics of the last three years shows that maternal mortality decreased 3.7 times, infant mortality decreased by 25% and mortality from car-diovascular diseases decreased by 20%. According to the Ministry of Health, the reduction of mater-nal and infant mortality rates was made possible by the introduction of international perinatal technolo-gies.

By Aset Kalymov

ALMATY – On May 7, the first battle military parade in the his-tory of independent Kazakhstan took place at the Otar military base to commemorate Defend-ers’ Day and the 21st anniversary of Kazakhstan’s military forces. The event was attended by the Su-preme Commander of the country’s armed forces, President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Thousands of residents of the Almaty, Zhambyl and South Kaza-khstan regions, including veterans of the Great Patriotic War as guests of honor, attended the event.

Land Forces Commander, Lt. Gen. Murat Maikeyev reported on the readiness of the nation’s forces to the Supreme Commander. Then, President Nazarbayev congratulat-ed the participants. Every year, he said, the army conducts more than 250 field exercises in operational and fire training. The military pa-rade showcased the army’s skills and training.

“This military parade involves 7,000 troops, more than 400 ar-moured and motor vehicles and 80 aircraft and helicopters. It is one of the largest displays of its kind we have ever held publicly,” the president said. “Concurrently, in the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan Navy ships will conduct live fire exer-cises. On this day, May 7, officers and soldiers are proving that they are true patriots and professionals, whose motto is ‘A strong army – a strong Kazakhstan.’”

The president said the country was proud of its army, and every-thing was being done to strengthen it. The state’s armed forces were equipped with modern military hardware, automated management systems and their combat training was improving. In 2012, a new law “On Military Service and the Sta-tus of Servicemen” was adopted. Sports complexes and apartments are being built in military bases around the country and servicemen are better paid.

“They say army discipline is tough, but it is the toughness of the shield, not of the yoke,” the presi-dent said. “The army is a reliable

shield of our sovereign state, and holding it is not only a sacred duty, but also a great honour. Your serv-ice is a pledge of our independence and of peace in every family in Ka-zakhstan. I wish you good health and success in the service.”

After the president’s speech, the 1,700 troops held a parade march that included forces from the southern and western regional commands, units of the Airmobile and Missile Forces, naval infantry, the Republican Guard, internal se-curity forces, Border Guards and cadets from military schools.

The troops marched in full gear wearing kevlar helmets, sun gog-gles, modernized Kalashnikov au-tomatic rifles, and new-generation personal radios made in the coun-try. They displayed the progress the army has made in the 21 years since independence.

The Otar base was chosen for the event as it is the largest in the country with a garrison of more than 5,000 troops and a suitable range for the display.

Striking powerThe parade displayed single-

stage solid-propellant ballistic missiles with an accurate range of 120 km (72 miles), Grad and Prima missile systems, howitzers, anti-tank guided missiles and Mi-24 tactical ground support helicop-ters.

The air defense units displayed the Pechora S-125 anti-aircraft missile system. Col. Zhasulan Berniyazov, commander of the air defense brigade, directed its live-fire exercise.

T-72B Soviet-era main battle tanks that had been upgraded at the Semei Engineering works then demonstrated their accuracy and fire power.

The combat units in the exercise also displayed their ability to con-duct fast and covert movements and select appropriate positions to conduct accurate fire and use cam-ouflage and protective concealment effectively. The exercise confirmed the ability of the forces to deal with a strong, well-equipped enemy in a rapidly changing tactical situation.

Combat aircraft provided some of the most spectacular moments of the parade. The Sukhoi Su-25 combat aircraft is the pride of the air force. Armored attack aircraft, equipped with laser sights can de-stroy targets in any weather condi-tions. Some 120 aircraft partici-pated in the display. The combat aircraft flew at supersonic speeds from airfields at Zhetygen, Lugov-oy and Almaty.

Su-27 and L-39 aircraft from the Zhetisu and Sunkar squadrons commanded by Deputy Chief of

the Air Defense Forces, Maj.-Gen. Nurlan Ormanbetov and Col. Askar Izbasov performed stunt dis-plays including forward loops, bat-tle turns and loops.

The parade battlefield operations continued with online broadcasting from the Caspian Sea exercises. The artillery ship “Kazakhstan” fired dozens of missiles. The ship is equipped with modern commu-nication, navigation and mapping systems. It can fire a salvo of 12 missiles simultaneously with a range of 20 km (12 miles).

New traditionThe display also included an

exposition of new equipment re-cently received by the army. Most of them are now produced and upgraded within the country at Kazengineering factories. They included tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, Eurocopter helicopters, Solntsepek heavy flamethrowers, military radios and night vision devices.

Defense Minister Adylbek Dzhaksybekov told the president that no neighbouring Common-wealth of Independent States (CIS) nations had any comparable weap-ons. He said the army was engaged in new training programmes and was prepared to conduct operations in night conditions, in the highlands and in all conditions. Dzhaksybe-kov said the army was focusing on the three goals of computerisation, robotics, and increased intellectual standards to meet the requirements of the 21st century.

The army has increased the range of its artillery systems, up-graded its communication sys-tems and improved the level of combat and mobilisation readi-ness of its troops. The quality of their training has improved and their military discipline has been strengthened.

The president thanked the par-ticipants for demonstrating their combat skills and the effectiveness of their training. The event was a clear demonstration of the combat capability of the army and present-ed a good role model to the young generation, he said.

First Battle Parade in Kazakhstan Marks Defender’s Day

Soldiers march in the first ever battle parade in Kazakhstan at the Otar millitary base in Zhambyl region on March 7 to mark the Day of the Defender of the Motherland.

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev congratulated the citizens of Kazakhstan on the 68th anniversary of the So-viet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) on May 9. He laid flowers on the Otan Korgaushylar (Fatherland Defenders’) monument in Astana and honoured the Kazakh sol-diers who died in the war with a minute of silence.

Following the official part of the solemn ceremony, the orches-tra of the Republican National Guard performed the Kazakhstan anthem. Afterwards, Guards of Honour of the Republican Guard marched in parade before Presi-dent and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ka-zakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and the veterans of the Great Pa-triotic War.

The president emphasised that time will only increase the impor-tance of the victory in the world’s deadliest war.

“Nearly 1.8 million people from Kazakhstan fought in this ruthless war. Half of them did not return. Thus, several genera-tions of Kazakhstanis will always

remember this victory. There are fewer and fewer veterans among us and we must treat them with much respect and honour. They have shown heroism [and] uni-ty, and today is the day of truth for many generations: for those whose grandfathers and grand-mothers, mothers and fathers fought at the front and worked on the home front to bring this vic-tory,” the president said.

President Nazarbayev noted that the Day of Victory symbolises that the unity of people, peace and stability are the most important achievements of the country.

“We must protect our citizens against the fires of war. Today, unfortunately, we hear news from hot spots as from the front lines. Peace, friendship and con-sent have reigned in our country during all the years of independ-ence. We have to protect these values; the experience of the last war speaks for that. We should properly understand the value of peace. If our grandfathers had not won, we would not have an inde-pendent state. We should cherish

our freedom; young people should always take care of veterans. And the government provides and will continue to provide them with overall support,” the president stressed.

President Nazarbayev wished the veterans and their families good health and well-being and expressed the hope that they could again jointly celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory in two years. There are currently 291 veterans registered in Astana, including 215 war participants and 76 disabled war veterans.

Participants of the ceremony then went to a tent camp organised on the square next to the Otan Kor-gaushylar monument, where tradi-tional soldier’s cuisine and theatri-cal performances were waiting for veterans. About 5,000 carnations crowned the monument.

War veterans, representatives of state authorities, the diplomat-ic corps, and the city community attended the ceremony. Thou-sands of city residents took part in the ceremony to pay tribute to

fallen soldiers on this remarkable day.

The citizens of Kazakhstan were involved in the war effort from the beginning to its end in the spring of 1945 in Berlin. They helped defend Leningrad and Stalingrad and lib-erate Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic nations and the peoples of Europe.

During World War II, Kaza-khstan increased industrialisation and mineral extraction in support of the war effort. Besides being an overwhelmingly agriculture-based economy, Kazakhstan was one of the main arsenals for the front. In total, from 1941-45, almost 500 plants, ore mines, individual pro-ductions and factories, producing machinery, weaponry, radio and other military technologies, were established in the country, includ-ing many that were evacuated from Soviet Union’s occupied European part.

Twelve Kazakh divisions that passed through the entire war received honorary titles. Five di-visions have become guards, in-cluding the famous Eighth Guards

Division named in honour of Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Panfilov. During the Great Patriotic War, 497 Kazakh soldiers were awarded with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The last title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on De-cember 11, 1990 to the legendary Bauyrzhan Momyshuly. Four citi-zens of Kazakhstan, attack aircraft pilots Talgat Bigeldinov, Leonid Beda and Ivan Pavlov and fighter pilot Sergey Lugansky, have been twice awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Machine gunner Manshuk Mame-tova and sniper Alia Moldagulova were also awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union titles.

In honour of the victory, all towns and villages of the country celebrated the great achievement and honoured veterans of World War II. All regions of the country held commemorative events.

The highest-level officials; heads of organisations, institutions and enterprises and citizens congratu-lated these veterans, who, in their turn, shared their personal memo-ries of the hard years.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev (centre), Defence Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov to his left and Astana Akim Imangali Tasmagambetov to his right fete World War veterans with tea and sweets in a make shift tent as part of the nationwide celebrations of the Victory Day on May 9.

Country Celebrates 68th Anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War

a total of 7,000 troops, more than 400 armoured and motor vehicles and 80 aircraft and helicopters participated in the parade.

President Nazarbayev wished the veterans and their families good health and well-being and expressed the hope that they could again jointly celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory in two years.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The Astana TimesА3

EXTERNAl NEWS IN BRIEF

Eurasia and world

MFA Says Astana Working with U.S. Authorities Regarding Two Students in Boston

● President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed a law ratifying the agreement be-tween the Government of the Re-public of Kazakhstan and the Gov-ernment of the Republic of Korea in the field of development, financ-ing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of Balkhash Ther-mal Power Plant, the presidential press service reported. The inter-governmental agreement is aimed at the development of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Re-public of Korea, and the successful implementation of the construction of the Balkhash Thermal Power Plant project in Kazakhstan.

● A delegation of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Alexander Su-din visited the cities of Washington and New York May 6 to May 10 in order to strengthen Kazakh-Amer-ican inter-parliamentary relations, according to the press service of the Senate of the Parliament of Ka-zakhstan. During the visit, Kaza-khstan Senators Alexander Sudin, Serik Akylbai and Khusain Valiev met parliamentarians and repre-sentatives of the U.S. Department of State. The Kazakhstan senators opened an exhibition in Washing-ton dedicated to the 10th anniver-sary of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. A meeting with U.S. religious figures and Alliance of Civilizations of the United Nations representative Nassir Al-Nasser also took place in New York.

● Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the UK Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Af-fairs paid a visit to Kazakhstan on May 7. During the visit, she shared views on development of bilateral relations between the UK and Ka-zakhstan. The visit was her third ministerial visit to Kazakhstan. She noted that nowadays the UK and Kazakhstan have solid bilateral and mutually beneficial relations, which are successful at all levels. “There are bright examples of co-operation in the sphere of educa-tion, when we see that Kazakhstan youth is studying in the UK. Many British companies operate in Kaza-khstan, which is a worthy indicator of our cooperation. Our Govern-ment highly estimates the Kaza-khstan market potential,” Sayeeda Warsi noted. She also commented that the UK is interested in further cooperation with Kazakhstan in promotion of human rights.

● Mazhilis Chairman Nurlan Nigmatulin received British Am-bassador to Kazakhstan Carolyn Browne to discuss continuing part-nerships between the countries, the press service of the Mazhilis reported on April 29. Special at-tention was paid to issues regard-ing regional security. Nigmatulin emphasized the cooperation of the two countries in the transit of military personnel and equipment engaged in operations of the Inter-national Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Issues of inter-parliamentary cooperation were addressed at the meeting as well. As the Mazhilis speaker noted, the experience of British colleagues in the legislative provision of re-forms was of special interest. The sides reached an agreement to take practical steps for the activation of cooperation between the parlia-mentary groups. The UK is among the biggest investors in the econo-my of Kazakhstan. The two coun-tries also actively cooperate in the spheres of education and science. Presently, about 4,000 Kazakhstan students study in British higher ed-ucation institutions, including over 1,000 of them under the Bolashak programme.

● According to the Committee for Combating Drugs and Con-trol over Drug Trafficking of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ka-zakhstan, a meeting of the heads of competent authorities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organiza-tion (SCO) on combating drugs and drugs trafficking took place on April 30. Officials discussed is-sues related to this sphere and the impact on the situation from the expected withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan. The sides dis-cussed strengthening cooperation between SCO member states in combating drug trafficking.

By Rufiya Ospanova

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs an-nounced on May 2 that the Ka-zakhstan authorities were work-ing with the U.S. counterparts on the case of two students from Kazakhstan who were charged by United States authorities on May 1 with obstruction of justice in connection with the terrorist bombings of the Boston Mara-thon.

Students Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov were charged with hindering the in-vestigation into the attacks by removing items from the dormi-tory room of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two ethnic Chechen broth-ers accused of carrying out the attacks. The two bombings on April 15 at the end of the annual marathon race killed three people including an eight-year-old girl and a Chinese tourist and injured another 260 people.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov will face a hearing on May 14. They also faced preliminary hearings the same day for vio-lation of their student visa sta-tus. The hearings in that case were postponed until May 22 for Kadyrbayev and May 9 for Tazhayakov.

The Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs (MFA) in Astana announced on May 2 that the government of Kazakhstan was cooperating with U.S. law enforcement authorities in the investigation into the two students.

“As we have repeatedly stressed, Kazakhstan strongly

condemns any form of terror-ism,” the MFA said. “The Kaza-khstan side is cooperating with the U.S. law enforcement bodies in their investigation.”

“We would like to empha-size that our citizens were not charged with involvement in the organization of Boston marathon bombings,” the MFA said. “They were charged with destroying evidence.”

The MFA said Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were already receiv-ing “the necessary consular as-sistance” but did not give any details. “Their guilt has not been proven and the investigation is ongoing,” it said.

The MFA said Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were cooperating with the U.S. investigative agen-cies in the case.

Kadyrbayev’s lawyer Rob-ert Stahl said his client “did not have anything to do” with the bombings and disputed accusa-tions that he had tried to obstruct the investigation.

Tazhayakov’s lawyer Harlan Protass said his client “has coop-erated fully with the authorities and looks forward to the truth coming out in this case.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has been charged with the attacks. His brother Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a shoot-out with authori-ties, during which Dzhokhar was seriously wounded and captured.

In related news, on April 28 Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, held a charity marathon that honoured the Boston Marathon victims, starting with a minute of silence to honour the victims.

From Page A1

The high-level discussions also covered topical issues of bilat-eral cooperation in politics, trade, economy and culture, as well as of interaction within international organizations. As part of the visit, the ministries of foreign affairs of Kazakhstan and Spain signed a memorandum of cooperation.

Minister Idrissov opened a meet-ing of the Kazakhstan-Spain busi-ness council. Heads of leading Spanish companies, brought to-gether under the Spanish Confed-eration of Business Organizations, participated in the meeting.

A steady growth of bilateral trade, which in 2011 amounted to US$1,285 million, is the evi-dence of the increasing trade and economic relations between Kaza-khstan and Spain. The commodity structure of trade is very stable. Oil and oil-based products make up the bulk of exports from Kazakhstan to Spain, along with base metals, hire and lead. The imports from Spain include industrial, agricultural, and medical equipment, vehicles, and chemical products.

A rather large number of small and medium Spanish enterprises operate in Kazakhstan, in addition to prominent companies such as In-dra, Talgo, Imabe Iberica, Maxam, Repsol. Spain is one of the world’s recognised leaders in producing en-ergy from alternative sources which bodes well for its companies’ par-ticipation in EXPO 2017 in Astana which is going to be focused on the subject of Future Energy.

Following his meeting with Id-rissov, Senate President Pio Gar-cia Escudero said Spain will help Kazakhstan in organising EXPO 2017, given its own rich experi-

ence in holding both World Expo in Seville in 1992 and International Specialised Exhition in Zaragoza in 2008.

While in Madrid, Idrissov also held talks with Executive Director of World Tourism Organisation, Zoltan Somogyi, and participated in a conference entitled “Kaza-khstan in the modern world,” which was organised in cooperation with the Elcano Royal Institute.

Following Spain, Idrissov will pay an official visit to Portugal on May 14-16.

In Lisbon, the minister is set to meet President Anibal Silva, Presi-dent of the Assembly Maria Esteves, and Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs Paulo Portas. The sides will discuss topical issues of bilateral relationship and identify concrete prospects of further cooperation.

In addition, a Kazakhstan-Por-tuguese business seminar will take

place during the visit. Businesses from Kazakhstan and representa-tives from Portuguese companies working in Kazakhstan that are interested in cooperation develop-ment will attend the seminar. The first such seminar was successfully held in Lisbon in December 2011.

The diplomatic relations with Portugal were established in Au-gust 1992. The political relations between the two countries are de-veloping steadily and high-level contacts have become regular in recent years. The leadership in both countries is committed to the full development of mutually ben-eficial multidimensional coopera-tion. Bilateral trade and economic cooperation has got a lot of po-tential as well. In 2012, the trade turnover exceeded US$1 billion. The gross inflow of direct invest-ments from Portugal amounted to US$42.2 million.

From Page A1

After that, the two heads of state conducted the ceremonial laying of the “Gold Roadbed” docking on the border of both states.

In his speech, President Nazarbayev said that the new tran-snational facility is of historical significance.

“It establishes a direct rail link between Kazakhstan and Turkmen-istan. The new track is the shortest route for goods delivery and transit and, in the future, for commuters. Nowadays, time is a critical factor. In this regard, shortening turnover provides a significant competitive advantage. This advantage is reflect-ed in business and, eventually, in in-creased prosperity for our countries. In addition, the Kazakhstan-Turk-menistan railroad is a key part of the future transit corridor with access to the Persian Gulf,” he said.

President Nazarbayev noted that the project was launched in 2007. “Then, we signed a declaration on the construction of the Uzen-Be-reket-Gorgan main transport route with the presidents of Turkmeni-stan and Iran. In 2009, we started construction. Currently, the work of laying the Kazakh-Turkmen railroad has been completed suc-cessfully. In the future, we plan the creation of a route that will connect the transportation network of Cen-tral Asia, the Middle East and Eu-rope. This idea was considered well before the signing of the declara-tion.” Nazarbayev stressed that over the past years, the relevance of the project has increased even more.

The president noted that the rail link between Kazakhstan and Turk-menistan opens new opportunities for enterprises, stimulating trade and economic growth. Extending the route will increase these oppor-tunities. “First, we should expect an increase in the intensity of trade be-tween our two countries. This, above all, relates to practical cooperation between the border areas of our two countries. Second, we will be able to increase exports in the direction of the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia. Third, a convenient and cost-effective route for dozens of countries in both the northern and southern directions will be created. We hope that our Iranian friends

will complete their part of the route, and soon we will be celebrating the completion of the construction of the whole railroad to the Persian Gulf. We, in turn, will gain advantage as transit states, creating new jobs in logistics,” he said.

The president also noted that the project is an indicator of the sta-bility of the economies of the two countries.

In conclusion, President Nazarbayev thanked President Berdimuhamedov for his active support of the project. “I would

like to express special thanks to all who worked on the project of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan railroad at all stages. Your creative work was embodied in the track connect-ing the countries. I want to wish the peoples of our countries well-being and prosperity,” he said. President Berdimuhamedov noted that the laying of the basis of new econom-ic space uniting the countries of Central Asia and the Caspian Basin with the Black Sea region and the Caucasus states will ensure contin-ued access to the Nordic countries.

“Our project implies a con-nection to the transport infra-structure in the east with further access to such economic centres of global development as China, India and the Asia-Pacific region. This means creating a larger-scaled format of cooperation in terms of geo-economics, as well as an innovative strategic vision of the development prospects of our countries,” the president of Turkmenistan said. President Berdimuhamedow thanked the construction workers, engineers,

designers and all those who worked directly on the construc-tion of the railroad.

“Implementation of such projects makes our countries eco-nomically strong, stable and confi-dent in the future of our countries, which are connected by ties of genuine friendship, brotherhood and good neighbourliness. The de-cisive factor in the implementation of the project was the mutual sup-port, teamwork and coordinated work of the relevant agencies of the two countries. Let me express my deep gratitude to the president of Kazakhstan for the support of this project and the mobilisation and allocation of all the resources necessary for its successful imple-mentation,” the president of Turk-menistan said.

Leaders of the two countries have also launched a Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan fibre-optic line, which opens the possibility of or-ganising connections through the network of JSC Kazakhtelecom with networks in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran, as well as the possibility of online traffic transit for Turkmenistan to Russia, Europe and Southeast Asia.

After moving to the Turkmen side, the two leaders attended the grand opening of Serkhetyaka sta-tion and the opening of the Bereket railroad junction via an internet con-nection. The Bolashak-Serhetyaka section is part of a future rail cor-ridor that will connect Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. Currently, the interstate project is in the final stage of implementation.

The overall length of the new railroad is 900 kilometres, the longest part of which, 700 kilom-eters, is located in Turkmenistan. The Kazakhstan part of the corri-dor – the Uzen-Bolashak section is 146 kilometres long and is a mod-ern railroad line with developed in-frastructure. Two new stations and five operation points have been opened along the track. Iran is yet to complete its section of the road.

The cost of construction amount-ed to 65 billion tenge, including 80 percent local content. After setting the track in operation, more than 800 people in Kazakhs will get jobs and housing as a result of the new track.

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan Presidents Open New Railroad Crossing, Hope for Transit Bonanza

President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov hold wrenches as they celebrate the completion of a new railway crossing on border between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

King Juan Carlos I warmly received Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov in the royal palace in Madrid on May 13 as they discussed the continued expansion of bilateral ties between Spain and Kazakhstan.

Idrissov Visits Spain, Portugal to Advance Economic Ties, Promote EXPO 2017

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesА4

EconomyBUSINESS

NEWS IN BRIEF

By Maryam Turezhanova

ASTANA – The massive State Programme of Accelerated In-dustrial-Innovative Development (PAIID) for 2010-14 has had sig-nificant progress over the more than three years of its implemen-tation and has the potential to fur-ther change the overall economic structure of the country contribut-ing to its diversification and jobs creation, the Government was told on April 30.

industrial policy“All state bodies, regional ad-

ministrations, holdings, national companies, development insti-tutes, business associations and industrial enterprises are involved in implementing the national pro-gramme of accelerated industri-alisation,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev said, presenting a report on PAIID at the government session on April 30.

Initially, the whole regulatory system was revised, amendments were introduced in more than 50 laws and business support pro-grammes and programmes for ter-ritorial development were elabo-rated, taking into account target indicators. In addition, over 100 tools of state support were pro-vided.

“New national industrial policy

has been developed,” the minister said, “and it is not only about the provision of tax incentives, but also the introduction of modern technologies, training and retrain-ing.”

Overall growth in real GDP was 22.6 percent in 2012 compared to 2008, and manufacturing had the highest growth rate of 19.4 per-cent. A special role belongs to the Industrialisation Map: new pro-ductions commissioned under the State Programme of Accelerated Industrial-Innovative Development (PAIID) accounted for 1.3 percent of the last year’s five percent GDP growth.

The manufacturing industry’s growth in 2012 compared to 2008 reached 19.4 percent, and in com-parison with 2011 was up .7 percent; in the first quarter of 2013, it was 1.6 percent. In 2012, mechanical engineering grew by 16.2 percent, production of non-metallic mineral output (construction materials) by 10.6 percent, light industry by 8.3 percent, the chemical industry by 5.9 percent and the pharmaceuti-cal industry by 5.6 percent. Market struggles in the steel industry led to a 1.5 percent drop.

Specific indicatorsPAIID is a socially oriented

project. For example, in 2008-2012 the number of employees in the industrial sector increased by over 85,000 people, of whom

about 40,000 or 47.9 percent were employed in new jobs created as part of the Industrialisation Map.

Another important factor of in-dustrialisation is labour produc-tivity. In 2012, it increased by 1.4 times compared to 2008. In the chemical industry it grew by 1.8 times, in the engineering, pharma-ceutical and light industry by 1.3 times and in the manufacturing of other non-metallic mineral output by 1.2 times.

“Other PAIID target indica-tors are also positive. A low level of execution was observed in the following two indexes: the share of non-oil exports and labour pro-ductivity in agriculture. Thus, de-spite significant growth in non-oil exports, which in 2012 were more than $25 billion (and doubled in comparison to 2009), their share of total exports over three years declined from 27.8 to 27.3 percent because of high commodity pric-es,” Deputy Prime Minister Isseke-shev explained.

Branch context“In general, all priority sectors

are developing dynamically,” said the minister at the meeting.

The gross added-value in the en-gineering sector in 2011 increased by 71 percent when compared to 2008; labour productivity almost doubled in the same period, ex-ceeding $17,000; exports grew fourfold and reached 193 billion

tenge. The industry considerably expanded its product range in rail-way, oil and gas, and automobile construction. From 2009-2012, the volume of production in the chemical industry increased by 2.1 times and amounted to 180 billion tenge, exports increased by 68 per-cent compared to 2009 and labour productivity in 2012 was $48,300 per person, having increased by 3.7 times since 2009.

Maximum volumes in the processing industry were observed in the Karaganda (1,035 billion tenge), Pavlodar (821 billion tenge) and East Kazakhstan regions (792 billion tenge). Tangible growth of real output (64.4 percent) in 2012 against 2008 was marked in the east of Kazakhstan and Astana city (62.2 percent). In Karaganda and Mangistau regions, it decreased by seven and 12.1 percent respec-tively.

“Undoubtedly, progress has been made during the years of PAIID implementation,” the minister said. “At the same time we have expe-rienced some problems so far. Ac-cording to the Global Competitive-ness Index of the World Economic Forum for 2012, Kazakhstan is 115th among 144 countries in such indicators as the financial market’s sophistication.”

Among the sore spots of the in-dustrialisation programme are the lack of qualified personnel and in-dustrial infrastructure, including in

Special Economic Zone develop-ment, and inefficient bankruptcy procedures.

tasks for the futureToday, the Industrialisation Map

includes 779 projects worth 11.2 trillion tenge; more than 220,000 jobs are expected to be created dur-ing construction and 181,000 after the projects have been built and commence work. Over three years of the map’s implementation, 537 projects worth 2.1 trillion tenge have been commissioned and over 57,000 permanent jobs created.

In 2012, the completed projects’ manufactured output was worth 913.4 billion tenge, and in the first quarter of 2013 was at 235.5 billion tenge, a 40 percent growth in com-parison to the first quarter of 2012, which saw growth of 168 billion tenge. This year, 140 projects at a total amount of 560 billion tenge will be completed and the con-struction of another six plants will be launched.

Summing up results of PAIID so far, Prime Minister Serik Akhme-tov noted progress in the regions that resolved problems of the projects’ quality and monitored their progress toward full capacity.

“The industrialisation process must be stimulated,” Prime Min-ister Akhmetov said. “To achieve this, local authorities must en-sure the commissioning of quality projects only.”

PAIID Programme Results Examined

Sixth Astana Economic Forum to Provide a Platform for Contributions from Global Experts

● The Samruk Kazyna Na-tional Welfare Fund is consider-ing launching 83 new investment projects worth $51.7 billion, the fund’s managing director Berik Beisengaliyev told a meeting dis-cussing investment results for 2012 and plans for 2013 on April 17. “Today the investment portfolio of the fund includes 100 projects worth $81 billion and, 27 projects that have been completed and are operating for the national econo-my. Another 73 projects worth $71 billion are in progress and plans for another 83 projects worth $51.7 billion are being worked out,” he said. Samruk Kazyna is looking at projects with high growth potential in alternative energy, chemicals and petrochemicals, transportation, infrastructure, engineering, and IT. In 2012, the Moinak power plant with a capacity of 300 MW entered service and generated 1 billion kW/h of electricity that solved the problem of energy shortage in the southern regions of Kazakhstan, Beisengaliyev said. “We are also constructing a sulfuric acid plant in Stepnogorsk, an oil refinery in Astana and the Balkhash thermal power plant,” he said.

● The government will impose restrictions on oil imports from Russia by Jan. 1, 2014, Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbaev told the Mazhilis, the lower house of Parliament, on April 22. Mynbaev said the restrictions would be ap-plied under the existing agreement with Russia on the oil trade. “If we do not take this action, the coun-try will be flooded by imports of Russian oil this year. We should instead export it abroad,” he said. The minister said that currently Ka-zakhstan’s own oil refineries were not operating at maximum capac-ity because of the large quantity of imported petroleum products in the domestic market.

● Egypt, the world’s largest wheat buyer, will consider resum-ing imports of grain from Kaza-khstan, the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on April 11. Reda Aggag, an ad-visor to Supply Minister Bassem Oda met with Kazakh officials to discuss new purchases, MENA said. Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, has not imported any grain from Kazakhstan since 2009-10, when it bought 180,000 metric tons, according to Nomani Nomani, an adviser to the minister and former head of Egypt’s Gen-eral Authority for Supply Com-modities. In 2011, Egypt refused to accept four cargoes of Kazakh wheat because of the high pro-portion of damaged grain in them and replaced them with Russian grain, Nomani said. Kazakh wheat imports will only resume if Kaza-khstan resolves that problem, he said.

● On April 15, the Dubai-based port operator DP World signed a deal with a visiting government delegation from Kazakhstan to de-velop the Khorgos-Eastern Gates Special Economic Zone and Aktau Port. The agreement was signed by the Chairman of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy-Kazakhstan State Rail-ways (KTZ) Askar Mamin and the Chairman of DP World Moham-med Sharaf on April 15 during the visit of Kazakhstan’s government delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies (MINT) Asset Issekeshev to the United Arab Emirates. DP World will administer the Jebel Ali port and the Khorgos-Eastern Gates Spe-cial Economic Zone to make it the largest logistics centre of Eurasia. According to industry estimates, a project of this level would neces-sitate at least AED 3.67 billion ($1 billion) worth of investment. The UAE is already committed to in-vesting more than AED 7.34 billion ($2 billion) in Kazakhstan, which is advantageously positioned be-tween China and the European markets. Abu Dhabi-based Aldar Properties is constructing the Abu Dhabi Plaza Complex worth AED 6.24 billion ($1.7 billion) projects in Astana, with the tallest building in Central Asia, a shopping centre and a winter garden. Moreover, the UAE and Kazakhstan have jointly established the Kazakh-Emirati private equity fund Al-Falah with a registered capital of AED 3.67 billion ($1 billion). According to the Kazakh embassy in the UAE, the trade balance between the two countries stood at AED 1.47 billion ($400 million) in 2012 and is ex-pected to grow this year.

From Page A1

The Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists, bringing together scholars, experts and practitioners from 111 states, set up a group of Kazakh and international experts to elaborate recommendations for the main directions of the Russian chairmanship: effective regula-tion for economic growth, invest-ments for economic growth and confidence and transparency for economic growth. These will be discussed when the Russian chair-manship in G20 holds an outreach event at the AEF.

According to Serik Nugerbekov, a member Kazakhstan’s Senate and co-chair of the 6th AEF organizing committee, this year the forum will bring together 7,000 participants, including 2,000 from outside of Kazakhstan. Top guests will in-clude 10 Nobel prize laureates, three deputies of the secretary gen-eral of the United Nations, heads of ECOSOC, ESCATO, UNCTAD and other organizations, as well as

numerous former heads of state and government and scores of business leaders, Nugerbekov told a special briefing for Kazakhstan’s media on May 3.

The main directions of the sixth AEF include prospects for global economic growth and processes for raw materials in 2013. Within these directions, possible solu-tions and measures for successful opposition to excessive price fluc-tuation will be discussed. Other issues are to include infrastructure and innovative technologies. Dis-cussions of the role of infrastruc-ture investments in stimulating economic growth, innovations, the role of state investments in infra-structure and specific examples of successful infrastructural projects in Kazakhstan will take place. Competitiveness at international markets is also one of the issues marked for discussion. This will encompass explorations of com-petitiveness problems, the theory and practice of competitiveness and the elaboration of practical

methods of achieving sustainable economic growth.

Social aspects of economic growth, financial systems, global risks and measures for their pre-vention will also be topics for dis-cussion at the AEF. Issues at those discussions will include achiev-ing balance between economic growth and social development, strengthening international mon-etary and financial systems and elaborating proposals and meas-ures for the successful introduc-tion of stabilisation and structural reforms.

In the “Discussions of Global Leaders” section of the forum, de-bates and meetings with prominent politicians and Nobel Prize laure-ates will be held on topical issues of the development of the modern world economy.

The World Anti-Crisis Confer-ence, which will be held for the first time on May 23-24 at the initiative of President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev, is called upon to elaborate a World Anti-Crisis Plan

for the U.N. based on democratic principles and encompassing the interests of all countries.

“On Dec. 21, 2012, the UN Gen-eral Assembly unanimously sup-ported holding World Anti-Crisis Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan. Now it is a major task for us,” Nugerbekov told the May 3 brief-ing. “The three-year-long effort now lies ahead of us to make the World Anti-Crisis Conference a success beginning in May 2013, and, hopefully, culminating in 2015 at the level of heads of state.”

The WAC this year will be dedi-cated to the problems of the world financial system, which has in re-cent years been experiencing ma-jor changes, the scale of which it is still difficult to determine. Indeed, the international community is still trying to rehabilitate financial channels for supporting the growth of domestic and external demand.

Discussions about developing economic and financial infrastruc-ture will become the agenda of the WAC discussion. Other WAC

themes are “A decade of regula-tion and unemployment in the Eurozone: political and economic changes,” “Assessment of mon-etary policy and its consequences for global financial stability,” “World capital markets in transi-tion: change in the financial land-scape?” Roundtables on the themes “New world financial architecture,” “Adaptation to new realities of the world economy” and “Recovery of growth in a more fragmented and deviated world economy” will be also held.

The dialogue of leaders will take place on May 24. This dialogue, during which leaders of countries, financial structures and interna-tional organisations as well as No-bel Prize laureates will summarise AEF and WAC activities, will close both events.

Preliminary discussions are reg-ularly taking place on the G-Global communicative Internet platform, launched in January 2012 by the Eurasian Economic Club of Scien-tists in order to implement the ini-tiatives of President Nazarbayev.

“The unprecedented nature of the G-Global platform is that it functions continuously in on-line mode, complementing and enhancing the contributions of global experts in the Astana con-ferences,” Nugerbekov, said. The project has been submitted for discussion and elaboration of mechanisms on world economic recovery and is called upon to radically expand the number of participants in search of crisis solutions. Currently, the Inter-net platform unites experts from 150 countries in a format of dis-cussions and debates regarding world economic recovery. All participants of discussions on the G-Global portal participate in a contest with a prize fund of about five million tenge and which dis-tributes gifts of recognition like laptops and tablet computers. The G-Global portal 30,000-32,000 visits weekly, according to Nuger-bekov, almost on par with World Economic Forum’s visits.

Organisers of the AEF and WAC are the Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists, 14 ministries of Ka-zakhstan, the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Samruk Kazyna, the U.N., the World Eco-nomic Forum, the World Intel-lectual Property Organisation, the Reinventing Bretton Woods Com-mittee, the Madrid club, the Rus-sian Academy of Natural Sciences and others.

When asked about the budget, Nugerbekov said the Sixth AEF would cost Kazakhstan’s budget slightly more than US$2 million. Previous forums resulted in signed investment contracts for Kaza-khstan worth US$8.5 billion, he added.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The Astana TimesА5

BusinessECONOMY

NEWS IN BRIEF

● Speaking at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Devel-opment’s 22nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors and Busi-ness Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, Finance Minister of Kazakhstan Bolat Zhamishev announced on May 10 that the country will raise funds by issueing a Eurobond worth €1 billion. “In 2013 we would like to go back to the bor-rowing market and I think that we will probably borrow up to $1 bil-lion, it will be in US dollars,” he told the annual meeting. “We are going to the external markets not for money but for credit, for loans, for benchmarks and in order to make ourselves present in this mar-ket,” he told reporters.Kazakhstan already has four Eurobonds, one of them used here as an example is called the Kazakhstan 2021 and is floating on the London Stock Exchange with Bank of America Merrill Lynch as the book runner and Deutsche Bank as the paying agent. Outstanding at the moment are €47 million which will until 2021 give the Kazakh government a total of €100 million, the initial investment of €100,000 began on December 29 in 2005. The govern-ments of Russia and the UK are guarantors on the bond and it ma-tures twice a year.

● Kazakhstan has raised its oil export tax by 50 percent to $60 per metric ton ($8.19 dollars per barrel), effective from April 13 to get a larger share of revenue from sales of crude, the Kazakhstan-skaya Pravda newspaper said. Ka-zakhstan is Central Asia’s biggest oil producer and it began taxing crude oil exports in May 2008 to raise cash as global credit markets tightened. The duty was eliminated in January 2009 but it was restored at a rate of $20 per metric ton in August 2010, and then raised to $40 per metric ton in January 2011. Kazakhstan is raising the tax after industrial production growth slowed in 2012 compared to the previous year. “The nation does not plan to raise the tax further this year,” Economy and Budget Plan-ning Deputy Minister Marat Kus-sainov said, according to an Inter-fax report.

● A Kazakh-Swiss joint venture to produce the chemical element tantalum will be launched in the Congo and Rwanda, Kazatomprom chief Vladimir Shkolnik told jour-nalists attending the first meeting of the Kazakhstan-Switzerland Business Council on April 13. “Switzerland is interested in cre-ating such a joint venture because we are the largest processor of this metal and we have the unique technology for processing of the product with high added value,” he said. The Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk produces tan-talum from imported raw material. The Swiss company owns the Afri-can mines. The parties are ready to invest up to $100 million.

● On April 22, KAZNEX IN-VEST Regional Director for Eu-rope Marhabbat Balgabay met a delegation of Italian businessmen in Astana to discuss investments in machine building, energy, mining and prospecting for natural resourc-es. Erlan Khairov, the chairman of the Committee on Investments of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MINT) and, Astana EXPO 2017 Company Deputy Chairman Alisher Pirmatov par-ticipated in the talks. The Magraf Company offers a new technology for processing natural stone. The Linea Light Group specialises in lighting engineering and public il-luminations. The Neri Company provides public illuminations with energy saving technology. Estel produces furniture for offices, thea-tres and concert halls. The Gruppo Tosoni constructs high-rise build-ings, railways and road bridges.

● According to the press service of the Kazakh Ministry of Econ-omy and Budget Planning, Kaza-khstan will chair the 47th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2014. At the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank, India officially transferred ADB Board of Governors’ chair in 2014 to Kazakhstan. Thus, according to the Ministry, ADB meeting will be held in Astana on 2-3 May, PM’s official website reports. According to preliminary estimates, the ADB meeting in Astana will gather about 5,000 people .

Kazakh Businessman Flourishes in Global Venture Business Market

From Page A1

But it was only two years ago that I decided to be actively in-volved. The global financial crisis has turned the abstract notion of di-versification into a real need on the business agenda.

For many investors, it is much more convenient to use already existing specialised venture capital funds, with a large staff of various experts. But for me, it was more interesting to dive into it by myself to understand how this business works from the inside: beginning from the search for promising start-ups, through the investment seeding process to the point of exit from the project or placing the start-up on the stock market as an initial preferred offering (IPO). I position myself as an active venture capital entrepre-neur who takes decisions independ-ently. For the same reason, I be-came a shareholder of Net Element, a functioning American company which has its shares listed on NAS-DAQ (the world’s largest stock ex-change for high-tech companies).

Successful start-ups and ideas know no boundaries. There is no difference for me where they come from, whether it is Canada, Kaza-khstan or Israel.

What strategies have you followed in your IT start-up projects?

I will focus on two examples: Net Element International and Mobli.

Prior to my investing in Net Ele-ment, its priority areas of specializa-tion had been identified already as e-commerce, mobile payments and providing content. However, the vi-sion and strategy of the company needed to be reconsidered despite its promising prospects in selected ar-eas. The company could not achieve a break-even level for some time.

We decided to expand the scope of business: not to restrict ourselves within the boundaries of the United States but also to enter the interna-tional markets, including the Com-monwealth of Independent States and Russia. Within half a year of entering the Russian market, TOT Money, the Net Element subsidi-ary that runs mobile payments and mobile commerce, reached the leading position in that market. For two consecutive months, the Bee-

line mobile operator nominated TOT Money as the No. 1 provider in the Russian market.

I am very positive about the devel-opment of the company’s business operations in Russia, where the mar-ket for SMS payments and mobile commerce is currently estimated at $2 billion, and the number of users of SMS-banking has exceeded 43 mil-lion people. If we take into account that these figures are projected to double within the next three or four years, the potential for the growth of our company is enormous.

According to Juniper Research, by 2017 the volume of global mobile payments market will reach $1.3 tril-lion. We expect to possess a signifi-cant share of it, and I am very pleased that recently Net Element Interna-tional has successfully completed the acquisition of the U.S. provider of electronic and mobile payments – Unified Payments. It was named the fastest-growing private company in the United States by the famous high-tech INC. Magazine in 2012. The founder of Unified Payments, Oleg Firer, has been appointed as the CEO of Net Element. I am sure he will be able to repeat his success and make Net Element a global leader.

As for Mobli, before I invested in this start-up, I examined it for a year. I liked the vision of Moshe Hogeg, the founder of Mobli. He wanted it to be broader than just another clone of Instagram.

Mobli is a social network for a new generation. It uses the full range of technological advances in the field of communications. The opportunities of Mobli are infinite, unlike Insta-gram, which only offers a narrow set of filters for photos, crammed into a standard square. Mobli speaks in 12 languages in which you can chat online, unlimited photo- and video-sharing, and the plenty of filters and messaging options among users.

In fact, Mobli has integrated the best from networks such as Twit-ter, Facebook, YouTube and Insta-gram. And users appreciate this.

Despite the absence of advertis-ing and the technical costs of or-ganic growth, Mobli breaks records continually. Every day, the number of new users grows by 60,000 to 65,000 and, its traffic exceeds one million posts per day. In less than six months the total user base increased from five million to seven million.

The latest version of Mobli is the number one application in the app store in Brazil, Kazakhstan, Israel, Uruguay and Finland. We have leading positions in Spain and France. More and more celebrities are choosing Mobli. They include Lindsay Lohan, Grammy-winning Tyrese, hip-hop artist Lil Wayne, and Kazakhstan tennis star Yaro-slava Shvedova, to name a few.

If you look at the audience of Mobli, it is mostly young people. I am delighted that Mobli has be-come the “native” application for a new generation of people who are far from stereotypes and preju-dice. This tells me that Mobli has a great future. Since we turned down a takeover offer from Google, we have received two more lucrative offers to sell, but we believe that it is too early to talk about exit.

In your opinion, what are the prospects for the development of the high-tech sector in Kaza-khstan?

Kazakhstan is taking its first steps towards the development of a high-tech and innovation market. For a state with so many raw materials to develop, it is not easy to find the extra motivation to invest in this field. To ensure the market takes

off, it is necessary to come a long way. A new entrepreneurial and start-up culture has to be fostered. Appropriate infrastructure has to be created. The state must adopt special measures to encourage the development of knowledge-based industries. Public-private venture capital funds must be launched.

In fact, these steps have already been taken, with the personal par-ticipation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The president stressed the need to rapidly introduce e-commerce, e-banking and encour-age high tech innovation at the most recent meeting of the Atame-ken Union National Economic Chamber. The government is also playing an important role in this field led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev.

I see my role in this process in two dimensions. First, in making a “Kazakh Case” in the international market, and I see that as the most crucial element of soft power that can be applied by the state. The governments of Japan, South Ko-rea and Taiwan, for example, had managed to successfully utilize this component whilst promoting the positive country image through their flagship companies.

I cannot wait until the appropri-ate conditions for the development of innovation and high-tech would finally appear in Kazakhstan. I want to go global and create an in-novative high-tech business, using all available scientific and human resources, and then import the high tech into my country.

Second, at the same time, I in-tend to ensure that these appropri-ate conditions appear as soon as possible in Kazakhstan: through a public-private partnership, through my participation in the Atameken Union National Economic Cham-ber, through my involvement in the Zhas Kenes Youth Council and through the support of talented young entrepreneurs and the nur-turing of national cadres.

At the first meeting of the Zhas Kenes Youth Council recently we announced the establishment of a business school for young entre-preneurs at our own expense and we are translating modern busi-ness literature into the Kazakh lan-guage. We have many ideas and we hope to implement all of them with God’s help. I believe in my country and my people, and I think that we should not just wait for the future to come: we should build it with our own hands right now.

Korean Companies to Purchase Pavlodar’s Coal for Power Plant Construction

By Sergei Gorbunov

PAVLODAR – The meeting of Regional Akim (Governor) Yerlan Aryn with Chairman of the Board of JSC Balkhash Thermal Power Plant (Balkhash TPP) Kim Suk Won and representatives of JSC Samsung Engineering, which is in-volved with the construction of the new plant in Kazakhstan, held on April 27, was a landmark in the es-tablishment of mutually beneficial cooperation between Ekibastuz miners and the Korean company.

According to plans, the large power station to be launched in 2017 will produce 1,320 MW of electricity. But for this it needs coal. The company intends to pur-chase it from the coal mines of Ekibastuz.

“The construction of this ther-mal power station is a good project for Kazakhstan’s econo-my. Today the Korean side that is implementing the project con-firmed their intention to buy our coal in the amount of four million tonnes a year. But the purchase of coal is not the only project of these foreign investors. They have other proposals that we discussed. Korean companies are success-fully operating in Kazakhstan in the fields of health, industry, IT technologies and in other areas. And this new project is for the benefit of both [countries],” said Regional Governor Aryn.

The delegation also visited the GRES-1 plant, which Chairman Kim says will be taken as an exam-ple for Balkhash TPP.

Co-founders of a new venture capital firm Genesis Angels (left to right), Kenes Rakishev, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who serves as its chairman of the board of directors, and Israeli entrepreneur, CEO of Mobli, and Director of Infinity AR, Moshe Hogeg, at a meeting in Tel Aviv in late April.

The Bogatyr open air coal mine is a source of fuel for many power plants in Kazakhstan and beyond.

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Wednesday, 15 May 2013

А6 The Astana TimesEDITORIAl

Kazakhstan is a large and multi-faceted coun-try. Not only is it rich in mineral and other natural resources, its human capital is also enviable. High literacy rates, health standards and favourable rela-tions with other countries allow the citizens of the country to live comfortably and make the most of their opportunities. Independence from the Mos-cow-dominated USSR, economic liberalism and societal identity formation in the last two decades have played a major role in sustaining peace and tranquillity in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, there has not been mass violence based on ethnic-ity, as could have been expected at the dawn of the current government.

30 years, 300 years, and 3,000 years ago there was no such thing as the Republic of Kazakhstan, but a certain nomadic culture did exist throughout the history of the timeless steppe. Now, in the 21st century, the territory that makes the ninth-largest country in the world is held together by a sover-eign state with its own military, money and proud citizens.

The concept of a citizen dates back to Greek city-states. Citizenship, however, is different from the nuanced and, in our case, problematic notion of nationality. The concept of nations and nation-states started in the European Middle Ages, when kingdoms of various sizes started to unite or be united under military campaigns. The most telling saying about the formation of nation states belongs to Massimo d’Azeglio, who said, “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians.”

In Central Asia, nobody ever made Italians, nor any other “nation.” What we do have in Kazakhstan is the Doctrine of National Unity, the main premise of which is an encompassing national identity that includes all the citizens in the historical Kazakh lands, and the idea of the modernity and competitive ability of our people. “In the 21st century, only an intellectual nation can count on success,” President Nazarbayev recently said. The development of an intellectual nation will require political will as well as research in natural sciences and humanities.

The government desires that all people in Ka-zakhstan speak three languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English, which will allow for more opportu-nities for its citizens. This policy was reinforced in September 2012, when President Nazarbayev ordered the government to start teaching all of the three languages at the elementary school level.

In his address to the Kazakh Ministry of Justice, Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, expressed wholehearted sup-port for President Nazarbayev’s idea of trilingual-ism. “I believe it is an excellent way of bringing communities together and tackling the linguistic legacy of the Soviet era. It is the right strategy to weave the multicultural assets of the country to-gether.”

Since independence in 1991, vast numbers of non-titular peoples have left Kazakhstan in search of stability in another “homeland.” This trend made Kazakhs once again the predominant ethnic group in Kazakhstan. However, statistics show that the exodus of minorities was reversed in late 1990s when, for example, the ethnic Germans who couldn’t adapt in Germany, who were seen as Russians or whatever else, came back to what was more familiar.

Ideally, the Kazakhstan envisioned in the bro-chures and political speeches consists of all the

peoples that have for reasons known only to history come to live in this republic in peace and harmony with each other. Ideally, it doesn’t matter whether one is considered Kazakh, or a Jew, or a Russian, or whatever else, as long as they are law-abiding citizens of Kazakhstan.

Gennady Golovkin, undefeated world champion of boxing, is one interesting example of a new citi-zen of Kazakhstan. At a recent conference of the As-sembly of the People of Kazakhstan, Mr. Golovkin addressed President Nazarbayev: “When people ask about my nationality, I reply: My father is Rus-sian, my mother is Korean, but I am Kazakh.” As a proud citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Gen-nady chooses to deny the differences between his-torically settled “ethnicities” and instead dedicates all his victories to his country, and to his people.

In contrast, the worst-case scenario would be the one played out in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. The flight of almost all Russians and Slavic peo-ples and an uneasy tension between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz people that sparked into violence in the city of Osh in 2010 continues to fuel disruptive power struggles that don’t allow for economic or social development. This is something that Kazakhstan is afraid of and concentrates a lot of effort on elimi-nating. The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan does its share in consolidating the nationalities that are part of the same citizenry.

Ambassador of the United States of America Ken Fairfax, who has been posted in Astana since Sep-tember 2011, draws parallels between his country and Kazakhstan. “What I find particularly positive about the way President Nazarbayev and the gov-ernment of Kazakhstan is approaching the theme of ‘One country, one people, one destiny’ is that they actively incorporate messages on tolerance and the value of diversity. The message is not that all of Ka-zakhstan’s citizens must be alike. On the contrary, Kazakhstan is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society that draws strength from its diversity. In this way, Kazakhstan is similar to the USA, where people who trace their roots to literally every nation on earth are all proud to be Americans. Not every country that I have worked in over the years has recognised the value of diversity and the importance of tolerance. By embracing its diversity at the same time it is building pride in what it means to be a citizen of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan is send-ing a positive message to the people of Kazakhstan and to the world.”

Perhaps this message of peace and harmony can be best reiterated by a quote from Colonel Bau-rzhan Momyshuly, one of the greatest heroes of the Kazakh people: “To love one’s nation, doesn’t mean to hate another.” Colonel Momyshuly was awarded the highest honours of the Soviet Army and the army of the independent Republic of Ka-zakhstan. He fought along with Gen. Panfilov and millions of others against an ideology that placed one “race” over another.

What is left for future generations is to promote the understanding of citizenship. Historically we might be different ethnic groups, but right now and in the future, the people of Kazakhstan will be united in their homeland under one flag and coat of arms. The blue sky that spans the entire country and the shanyrak that unites everybody under one roof are symbols of a unified and peaceful people. Only together will the people of Kazakhstan be able to achieve the greatest heights and breakthroughs of the modern age.

The Importance of National Unity

By Bissengali Tadzhiyakov

On April 14, the National Bank of Kazakhstan officially marked its 20th anniversary.

June 20, 1991 was a decisive date in the history of our banking system. That was the day the law on banks and banking activity in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Supreme Council of the Kazakh SSR. This law became the legislative base for the reform of the banking system. It established for the first time the legal definition of a commercial bank and it allowed the creation of other credit in-stitutions, especially private banks and banks with foreign capital.

The 1991 law stipulated the basic tasks and functions, including monetary and credit regulation of the state bank. But its most important innovation was the establishment of procedures to open commercial banks, terminate their ac-tivities and establish the principles by which the state bank would regulate them.

The second key date in the develop-ment of the National Bank came on April 14, 1993 when a law establish-ing it was enacted. The State Bank of the Kazakh SSR was then renamed the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK). The main task of the NBK was its role in directing and regulating state policy on the circulation of money. The 1993 law also defined the NBK’s structure, functions, rights, powers and responsi-bilities.

In mid-1993, it was decided to estab-lish a state commission to introduce the new national currency, the tenge. The process of replacing the Soviet ruble with the tenge started at 8.00 am on Nov. 15, 1993 and it was successfully com-pleted by 8.00 pm on Nov. 20, 1993.

On March 30, 1995 President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev signed a new de-cree giving new powers to the Na-tional Bank. This allowed the NBK to perform the specific central bank functions of regulating credit and cur-rency exchange transactions. It also received the authority to lend to com-mercial banks in order to maintain their liquidity. Also in 1995, the government opened a new factory to print ban-knotes and created an inter-bank for-eign exchange market.

The introduction of the new national currency, the tenge, allowed the Na-tional Bank to conduct an independent monetary policy. Its previous function of generating credit was transferred to the second-tier, or commercial banks. The National Bank began to solve its main problem of stabilising the national currency. In other words, it won the bat-tle to bring down inflation to low levels and established a stable exchange rate for the tenge.

The NBK also began to issue its own securities, or short-term notes. It be-gan to conduct open market operations and provide loans. The National Bank also became fully independent of the government and Parliament. It became accountable only to the president. This proved an important contribution to the

effectiveness of monetary policy.The period of the national currency’s

introduction was characterized by a tre-mendous boom in domestic production, but also of soaring inflation. In 1993, the average inflation rate was 30.1 percent and the decline in real GDP reached 9.2 percent.

In these difficult conditions, the gov-ernment and the National Bank identi-fied as priorities the gradual reduction of inflation and curbing the decline in production. These measures succeeded and hyperinflation fell from 2,265 per-cent in 1993 to 60 percent in 1995.

Gradually, National Bank monetary policy improved, and the arsenal of its tools expanded. The bank used such fi-nancial instruments as the refinancing rate, reserve requirements and its power to intervene in the domestic foreign ex-change market. Then, the NBK began to issue its own securities or short-term notes to grant overnight credits, to con-duct open market operations with gov-ernment securities and attract deposits from banks. The success of this policy was confirmed by the reduction of in-flation in 1998 to its historically lowest level of 1.9 percent a year.

Monetary policy in our country is constantly improving, and therefore its goals and objectives also are changing.

From Jan. 1, 2004, the NBK was en-trusted with the additional goal of en-suring price stability.

The basis of this decision was a com-mon and classic international practice: to promote the rapid growth of house-hold savings, maintain social stability, ensure the effectiveness of investments in the country and most importantly to stabilise prices in order to protect the value of incomes.

In 2008, when the global financial crisis began, the paramount challenge we faced was to coordinate govern-ment actions to prevent the breakdown of the entire national financial system. One of the most important documents to achieve this, the government and the National Bank adopted a joint action plan to stabilise the economy and the fi-nancial sector in 2009-2010. Under this plan, adopted on Nov. 25, 2008, consid-erable funds were allotted for state aid to be provided to four banks: the BTA, including its subsidiary Temirbank; the People’s Bank of Kazakhstan (Halyk Bank); Kazkommertsbank and the Alli-ance Bank.

These measures worked well. But for-eign financial institutions were not able to continue medium- and long-term lending to the Kazakh banks through the financial crisis and therefore our banks were forced to turn to the domestic mar-ket to raise their long-term funds. Since then, there has been a lack of long-term sources to fund the Kazakh banks since the deposit base is a short-term source of funding. As a consequence, there re-mains a significant maturity mismatch of assets and liabilities.

To tackle this problem, align the credit lending structure and create addi-tional incentives for economic growth, I think the banks need to attract alter-native sources of long-term funding in

the domestic market. They can do this by issuing new debt instruments to in-stitutional investors. However, there are certain constraining regulatory require-ments banks and institutional investors. These need to be revised in order to ex-pand the sources of medium- and long-term funding.

At present, the overall rate of risks in the banking system remains at an ac-ceptable level. However, the high level of credit risk is critical for the sustain-ability of the banking sector as a high level of non-performing loans in the total loan portfolio of banks, does not allow them to lend more actively to the real sector. However, the National Bank has introduced special arrangements to clean up the balance of non-performing loans by creating the FPC and setting up a new structure to cancel or “forgive” non-performing loans without tax liabil-ity. This is helping resolve that particu-lar problem.

The National Bank now uses stress testing to regularly assess the stability of the banking sector in the event of another adverse macroeconomic sce-nario. Recent stress tests published in the “Report on the Financial Stability of Kazakhstan in 2012”, showed that, despite relatively high amount of ex-pected losses, the capital adequacy ra-tio of the banks is in the range of valid values.

Today, the most urgent task of the National Bank is to introduce the new Basel 3 standards proposed by the Ba-sel Committee on Banking Supervision. They will improve the ability of banks to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress. These standards will strengthen the quality and structure of capital. They will raise minimum val-ues to the level of capital.

These new standards will be intro-duced in two stages:

Phase One will take place over the next five years from 2013 to 2017. They will phase out or exclude instruments that do not meet the standards of Basel 3, and will introduce new conservation buffers;

Stage Two will take place over the fol-lowing three years from 2016 to 2018. They will gradually increase capital re-quirements.

The division of the schedule into two stages greatly facilitates the transition of the banks to the new requirements as the first phase involves the reduction of minimum values of capital compared to current requirements.

The author is deputy chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

National Bank Celebrates 20 Years of Achievements

By Askar Zhumagaliyev

Since the tragic crash of a civilian airliner outside Almaty on January 29, the civil aviation of Kazakhstan has been under public scrutiny as never before.

In fact, the problems of the aviation industry did not appear yesterday, nor did they begin in 2009. In that year, Kazakhstan was included on a “black list” compiled by the Inter-national Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The problems have been ac-cumulating for 15 years. Challenges will always exist: The main thing is not to put up with them but to correct mistakes and continue to improve all processes.

In 2009, nearly all the country’s airlines were included on the ICAO’s black list. The ICAO experts noted a weak aviation administration that was insufficiently staffed. For years, the country’s aviation authorities were mainly involved in the solu-tion of current issues, such as safety oversight, certification, and opening of new routes, while strategic objec-tives remained in the background.

Today, we are responding to ad-vances and changes in technologies, equipment and flight operations. On the instructions of President Nursul-tan Nazarbayev, we are working on measures to eliminate the shortcom-ings and comments that the ICAO listed to ensure our removal from its black list. Working with inter-

national experts, we have already started to draft a strategic document, which will guide further develop-ment of the industry until 2020. The document identifies main challenges for the aviation industry, its market conditions and development map up to 2020.

We need to decide which airports will be developed as hubs. We also need to decide which aircraft we need for the market’s development and draw up a programme to revive small-scale and local aviation. All this will allow airlines, state agencies and potential investors to identify key development issues for the seven years.

We are carrying out this work in collaboration with ICAO technical experts, whom we especially invited to provide advice. Starting in early January, they have been examining our aviation legislation and assessing our compliance with ICAO organiza-tional structures, staff requirements operating and procedures of the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC). The ICAO has also worked with us in preparing recommendations on the training of our employees.

Thanks to the recommendations of the ICAO experts about 40 amend-ments will be introduced in legisla-tion. They will reform certification and safety oversight procedures, im-prove the status of aviation inspectors and significantly expand the CAC’s powers. A national programme for

flight safety will be drawn up based on international standards.

Working with ICAO experts, we have also started to re-certify all do-mestic airlines engaged in commer-cial transportation and the aircraft they use. The ICAO experts singled out the previous low level of profes-sionalism of the Civil Aviation Com-mittee and their lack of sufficient staff.

To compare, Thailand’s Aviation Administration has 800 employees, Britain has 3,500 specialists involved in security alone. Kazakhstan’s CAC currently has only 54 employees, half of whom are not aviation ex-perts. Why is this so? It is because the salaries that the CAC can offer are insufficient for any experienced pilot. They prefer to work either for airlines or airports and earn 10 times more than the CAC can pay them.

Last year, we raised this issue at Cabinet level and received great sup-port. Then it was decided to increase the salaries of employees of the CAC to the level of the industry. We also intend to increase the number of spe-cialists working for the Committee through the redeployment of person-nel in the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The Academy of Civil Aviation (ACA) is the only institution of higher education that prepares in-dustry professionals. Early last year, right after my appointment as trans-port and communications minister,

I visited the academy and talked with students and teaching faculty who voiced their suggestions and requests. Then, together with the Ministry of Education and Science, we drew up an inter-agency plan to enhance the quality of ACA training through 2015 and a strategic plan for its development up to 2020. All edu-cational programmes and profession-al training of aviation personnel have been revised, and new educational programmes that meet international standards are being implemented.

We are also strengthening the ACA’s material and technical base. We are providing it with a modern cockpit simulator, training aircraft and teaching and laboratory facili-ties. Progress has been substantial.

In the past year, for the first time in the ACA’s history, 15 students were sent to the United States and Ireland to obtain international certificates. The Ministry of Education and Sci-ence has allocated funds to attract foreign scientists and to conduct summer flight training.

In September 2013, a sub-regional ICAO training centre for aviation secu-rity will open in Kazakhstan. The gov-ernment is working with Air Astana to open a training centre for flight attend-ants at the Aviation Technical Centre of Almaty International Airport.

The ministry has been working to upgrade qualification requirements for domestic airlines offering domes-tic services. We studied international

experience, and adapted it to our needs.

We have also cancelled the old system of free competition for do-mestic routes. Now the government identifies specific companies to serve domestic flight routes. Any domestic airline can now apply to serve any domestic route provided it meets the new eligibility requirements.

Under our new regulations, every airline company must operate its own offices and staff at every airport, where its passenger flights take off or land, and it must operate at least two of its own sales offices in two cities. Each airline must also have a certi-fied staff that is engaged in bookings and ticket sales and that operates an e-ticketing system.

All domestic airlines must also qualify for an IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).

All airports will also be audited by the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO). This year Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and Aktau airports are planned to pass their IS-AGO audits.

The management of 11 airports, or air terminals, around the country will be incorporated in one holding company. This management model was tested in some foreign countries and neighbouring Russia, where airports are united by a single man-agement strategy, uniform policy of tariff and investment. They therefore experience the benefits of integrated management. This year, the runway and air terminal at Kokshetau and the runways at Taldykorgan and Taraz

airports will be rebuilt at govern-ment expense. Feasibility studies are underway to modernize the airports at Semipalatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Petropavlovsk.

The government is providing air-lines with subsidies to maintain air passenger services to small towns. Last year, this programme subsi-dised seven flight services costing 800 million tenge ($5.30 million). In 2013, this subsidy was increased to 1.5 billion tenge ($9.4 million) and the number of subsidised routes was expanded to 10 out of the 43 exist-ing domestic passenger flight routes. New services between Almaty and Urdzhar, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Kokshetau and Almaty and Petropav-lovsk were added to the programme.

In 2012, 11 new international routes were opened after we conclud-ed protocols, agreements and memo-randums with several countries. This year, we plan to open 10 more inter-national routes.

We have drawn up a new pro-gramme of rules for passenger serv-ices and will introduce administrative responsibility for all air carriers in breach of these rules for which they will pay fines in the amount of 200 to 1000 monthly calculated indices.

In 2012, the fleets of our domestic airlines were significantly upgraded and 16 new airliners were purchased. Today, 84 percent of domestic pas-senger flights are flown by Western-made airliners.

The author is Minister of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan.

Government Works to Reform Civil Aviation

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

А7The Astana Times

opinions

By Tursunbek Omurzakov

Kazakhstan’s foreign policy is based primarily on the principle of multi-vector relationships. In this context, particular attention is giv-en to the expansion of cooperation with the People’s Republic of Chi-na based on mutual trust, friend-ship and good neighbourliness.

In 2012, the two nations celebrat-ed the 20th anniversary of their dip-lomatic relations. Over those years, we have achieved considerable suc-cess in the cooperation in the fields of economics, environment, culture, education, security and military af-fairs. Kazakhstan and China are ac-tively cooperating in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organ-ization (SCO). In a fast-changing geopolitical environment, the SCO acts as an effective mechanism for maintaining peace, stability and se-curity in the region.

Both nations are currently work-ing on a project to revive the ancient Silk Road. This New Silk Way will include the main transport corridor between Western Europe and West-ern China. It will bring great eco-nomic benefits to both Kazakhstan and China. Today, our two countries also face similar tasks of economic development related to the modern-isation of industrial plants and re-search, development and invention applied in the new global economy.

The succession of Xi Jinping as president of China confirmed the continuity of policies and strategy in Beijing. The government of Chi-na has unveiled its Development Strategy until 2050. It is planned that by that time the country’s GDP in absolute terms will be twice that of the United States. China has also drafted its Energy Development Concept until 2050. By 2030, the proportion of ecologically clean fuels used in the Chinese economy is projected to reach 50 percent.

It is impossible not to admire the ambitious goals of our neighbour. However, it is important to note that since gaining independence, Kazakhstan has also followed its own unique path of development, and international experts have rec-ognised it as highly successful.

The Kazakhstan 2050 national strategy announced by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Decem-ber 2012 defines the development priorities of the country over the next 38 years. This expansion of planning horizons is very timely. As President Nazarbayev noted, the United Nations drafted its Glo-

bal Forecast of Civilizations De-velopment until 2050 and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation adopted its forecast report for the same period. The European Com-mission has adopted its Energy Roadmap 2050 and large interna-tional companies such as HSBC and Citigroup in the banking sec-tor assess the growth of global de-mand 2050.

In 1997, President Nazarbayev approved and implemented a na-tional strategy for the country’s development until 2030. The goals set then seemed to be grandiose, but they are an accomplished fact. The significance of that programme for the people of Kazakhstan can be compared with the reforms of Deng Xiaoping that enabled the Chinese economic miracle to happen. The new strategy assumes the entry of our country into the top 30 devel-oped countries of the world by 2050. It does not just determine a course of social reforms. It also acts as a sym-bol of the unity of the people of the nation in achieving high goals.

The strategy considers the global challenges of the 21st century as new opportunities for the country. Thus, the rapid population growth in developing countries creates additional demand, including in those areas where Kazakhstan is able by its own efforts to occupy market niches, such as producing food, primarily grain and meat, on a large scale. It is not by accident that President Nazarbayev singled out the domestic agro-industrial complex as one of the priority di-rections of economic development. By 2050 it is planned to increase the share of agricultural output in GDP of the country by 5 times to a 25 percent share of total GDP. This is achievable with adequate state support. I am confident that we can gain a foothold in the world’s

major export markets through the creation of a national brand of available, organic food.

The demand to solve the global problem of energy security creates incentives for Kazakhstan in the de-velopment of green or sustainable energy. It is symbolic that the theme of the EXPO 2017 international exhi-bition to be held in Astana is “Future Energy.” The European Commission estimates that wind power will pro-vide Europeans with 49 percent of their electricity by 2050 against the current level of only 5 percent. Due to its geographical location on the steppes of Eurasia, Kazakhstan pos-sesses great potential for the devel-opment of wind and solar energy.

The Third Industrial Revolution offers nations around the world the prospect of transition to a new way of life driven by technologi-cal breakthroughs. This is very important for our economy, which is still heavily dependent on the materials sector. However, with the correct choice of development strategies in key high tech indus-tries and the support for innovation clusters, Kazakhstan can make a breakthrough similar to the ones by Japan, South Korea, Singapore have already achieved. Therefore, we have set the task of doubling the share of non-resource exports in the total volume of exports by 2025 and tripling it by 2040.

President Nazarbayev has noted the global problem of fresh water shortage. By 2030 the number of people living in conditions of per-manent water shortage will exceed four billion. Water is a scarce re-source. Therefore, the issue of water efficiency has been singled out as a strategic priority. It is expected that the problem of providing sufficient drinking water will be settled by 2020 and that of a shortage of fresh water will be resolved through irri-gation policies by 2040. After that date, a severe shortage of fresh wa-ter around the globe will open vast opportunities for Kazakhstan to ex-port its growing surplus of water.

The new economic challenges require new approaches to eco-nomic policy. The president has discussed the importance of ap-plying the practical principles of profitability, return on investment and competitiveness. Therefore, our tax, fiscal, monetary and credit policies require revision.

National fiscal policy should be based on the principles of auster-ity and efficiency of expenditure. Favourable tax policies are needed

to foster enterprises in the fields of production and new technologies. Tax credits are needed to stimulate investment activity.

Threats of financial instability in the world economy make monetary policy of paramount importance. This is used by most states to over-come financial imbalances. Presi-dent Nazarbayev has proposed new system of monetary policy to pro-tect the economy. It requires new approaches in social policy.

The government also plans to step up its fight against poverty. Healthy eating and healthy life-styles are also important. The state needs to continue to provide targeted social assistance to those groups that need it – pensioners, the disabled, sick children and the unemployed.

It is important to solve the prob-lems of social imbalances in differ-ent regions of the country. We need to create new effective mechanisms to balance socio-economic living conditions. We also need to cre-ate favourable conditions for do-mestic skilled workers to prevent them from going to foreign labour markets. This will require new ap-proaches in payment for labour and reduction of imbalances, and the fundamental revision of laws to protect mothers and children.

These issues are all addressed in the Kazakhstan 2050 national strategy. The document presents specific tasks in all areas of public life. Its successful realisation may lead to Kazakhstan’s entry into the top 30 developed countries of the world ahead of schedule.

Citigroup projects that no Euro-pean country will be among the top 10 largest economies of the world by 2050. By then, Asia will generate al-most half of global GDP. In this con-text, the prospects of Kazakhstan look favourable. However, such develop-ment is not possible without strength-ening cooperation with China.

Kazakhstan and China share the strategic goals of achieving sus-tainable economic development and raising the social welfare of their peoples. Both countries will achieve great success in the imple-mentation of these programmes. It is therefore important to further develop their bilateral relations.

The author is a deputy of the Mazhilis of Parliament of Kaza-khstan and a member of the Cen-tral Committee of the Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan. He holds a PhD in Economics

By Kairat Kadyrzhanov

My more than 40 years of ex-perience in science in various po-sitions from intern researcher to director general of the National Nuclear Center have given me conclusions on the principles of the organisation of scientific work that can contribute to solving the main problems in the development of Kazakhstan’s science.

The first principle is to develop the gradation of problems, identi-fying a key problem to solve and giving it absolute, overriding prior-ity.

The technological progress of the country through the all-round development of science is the main leverage for solution of the problems identified by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Ka-zakhstan 2050 strategy.

Looking back at the recent past of our country it may be noted that the 1940s and 1950s were the pe-riod of most rapid development of science and education in the Soviet Union. The need to create an atom-ic bomb quickly, harness nuclear energy and begin space explora-tion required the solution of a set of problems unprecedented in the his-tory of humankind in mathematics, physics, chemistry and the material sciences. Thus, the need for the ed-ucation of scientists and engineers who would do it all, emerged.

A whole generation of the scien-tific elite, world-class profession-als in the most difficult sectors and sub-sectors of science, methods and technology, was produced. They made the 20th century the century of space and the atom.

At a regular session of the Com-munist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the then-president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Anatoly Alexandrov, remember-ing that turbulent time, said: “We have not made a fundamental or applied science, we have made

a bomb and at the same time we solved the problem regardless of whether it was mathematics, phys-ics or chemistry.”As a result, there was an unprecedented develop-ment of dozens of new branches of science, producing ultra-modern equipment and unique technology for its time.

The second principle is to create a unique theoretical foundation and material resource to make a funda-mental breakthrough.

The Ulugbek observatory al-lowed us to measure stars’ posi-tions, and even calculate them 300 and 500 years in advance. At present, an interesting model for the accelerated development of science in physics has been an-nounced in Russia. An authorita-tive commission of scientists and statesmen, headed by then-Prime Minister (and current President) Vladimir Putin has chosen seven or eight large projects to construct world-class physical facilities at great costs. These will make it pos-sible to obtain fundamentally new results and make a breakthrough in science. It was decided to cre-ate these so-called mega-projects despite the heavy expenses and to do it so at accelerated pace.

Russia has been forced to take

this step. It has become apparent that the science of our northern neighbour has fallen behind the world level. This is just one exam-ple of this new policy in the field of fundamental physics. The NICA Large Haldron Collider (LHC) is being constructed at the order of President Putin at the Joint In-stitute for Nuclear Research in Dubna outside Moscow at a cost of several hundred million dollars. This will allow Russian scientists to continue and update the results obtained in the LHC European Nu-clear Centre (CERN).

This is especially significant be-cause the key event in science in 2012 was the discovery of the new Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This discovery was of comparable sci-entific importance to the discovery of the electron and neutron in the 20th century. Therefore, it was de-cided in Russia, despite the heavy expenses, to create such a huge facility, it was impossible to fall behind Europe in the field of fun-damental physics.

President Nazarbayev has con-firmed that the government is ready to allocate 3 percent to 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) for science. Therefore, scientists should offer large and important projects that will provide significant results. But they should not spend money on inconsider-able subjects without fundamental prospects for success.

It is necessary to identify prior-ity areas at the national level and to provide them with the most modern equipment. This should be done regardless the price but remaining within the framework of the com-mitted share of the national budget. It is clear that there will be not a lot of such projects. It is also clear that such a choice of problems does not hinder the way for geniuses, who make their discoveries with a pencil on a piece of paper. This ap-

proach is fully consistent with the new Law on Science.

The third principle is to define clearly the importance, theoretical and practical significance of re-solving the problem, and its scale.

The average age of the scien-tists and technicians in the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston, Texas who worked on the Ameri-can Apollo program and success-fully landed 12 astronauts on the surface of the Moon was less than 27 years. That was an overrid-ing priority programme too: The United States remains indebted to President John Kennedy for the birth of the programme. It was he who insisted on the fact that Amer-icans did not have to simply follow in the Russian footsteps but that it was necessary to overtake them and head directly to the conquest of the Moon.

The enormous financial expenses for the programme paid off in less than 12 years. One benefit of the U.S. space programme is the per-sonal computer that today can be found on every desktop.

The solution of such complex problems as the flight control of the spacecraft from Earth to the Moon and back was entrusted to young professionals who were recent graduates of American uni-versities. The challenge of solving such problems incredibly stimu-lated them to lifetimes of further achievements. I think that the most interesting thing is that the creator of Soviet space technology, Sergei Korolev, had the same impetus.

The fourth principle is to provide and maintain the necessary quali-fied human resources for research development.

Two decades ago, after the col-lapse of the Soviet Union, Russian scientists and engineers retired from the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan in Kurchatov and from the unique nuclear facilities of the Semipalatinsk test site. If they

had all left, there could have been very severe consequences. I would like to pay tribute to those Russian professionals who remained in the cold and hungry town and kept the situation under control.

However, professionals con-tinued to leave and grow old. It was necessary to solve the prob-lem immediately, so a new gen-eration of technicians had to be trained initially in high schools located near Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk. Over these years, these educational institu-tions of average level have turned into full-fledged universities. For this purpose the staff of these in-stitutions and the National Nucle-ar Center organized lectures and seminars of the best professors from Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Mos-cow, Almaty, and abroad for their students. The students practiced and worked in the real nuclear reactors of Kurchatov, gaining experience in highly complex and demanding procedures.

Thus, the personnel problem in the NNC was solved. Yet, working in the NNC for many years, I have not met a single Bolashak pro-gramme graduate. And graduates from universities in Almaty and Astana do not favour Kurchatov as well. It was the training of lo-cal staff that solved the personnel problem.

The Lev Gumilyov Eurasian Na-tional University is developing a similar approach on a larger scale. Leading experts from around the world are invited to teach phys-ics students, and they do practical work in the Joint Institute for Nu-

clear Research and the CERN.The Eurasian National Univer-

sity has a modern, very interesting DC-60 accelerator. The students and young scientists operate it. They are involved in the research process and in the creation of new technologies. I think this will bear fruit over the years.

Communication with today’s students shows that our country continues to give birth to talented young people. Statistics shows that the number of people wish-ing to engage in the sciences is not shrinking. Those whom God has created to practice math and physics will deal with it. The level of training of many graduates of schools leaves much to be desired, but at the same time, there are also winners of competitions at the most prestigious level.

Today’s legal and legislative en-vironment creates all the necessary conditions for the full development of science in Kazakhstan. The most important thing left for scientists is the assignment of strategic tasks in science and their solution will re-ally boost our economy. It will be necessary to provide the top scien-tific institutions and universities with modern technology to assure success in specific scientific fields. This will also lead to the training of young open-minded scientists who understand that they will have the opportunity to solve a fundamental problem on unique equipment, car-rying out the most important work for the country.

Great scientists and great re-search institutions have emerged like that at all times.

Young Scientists Are Key to Kazakhstan’s Future

Kazakhstan and China Share Strategic Goals

The author is a PhD in Physics and Mathematics, professor and advi-sor to the rector of the Lev Gumilyov Eurasian National University. He was director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan and later director general of the National Nuclear Center. He is an academician of the National Academy of Engineering, the International Engineering Academy and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and a laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

By Yeraly Tugzhanov

The 20th anniversary session of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK) on April 24, 2013 was a milestone in the state’s multi-ethnic friendly policy. The main outcome of the APK session was the proclamation of social co-hesion as the multi-ethnic nation’s way of life.

The concept of social cohesion has a wide application in labour re-lations, civil peace, policy of peace and harmony in inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations and inter-cultural dialogue.

The concept of social cohesion was developed in President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev’s most recent state-of-the-nation address in De-cember 2012 entitled “Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy: A New Policy of the Established State.”

President Nazarbayev specified the socioeconomic basis of social cohesion: He said it was essential for the success of the innovation economy and for the growth of the middle class which was a crucial bulwark of social stability. Social cohesion also ensured a clear out-look, confidence in the future and all opportunities for professional growth. The basis for this social stability and economic growth is being laid through the State Pro-gramme for Accelerated Industrial-Innovative Development (PAIID). Social stability provides stable investments in the economy and sustains the financial and labour markets.

National unity is an integral fea-ture of multi-ethnic Kazakhstan and the main institution for main-taining it is the APK. The president said the APK has matured through the years into a major general civil institution providing a new format of general civil union for the multi-ethnic society of 17 million people of Kazakhstan.

The Assembly safeguards the interests of all ethnic groups, im-plementing the principle of “unity in diversity.” The people of Kaza-khstan are the core and backbone of the whole organism. The terri-tory of Kazakhstan is home to all the people of Kazakhstan irrespec-tive of ethnic background.

The APK has reached a nation-wide status, addressing the issues of national and civil values. It is engaged in the countrywide public outreach on the People’s IPO pro-

gramme. Its 20th session marked a new stage in the development of the political philosophy of the na-tion. It identified short-term prior-ity goals to work for and put them on the political agenda.

President Nazarbayev called on the people of Kazakhstan to set an example of unity, tolerance and patriotism and an example of self-less service to the state and society. We need a national historical con-sciousness that is holistic and posi-tive to rally the people together. The national history of Kazakhs should be viewed as a single and continuous process of cultural and economic interaction with other peoples, as well as the contribu-tions of various ethnic groups in the country’s history, and the Ka-zakh language as its mainstay.

Knowledge of the state language excludes a possibility of infring-ing on anyone’s rights on ethnic grounds. One of the speakers at the session, a businessperson rightly said, “If you want to run a suc-cessful business, learn the Kazakh language, this is the best business strategy.”

The 20th session also defined the role of the intelligentsia in rallying the nation.

In the years of independence, a new generation has emerged, fo-cused on 21st century tasks while maintaining continuity with the humanitarian heritage and experi-ence of previous centuries.

It is a proven practice throughout Kazakhstan’s independent history that the policy of peace and har-mony has a direct economic effect. Future progress will depend not only on economic and technical solutions, but also on the level of conscious mobilisation of society, especially young people.

At the 20th session, the Assem-bly also discussed nurturing pa-triotism in young people, heroism and heroes of peacetime, social responsibility, motherhood and raising orphans and national sport achievements.

The APK session was held before May 1 – the day of Kazakhstan’s national unity when we look with confidence in the future, in peace and prosperity of our common country.

The author is Deputy Chairman of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and head of its secre-tariat.

Ethnic Diversity Boosts Development

By Yuri lifintsev

ASTANA – Kazakhstan biker and president of the International Children’s Geographic Society Dmitry Petrukhin is publicising EXPO 2017 in the United States. And he has already spread its mes-sage from Arizona to Washington, DC.

From the Caribbean, he has set off to the American continent on his motorbike with the flag of Ka-zakhstan.

Petrukhin’s latest mission as a “goodwill ambassador” also in-cludes the promotion of a new international project of the Kaza-khstan Geographic Society called the Young Travellers Club. Its main task is to create a platform of extensive knowledge in geog-raphy, tourism and international relations to unite young people of all countries on a single web por-tal.

The programme will also dis-seminate information about the ge-ography and history of Kazakhstan to a global audience.

In his North America travels, Petrukhin will invite the public to support the new project and visit EXPO 2017. He will also promote the 28th World Winter Universi-

ade to be held in Almaty in 2017. Petrukhin’s first stop was the city of Tucson in southern Arizona which since 1991 has become a

twin city to Almaty.Jerry Gary, the chairman of the

Twin Cities Committee received Petrukhin in his headquarters with officials from the city’s sports and tourism departments, Chamber of Commerce, scientists and Ka-zakhstan students studying in the United States on the Bolashak pro-gramme.

It was Petrukhin’s second visit to Tucson. His first was in 2005. Gary accepted Petrukhin’s invi-tation to visit the EXPO and the

Universiade. He said a Tucson del-egation would participate in both events.

The Tucson city government is also preparing a formal invitation for Almaty Mayor Akhmetzhan Yessimov to make a return visit in November.

From Tucson, the biker went to Washington, D.C., where he met with Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United States Kairat Umarov. They first met in India in 2009, when Petrukhin was touring the Middle East and Asia to publicise the seventh Asian Winter Games.

Ambassador Umarov supported Petrukhin’s plans to visit the coun-tries of South America, where lit-tle is known about Kazakhstan to build bridges of cooperation and mutually beneficial relations with them.

Petrukhin met Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Byrganym Aiti-mova and its Consul General in New York Raushan Yesbulatova. He also met Kazakhstan students studying in the United States.

Petrukhin also appeared on the U.S. radio talk show “Davidson.” Next, he plans to go to Latin Amer-ica, and promote Kazakhstan and EXPO 2017 in Brazil.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

А8The Astana Times

EXPO 2017

in his North america travels, Petrukhin will invite the public to support the new project and visit EXPo 2017. He will also promote the 28th World Winter Universiade to be held in almaty in 2017.

Motorcycling Ambassador Spreads EXPO 2017 Message in America

By Anel Adilbayeva

On May 7, an Executive Com-mittee meeting was held at the headquarters of the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) in Paris, which included discussions on Ka-zakhstan’s preparations for EXPO 2017.

Kazakhstan was represented by Commissioner of the Internation-al Specialized Exhibition EXPO 2017 and Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rapil Zhoshybayev, Minister of Environmental Protection Nurlan Kapparov, Chairman of the Board of the National Company Astana EXPO 2017 Talgat Yermegiyaev and Ambassador to France Nurlan Danenov.

At the meeting, Zhoshybayev discussed the EXPO 2017 prepara-tion process and shared informa-

tion on the work that has been con-ducted over the last five months. He also discussed the formation of the National Company Astana EXPO 2017.

“We hope that holding EXPO 2017 in Astana will accelerate the deepening of the international dia-logue and development of joint so-lutions to the international commu-nity’s most pressing challenges,” Zhoshybayev said. Future Energy has been chosen as a theme for the EXPO 2017 exhibition.

The Kazakh officials also pre-sented to the members of the Ex-ecutive Committee a draft of the land plot allocated for EXPO 2017 and a preliminary master plan of EXPO 2017, including the pavil-ions plan and plans for the use of buildings and materials created for the EXPO following the event.

Other issues were also included in the agenda of the meeting of the

Executive Committee of the BIE. Reports on the preparatory process of EXPO 2015 in Milan, a horticul-tural exhibition in 2016 in Antalya, Turkey and the results of the report of the Expert Committee on visits to countries seeking to host EXPO 2020 were presented at the meet-ing. Five countries are seeking to host EXPO 2020, including Tur-key (Izmir), Thailand (Ayutthaya), Russia (Yekaterinburg), UAE (Du-bai), and Brazil (Sao Paolo).

Astana was elected as the EXPO 2017 International Specialized Ex-hibition host on Nov.22, 2012 at the 152nd General Assembly of the International Exposition Bureau.

According to previous EXPO sta-tistics, Astana’s EXPO is likely to attract 100 states and participants, including 10 leading international organizations and two to three mil-lion visitors during its three-month run from June to September 2017.

International Exhibitions Bureau Discusses EXPO 2017 Preparations

By Galiya Nurzhan

ASTANA – In April, Environ-ment Protection Minister Nurlan Kapparov spelled out government strategy on the transition to a green economy at a conference in Astana

U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Fair-fax also attended the conference entitled “Building a Green Econo-my in Kazakhstan.” It was organ-ized by the American Chamber of Commerce for Economic Policy in Astana.

The conference focused on the basic principles of the green econ-omy, environmental issues and developing a sustainable energy base.

Kapparov said the government was drafting a national strategy on the transition to a green economy that would solve many economic and environmental problems.

The minister also discussed pros-pects for EXPO 2017 which will be held in Astana on the theme of the sustainable energy of the future.

“We hope EXPO 2017 will help the international community to develop effective ways to address energy problems,” he said.

Kapparov said the EXPO would showcase Astana as a leader in

the global revolution in advanced technology and sustainable devel-opment.

“EXPO 2017 will create an un-precedented opportunity for our city to become a leader in this im-portant area,” he said. “We want Astana to be considered not only as the geographic centre of the Eura-sian continent, but also as a region-al centre of technological, cultural and scientific exchanges between Europe and Asia. The world is waiting for commercially viable projects to demonstrate the vari-ous energy options, and Astana can become a platform where we will show the latest developments.”

Kapparov said EXPO 2017 would also lead the transformation into the high tech green economy for the rest of Central Asia.

The conference was the tenth fo-rum held by the American Cham-ber of Commerce in Kazakhstan.

It brought together Cabinet min-isters, representatives of major government agencies, representa-tives of the European Bank of Re-construction and Development, in-ternational organisations, heads of diplomatic missions, business lead-ers, academics, NGOs, research centres and the mass media.

The forum provided an open dialogue platform to discuss green economy issues and considered other countries’ experience in this field.

Kapparov said that in the transi-tion to the green economy, it would be necessary to change energy policy and increase the share of natural gas in energy production. He said this would “give stability to our economy. We will depend only on ourselves. We will be able to produce more energy from gas

and produce fertilizers and other products.”

Environment Protection Vice Minister Bektas Mukhamedzh-anov said that existing economic models would have to be reformed and cooperation with other coun-tries in the region would have to be expanded to deal with cross-border energy and environmental prob-lems that were beyond the capacity of individual countries to solve.

The conference also discussed ways to encourage research and development on green economy is-sues, environmental requirements in renewable energy and economic

and legal aspects of the new pro-grammes. Participants also dis-cussed ways to reduce the impact of industry on the environment.

The conference also discussed the experience of other countries in trying to make the transition to a green economy and initiatives by international companies to address environmental problems.

On April 15, the environmental pro-tection minister reported to President Nursultan Nazarbayev on progress on implementing green economy poli-cies, the main provisions of the Green Bridge Partnership Programme and planning ideas for EXPO 2017.

President Nazarbayev also in-structed the ministry to focus on the rational use of water resources.

Environmental experts believe Kazakhstan possesses unique op-portunities to develop a green econ-omy: It has vast territory, a favour-able geopolitical position, and the financial and natural resources to develop renewable energy sources to replace environmentally harm-ful and inefficient power plants. The country will also launch pro-grammes to modernise its hous-ing and public utilities, introduce sustainable practices to manage its pasture lands for herds of cattle

and upgrade its water management systems.

The country has passed new laws to promote wind energy, en-ergy saving and the recycling of in-dustrial and solid domestic waste. It has set up a new Interdepartmen-tal Council to integrate green prin-ciples into different sectors of the economy.

Kapparov said the government would invest at least 1 percent of GDP per year to finance the transi-tion to a green economy.

“It is yet hard to say how much it will cost to switch to the green economy. But I can say how other countries have done it,” he told the conference. “China, for example, undertook to invest 1.5 percent of GDP into the green economy. South Korea pledged to invest 2 percent of its GDP. Our strategy will show how aggressive we will go. There are many scenarios and we will compare them, but I think we will invest at least 1 percent.”

“We will start this transition after the adoption of a special strategy, so that people understand that it will not happen right away. This will be a long programme aimed for 20 or 30 years,” he said.

The American Chamber of Com-merce in Kazakhstan represents nearly 200 member companies including US, multi-national, and local businesses in 30 industry sec-tors. It provides an opportunity for its members and country govern-ment officials to find ways for co-operation and dialogue, promotes an open forum for the exchange of information, ideas, and experience for doing business in the country, and serves as a valuable source of information on useful business contacts and information to inves-tors.

Environment Minister Spells Out Green Economy Plans

Dmitry Petrukhin (right) is greeted by Jerry Gary, the chairman of the Tucson-Almaty Twin Cities Committee, on the first stop of his North American travels.

A computer graphic of the proposed pavillions for EXPO 2017 exhibition in Astana.

BThe Astana Times

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Nation & CapitalGetting Wet in the World’s Largest Landlocked Country

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“Harmony Lessons” Honoured at tribeca Film Festival

Page B3

Kazakh Musical Drama Theatre named after K. Kuanyshbaev

May 16 at 18.30 Drama “Kenesary – Kunіmzhan” by Duman RamazanMay 17 at 18.30 Drama “Bir kem dynie” (This imperfect world) by Sherkhan MurtazaMay 18 at 18.30 Musical Comedy “Үulenu” (Wedding) by E.ZhuasbekMay 19 at 18.30 Psychological drama “Kun saulesі tүspegen” by ValyekhoMay 21 at 18.30 Comedy “Іzgіlіk formulasy” (Formula of kindness) by ShevreMay 22 at 18.30 Poetic drama “Mukagali” by Serіk Turgynbekuly and Shyngyz AitmatovMay 23 at 18.30 Comedy “Ayman – Sholpan” by Mukhtar AuezovMay 23 at 18.30 Comedy “Қymbatty Pamella” (Dear Pamella) by John Patrick

Russian Drama Theatre named after Maxim Gorky

May 19 at 18.00 Drama “Duck Hunt” by Vampilov May 24 at 18.30 The Italian farce “Comforter of widows” by Marotta and RandoneMay 25 at 18.00 Play “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail BulgakovMay 26 at 18.00 Tragicomedy “Fear and poverty in the Third Empire” by Brecht May 28 at 19.00 The Moscow Independent theatre with performance “When the husband is not at home” with Elena Korikova’s participationMay 28 at 19.00 Comedy “Tot, Major and Others” by Erken

The Palace of Peace and Accord

May 16 at 18.30 Solo exhibition of paintings by Leyla Mahat “Image of the time“

Things to Watch in May

teenagers Waltz at astana’s First City Ball

Page B8

By Anel Adilbayeva

ASTANA – Over the last 15 years, Astana has become a busi-ness and political centre in Eurasia, acquiring innovative technologies and implementing international standards with a Kazakh style. With the growing number of for-eign companies in the capital has come an increase in Astana’s pop-ulation of expats, who bring their own lifestyles and customs. One of these new practices is cycling. As the weather gets warmer, guests and more and more long-time As-tana residents are hopping on bi-cycles. Though Astana still lacks bicycle paths and separate lanes for cyclists, people are still start-ing to switch from driving to rid-ing. For visitors, renting a bike is a great way to tour Astana’s modern architecture.

In 2011, Mayor of Astana Im-angali Tasmagambetov announced that cycling infrastructure would be developed within the General Plan of Astana. This was declared after city residents complained about a lack of bike paths in the city.

In 2012, representatives of the Embassy of the Netherlands in As-tana offered assistance in develop-ing and promoting cycling in the city.

Deputy Head of Mission Harry Putker has been living in Astana for a year and commutes to work on the bicycle he brought from Holland.

“Residents of Astana, especially drivers, are not used to driving with cyclists on the roads, thus often creating dangerous situations,” he told a local news channel.

Continued on Page B8

Cycling Culture Speeds Up in Kazakhstan

Kokshetau Residents Share Success Stories

By Rinat Dussumov

KOKSHETAU – On April 29, a regional forum of the “My Coun-try’s Destiny Is My Destiny” cam-paign was held in Kokshetau as part of a national programme showcas-ing the achievements of prominent citizens of Kazakhstan.

The programme was launched in Yereimentau in the Akmola region in February It provides a platform to celebrate the life’s work and he-roic actions of people throughout society. Those honoured included prominent public and political fig-ures, representatives of government agencies, creative and scientific intelligentsia, leaders in ethnic and cultural groups, war and labour vet-erans, diplomats and security offic-ers, famous athletes and youth lead-ers. After three months of regional forums throughout the Akmola re-gion the most eminent participants were invited to the gathering in Kokshetau.

Among those honoured were: Azamat Zhumadilov, a recipient of the Khalyk Kaһarmany (People’s Hero) Order and a student at the National University of Defense; Bolat Zhanadilov, a honoured citi-zen of Kokshetau and the head of the museum of Akmola Regional

Hospital, whose efforts have been recognised with the Kurmet (Hon-our) Order; Vyacheslav Mironov, director of the Akmola branch of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (Kaza-khstan State Railways); Askar Ki-ikov, director of the Yenbek Bereke Company also recognised by the Kurmet (Honour) Order; Gerikhan Yandiyev, chairman of the Vainakh Chechen-Ingush ethnic and cultural centre;Valeria Lukoshenko, head of the Gagarin Secondary School in Stepnogorsk; and Dina Khamza, director of the Shanyrak Zhetysu Centre.

Dr. Zhanadilov is an eminent physician who has saved many lives. He also played a major role in setting up the Kazakh Lyceum and the Kazakh Drama Theatre. Now, in retirement, he heads the regional Diagnostic Centre, sits on the board of the State Fund of Historical and Cultural Heritage for the Akmola region and is involved in construct-ing a new mosque in Kokshetau and organising the 300th anniversary celebration of Khan Abylai. He has two sons and three grandchildren and this year celebrates 50 years of marriage with his wife Zarya Zha-nadilova.

Continued on Page B2

Golden Eagle Hatchlings Carry Hope for Eagle’s Population Growth By Manshuk Bekentayeva

The three chicks born on May 3, organisers hope, will mark the re-surgence of Kazakhstan’s golden eagles. The chicks are the first of eight that are planned to be hatched and set free as part of the Make Your Contribution: Save Nature project developed and implemented by the Institute of Zoology of Kazakhstan, the company Efes Kazakhstan and

the Sunkar nursery for birds of prey outside of Almaty.

The chicks have big, sharp beaks, black eyes and bodies covered with white fuzz that turns greyish on their backs. The weight of the larg-est was 100 grams. The chicks are all being observed by ornitholo-gists, who are generally pleased with their condition.

Continued on Page B6

By Galiya Nurzhan

ASTANA – On April 12, Astana joined the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) at the invita-tion of Beijing Mayor Wang Ans-hun.

The WTCF is one of the largest groups of its kind in the world. It comprises 56 major cities including Los Angeles, Rome, Berlin, Macau,

Beijing, London and Vienna. Astana is only the third city in the 12-nation Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to become a member, following Moscow and Minsk.

“I am pleased to offer your city to join the WTCF. I am convinced that by joining the Federation, your city will represent and share its success-ful experience in the development of tourism with other member-cities

of the organization,” Mayor Wang, the current WTCF Council Chair-man, said.

The WTCF also counts Amster-dam, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Dubai (UAE), Ottawa, Seoul, Sofia and Tel Aviv among its members.

International experts say Astana meets all the key requirements put forward by the World Tourism Cities Federation. The young capital of Ka-

zakhstan has an attractive tourist po-tential, good geographical location, developed infrastructure, unique architectural sites, an interesting his-tory and a high level of service.

Astana is gaining popularity among tourists from all over the world. Nearly 530,000 people visit-ed it in 2012, an increase of 43,900 compared to 2011.

Continued on Page B8

Astana Joins New World Tourism Cities Group

By Rinat Dussumov

ASTANA – Broadway is com-ing to Astana: the Attraction youth theatre is launching its productions of the musical “Mamma Mia!” and the romantic comedy “Sylvia.”

Attraction, based out of Gumi-lyov Eurasian National University (ENU), is in its fourth season. The student actors perform in the as-sembly hall of the ENU Faculty of Social Sciences (6 Janushkevich Street), and are eager to see new faces in the crowds. They say they appreciate every spectator and give every performance their all, no mat-ter the crowd.

The youth actors show this ap-preciation in remarks before every performance. It has become a tra-dition for the founder, then the di-rector, an actor, and until recently the artistic director - the soul of the theatre, Ilyas Danyarov to welcome guests.

Don’t expect high art and aca-demicism from Attraction. The local Melpomene is a girl with a sense of humour, loving a good time, far from the usual clichés and stereotypes. The popular quotation of theatre guru Konstantin Stan-islavsky, “Theatre begins with a hanger,” is expanded a bit here. The Attraction performers must be mas-ters of all trades. They sell tickets and promote themselves in social media, sew costumes and translate librettos from English into Russian,

as well as sing, dance and act. They act with enthusiasm, getting pleas-ure from what they do.

“It turned out that our theatre is operating only on the enthusiasm of actors,” Danyarov says. “The main sponsor of the Attraction performances is the viewer, as we spend all means realised from tick-et sales on costumes, decorations, posters.... Unfortunately, the ENU provides us only a hall. Of course, it is difficult to develop well with such a ‘budget.’ However, that does not stop us. In less than four seasons, we have managed to show more than 50 performances and over 100 people have taken the risk of showing their own creative tal-ent. The structure of our troupe is

pretty patchy: it includes students from different universities of the capital and working youth, eve-ryone without special education. We never thought about how we should be called – amateur actors or some other title. We are united by love of theatre, and that’s it!” Attraction’s repertoire includes well-known musicals “Mamma Mia,” “Chicago” and “The Produc-ers,” the comedy “Tom, Dick and Harry”, the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” and the New Year story “Come to Look at Me.”

On May 18-19, Attraction will present the romantic comedy “Syl-via,” by Broadway playwright Al-bert Gurney. The play takes place in New York, where a typical Ameri-

can couple, Greg and Kate, are part of a love triangle. The third one in this intricate relationship is... a dog named Sylvia. This is a play about freedom, love and relationships; the story of how it is sometimes difficult to find common language with loved ones, much more diffi-cult than with an ordinary dog that can make a person truly happy, the announcement on Attraction Thea-tre’s page on the social network VKontakte says.

The most high-profile representa-tion of the season will be the mu-sical “Mamma Mia!” which will be held on May 25-26 in the ENU hall.

Tickets are 1,000 tenge; student discounts are available.

Youth Theatre Showcases Broadway Hits

Cycling is becoming more attractive in Astana as both a pleasant pastime and means of transportation.

Amateurish yet lively acting has earned the three year old troupe of Attraction much love, especially from young viewers.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesB2

People

From Page B1

Kiikov was honoured for his achievements in the field of ag-riculture. In 2012, he was listed among “The Most Prominent Peo-ple of Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus” and in “Who’s Who” in Kazakhstan. His company is recognized as a pioneering exam-ple of successful modern farming techniques and it has pioneered satellite system for monitoring of crops in Kazakhstan.

Mironov has worked in the rail-way industry for almost 40 years. He is a regional deputy, a member of the ruling Nur Otan Party (NDP) and a member of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan (APK). He is also the president of the Akmola region’s Ice Hockey Fed-eration and president of the Arlan hockey club and has received letters of thanks from President Nursultan Nazarbayev and from the Supreme Mufti of Kazakhstan for his role in the construction of three mosques. His company has also sponsored orphanages in the Sandyktau and Stepnogorsk regions and restored Shokan Ualikhanov Square and monument in Kokshetau.

The youngest of the Khalyk

Kaharmany, or People’s Heroes, was 29-year-old Zhumadilov who rescued four people from a fire in Ushtobe, Almaty region in 2007. The young soldier saw the fire, broke down the gates, and pulled out two young boys, a girl student and their mother.

The honourees had a common message for the audience. “To achieve your goals, you need to live in peace and harmony,” they said.

“It is a great happiness for me to work for the benefit of future generations, to contribute to the development of the state, which is now doing everything in order to open up new opportunities that our parents could not even imagine,” Lukoshenko said. “My personal success is the success of my par-ents, relatives and friends, all of my countrymen, my country.”

“I am proud of my country, not only because we all live here in peace, but also because Kazakhstan is moving forward firmly, conquer-ing one peak after another,” Lu-koshenko said. In the 21 years of our independence, our country has become universally acknowledged and has taken a worthy place in the world community. Today it is one of the most democratic republics in

the Asian region. Our president is recognized as one of the best poli-ticians in the world. All this gives us confidence in the future. And I am convinced that the younger generation has a great future.”

Summarizing the results of the forum, Akmola Region Governor Kosman Aytmukhametov said, “We are proud that our land has raised such great people as Shokan Ualikhanov, Birzhan sal, Akan seri, Iman Zhusup Kutpanov, Malik Gabdullin and Erkin Auelbekov.

“In all the impressive achieve-ments of the Akmola region lies the great work of our fellow coun-trymen, for whom the destiny of the country is their destiny.”

Aytmukhametov noted that over the past decade, more than 500 Ak-mola regional residents had been recognised by Kurmet, Parasat, Barys and Otan orders as well as Yeren enbegі ushin and Shapagat medals.

“The stories of today’s heroes have become for all of us a worthy example of selfless service to our country. They once again prove to us that the strength of our country’s unity and competitiveness is built from human capital and health of the nation,” he said.

Kokshetau Residents Share Success Stories

Chief Rabbi Praises Freedom of Religion and Security in Kazakhstan

From Page A1

How would you describe the ef-forts by the government to deal with religions here?

There is an issue that touches every citizen in any state: That is the question of security. Nobody wants to walk on the street, or take their children to kindergarten or school or go to the mall, and hear that there have been some bomb explosions. These are dangerous things, so how do we avoid them? Many people are trying to take re-ligious passions, that thing which is most holy, most important, the thing that touches deep the soul of a person, faith and then they try to use it incorrectly.

Therefore the government faces However, there is another and

better way. It starts by asking the question, “We know that religion has certain qualities and also dan-gers, so what will we do? There may be dangers but we cannot for-bid anybody from believing, be-cause it won’t work anyway and

so let’s work together.” Here in Kazakhstan there is a good foun-dation for such thinking.

Imagine a bucket of honey, and around it there is a snake. Leaving the snake is dangerous. Breaking the bucket is a waste. So how do you keep the benefit and get rid of the danger? There were peo-ple who tried to break the bucket. For them, the honey is of no im-portance. They want to save their lives. But others say don’t do it, because we will lose so much. The best approach is to take away the danger and keep the bucket. We need the bucket.

That is what is happening in Ka-zakhstan. I think that any citizen of Kazakhstan can see the great respect that Kazakhstan gives to religion, starting from the average citizen all the way to the president who continuously upholds and strengthens the Kazakh traditions of solidarity, respect for others and respect for any person who is a believer. If anyone believes righteously in this country, then

there is full support for it. I can see that when a person believes in God, the people of Kazakhstan respect it. But, on the other hand let’s not make this a danger.

What is your overall view of relations between various ethnic groups and religions in Kaza-khstan?

An opportunity has been creat-ed in this country for all religious people to express themselves and they have all been given every op-portunity to practice their faiths. But this is on the condition that the practice of their faith forbids the use of any terror.

There are many conferences that are based on interfaith relations in this country but this subject has very deep issues. When creating something, we should not confuse people by saying there is a new religion that includes all religions. I cannot explain all of this in one interview but I am writing a book about how freedom of religion and the principles of mutual toleration are upheld in Kazakhstan. I think the experience of Kazakhstan will really be of benefit for the entire world.

How to keep the bucket and get rid of the snake: In practice this can all seen here. The people are edu-cated and raised in a manner that they respect each other. There are more than 100 nationalities here and everybody lives peacefully together. Firstly, this is thanks to the Kazakh people themselves, they were raised that way with their mother’s milk. However, of course, things could be different if this wasn’t the top priority on the agenda of the government and the president.

Everybody today has the possi-bility to be poisoned by bad influ-ences. Giving the people the abil-ity to use the honey but not letting the danger of the snake as well

remains a pressing issue for us all. For me, the continuing success of President Nazarbayev’s policies was confirmed by the speech he gave on April 24 at the Assem-bly of the People of Kazakhstan. I could see the same things that he talked about in 1994. There is a saying that politicians say one thing, do another and think some-thing else. But I see, as a person who has lived in Kazakhstan for many years, with my own eyes, that everything President Nazarbayev says he has done for so many years already. Moreo-ver, his commitment to upholding these good and wise policies is not becoming weaker, but getting stronger.

There is a risk that when you bring representatives of all reli-gions together you can get con-fused and think that it is one big house. One entrance will be called a synagogue, another will be called a mosque and a third will be called something else. No, let everybody pray the way they pray so that people do not become con-fused that they are caught up in something new. But everybody has to be transparent. If you are hon-est about your intentions we will respect you, if you hide something then it becomes scary. Therefore, this transparency is very useful.

Many people are surprised be-cause this is the only country where the government is directly involved in cross-religious dia-logue. I have been to many inter-faith conferences that are held by very serious organisations but the governments only support these activities and are not directly in-volved.

When people ask what the most important thing is, I say it is secu-rity. If there is no security, who can give the microphone to religious leaders who will be transparent and say they are against any sort

of terrorism? Calling on every-body to peace and understanding, why not? So on the one hand, you have the government dealing with religion but it is still being kept separate. This is right: You have to respect religions but you also have to be careful that there isn’t some sort of snake trying to hide in them. It is something to won-der, something to see, and because I see it myself, I have started to write my book.

In 2001, you testified at a US Congress hearing about the need to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment regarding Kaza-khstan? Twelve years on and 22 years after the Soviet Union col-lapsed it is still there. What do you think about it today?

For a person who lives here in Kazakhstan, I see firsthand the hundreds of thousands whose lives were saved during World War II. Not only from the Soviet Union, but also from Poland and other countries across Europe, hundreds of thousands of people survived here. There was a time when all these people came here during and after the war and the Kazakh people shared their bread and support so that for God’s sake

they did not die. And this was not only then, it is in the Kazakh peo-ple themselves, they are raised in such a way.

I think anybody who comes to Kazakhstan can notice it. Here in Kazakhstan there is an oppor-tunity for anybody who is trans-parent and honest to practice their religion. For me it is really disappointing and a great shame that for this Kazakhstan in which I live, the Jackson-Vanik Amend-ment has not been repealed. And I don’t understand why not.

When I meet people, everybody agrees that it should be gone. The issue has been postponed but I am confident that it must be resolved. Today, Kazakhstan does not even need the law to be repealed be-cause there are many ways around it, nothing stays the same. Thank God, Kazakhstan will continue to develop with or without the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. But I think the wonderful people of this country deserve its repeal, and President Nazarbayev deserves its repeal. So I will use any opportu-nity to ask the people who can re-ally repeal the law in the United States Congress to do so, once and for all.

Do you have any other message for our readers?

I wish your readers well. When a person picks up a newspaper, he unconsciously finds things that are sad, not very nice things that hap-pen. And I wish that there comes a time when your readers can read, or hear about things that are posi-tive, specifically from your paper. Because then when people look for good news, there will not be any bad news to fill up the space for the good news. And I hope your readers soon read about the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik from the Astana Times as well.

A new national forum has uncovered hundreds of life stories of hard won success.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The Astana TimesB3

Culture

By Yuri lee

KYZYLORDA – The Aral Sea region has begun preparing to hold the Korkyt and Melodies of the Great Steppe international folk music festival for the third time.

The festival was held for the first time in 2006 as part of the celebra-tions of the 15th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence and had tremendous success. Theatri-cal performances accompanied by the music of Kazakh dombra and kobyz, Tatar kurai and dumbyra, Uzbek dutar, Tuvan doshas-pulara and shaman drums took place during four days of celebrations that included ancient melodies of Turkic peoples, the sounds of the Azerbaijani five-string saz and per-formances by Altai kaichi, masters of throat singing.

The open-air gala concert was organised in the middle of the steppe at the Korkyt-ata memorial complex in Karmakshy district, on the former bank of the river Syr Darya, where the great philosopher and founder of Turkish traditional music lived.

Scientists and musicologists from Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbai-jan, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Turkey and other countries who arrived in the region to take part in the scientific and practical con-ference shared their vision of the present and the future of the tradi-

tional music of Turkic peoples, rec-ognising its unique place in world culture. Guests were invited to take a tour that showed the rich past of the Aral Sea region: an abundance of ancient settlements and capitals of once-mighty empires.

The second Korkyt and Melodies of the Great Steppe Festival was also held in the region and attended by over 130 participants from the CIS and other countries. Now, at the request of citizens, regional ex-ecutive authorities have decided to host it again in 2014.

“Preparatory work is already under way,” Deputy Head of the Department of Culture Zhanat Kuramysova said. “The interna-tional organisation TURKSOI ex-pressed willingness to help us with the organisation of the festival, which, by the way, has substan-tially expanded the geography of presentations and performances of our creative teams. This year alone, they have travelled to Turkey twice and visited many other countries that demonstrate high interest in Kazakh traditional musical art.”

According to Kuramysova, the festival will help address another major problem: the reconstruc-tion of the memorial complex of Korkyt-ata in Karmakshy district. Anyone wishing to share his or her vision of what the complex’s new image might be is invited to submit a sketch to the recently announced contest.

By Anel Adilbayeva

ASTANA – “Harmony Les-sons” continues its triumphal tour around the globe, winning the Spe-cial Jury Diploma for best directo-rial debut at the Tribeca Film Fes-tival, which was held from April 17-29 in New York City.

Before the opening of the festival, The Village Voice included the film in its list of the ten festival must-sees. In total, 89 films were shown during the Tribeca Festival this year. A review on the American website Twitch calls “Harmony Lessons” “deceptively humorous,” comments on the direc-tor’s ability to get remarkable per-formances from his nonprofessional actors, and declares the director, Emir Baygazin, one to watch.

“We are very pleased that the American premiere will take place at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, which is by far the most pres-tigious in America. In this year’s jury are such well-known filmmak-ers as Whoopi Goldberg and Paul Haggis,” the film’s producer, Anna Kachko, told reporters ahead of the event.

She noted that the successful performance of the movie in the main competition of the Berlinale Festival, where it got Silver Bear for camera work, garnered it more than 40 invitations to international festivals.

“A special screening was or-ganised on the eve of the premiere for U.S. and international media who praised the great picture and

the director. New York Magazine published a short list of must-see movies at the festival and included ‘Harmony Lessons’,” she stated.

The film depicts a Kazakh province where the protagonist, Aslan, lives and struggles unsuc-cessfully for contact with his peers.

Timur Aidarbekov, a student at an orphanage, plays Aslan.

The story is a dark one of isola-tion and murder.

“For me it was important to build the drama in a way that didn’t draw attention to the murders com-mitted by the protagonist. The pic-ture says more about how the idea is born to get rid of another person. As in the first murder, my protag-onist tries to survive. We need to understand that we live in such a world, and in such conditions, and we are forced to survive,” says the film’s director.

“Harmony Lessons” also de-picts prison abuses; however, at a press conference Baygazin stressed that those scenes were not made in order to condemn violence in pris-ons, but rather the opposite.

“I shot this movie in a difficult time for myself... It was so impor-tant for me to be spiritual, to ex-press their thoughts, so I did not show the murder of a person, but rather demonstrated realistically the murder of a sheep. But that’s why people always talk about the murdered ram, and do not remem-ber, for example, the cockroaches, which were also killed—we are all killers,” the director said.

In an interview, cinematogra-pher Aziz Zhambakiyev said that he had a good rapport with Bayg-azin. Zhambakiev was awarded

the Silver Bear for an outstanding achievement in cinematography.

“Emir clearly explains what he wants to see. If not for the taste and sense of harmony of Emir, the movie would not be the way it is now,” Zhambakiev said.

“Harmony Lessons” is the first film from Kazakhstan to have been accepted into the Berlinale Festival and is considered a great achieve-ment for the nation’s young film industry. Few people expected that the jury, headed by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai, would award a prize to a beginner. When the name of the Kazakh cinematog-rapher was announced on the stage of the Palace of Festivals, the hall with 1,600 guests exploded with shouts of delight and applause.

Emir Baygazin is Kazakh actor and film director. He was born in Alga, Aktobe region. From 2002 to 2004 he studied at the acting school at the Akhtanov Aktobe Drama Theatre.

In 2004, he entered the Zhurg-enov Kazakh National Academy of Arts and specialised in Direction and Cinema. In September 2007, Baygazin participated in the Busan International Film Festival of the Asian Film Academy (AFA). In February 2008, he was a member of the Berlin camp of young tal-ent at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, Germany.

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

The Fifth Charitable Ball, one of the brightest events in the coun-try’s social calendar, was held in Almaty on May 4.

This year’s ball was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Royal Tulip Hotel.

Gediminas Taranda, the artis-tic director of the Imperial Rus-sian Ballet co-hosted the ball with Kazakh actress Karlygash Mukhamedzhanova.

Russian opera star Dmitry Kh-vorostovsky performed his world famous hits at the Ball. The famous Russian baritone also performed a number of patriotic songs includ-

ing “Dark Night” and “Katyusha.”Violinist Marat Bissengaliyev

played Salut d’Amour composition with an orchestra conducted by Vag Papyan. The British Touch and Go rock groups also performed.

This year’s star debutants were actress Aliya Telebarisovoya from the historical film epic “Zhauzhu-rek Myn Bala” (“A Thousand Brave Warriors”), Ukrainian singer Christina Mezhinskaya and beauty queen Zhazira Nurimbetova who was “Miss Kazakhstan 2012.”

Some 3,400 young people ap-plied to participate in this year’s ball. Sixty couples from age 18 to 23 were selected to take part.

All the funds raised at the event were donated to the Friend cam-

paign against adolescent suicide. The charity will be opening an on-line support centre in Septem-ber. Kazakhstan ranks third in the world in its per capita number of teenage suicides. The aim of the project is to reduce this figure and provide counselling services and support for depressed teenagers.

Twelve psychologists specialis-ing in adolescent suicide will man the centre round the clock 24/7. They will be available via phone or Skype. The centre will also be open to calls for help and advice from parents.

All the funds raised at last year’s Fourth Almaty Charitable Ball were donated to in vitro fer-tilization (IVF) programmes to

help childless families to have children. Six families received cer-tificates for in vitro fertilization in April 2012 from the proceeds of last year’s ball and three of those mothers have already given birth to children.

The Charity Ball annually brings together more than 1,000 guests from the country’s business, scientific and cultural elites. It is held in accordance with the clas-sical canons of the Vienna Opera Ball, and annually attracts inter-national celebrities. In different years, Almaty was visited Alessan-dro Safina, Lara Fabian, Sir Roger George Moore, Neil Shikoff and others.

Folk Music Festival to Be Held in Kyzylorda in 2014

Charity Ball to End Teen Suicide Held in Almaty

“Harmony lessons” Honoured at Tribeca Film Festival

By Natalia Kurpyakova

ASTANA – A new exhibition of contemporary Israeli art, Honey and Pomegranate, dedicated to Israel’s 65th anniversary as an in-dependent country began showing May 3 at the Kulanshi Art Center.

The exhibition includes dozens of works that appear as if they descended from the Renaissance and were created by husband-and-wife artists Olga Oreshnikova and Hanan Milner.

Oreshnikova is a third-genera-tion artist and graduate of the St. Petersburg Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architec-ture. Oreshnikova’s grandfather, Viktor Oreshnikov, was once the rector of the institute and was a People’s Artist of the USSR. Her husband, Hanan Milner, who was born in Lithuania, studied art in Israel and participated in the work-shops of the famous artist Ernst Fuchs.

The two artists share a com-mand of technique, an eye for composition and a rich palette. They also often choose similar themes and present them in a little similar style. The two artists dif-fer, however, in their depictions of women, notes the head of the Ku-lanshi Art Center, Leyla Mahat. Milner’s females are the objects of admiration while Oreshnikova depicts her women in motion with an emphasis on their relationships and feelings.

Oreshnikova recreates a distant, seemingly forgotten world, hidden somewhere in the subconscious. The artist’s task, says Oreshniko-va, is to “pull out” from that for-gotten world vivid images and to play with those images to simulate reality.

Milner’s works depicting females are more intimate, featuring grace-ful barefooted models with flowing shawls and trains. Such images can be seen in his works “Back in a Pistachio Dress,” “Sleeping Beau-

ty in Red” and others. His works also depict luxurious, impeccably composed still-life paintings with expensive carpets, thoughtful dra-peries and gorgeous lace, the per-fect beauty of which is offset by a piece of newspaper or casually placed pencil.

Oreshnikova’s and Milner’s

works are exhibited in Israel, Rus-sia, Europe and the United States, but this exhibition has provided their first opportunity to visit Ka-zakhstan.

“Astana is amazing. The city has vibrant landmarks and it is inter-esting to wander around it,” Oresh-nikova said.

The name of the exhibition is the title of one of Oreshnikova’s paintings. The painting reflects the essence of the exhibition, which demonstrates the variety of styles of the East and sometimes conceals – as under the skin of a pomegran-ate - the commonness of traditions and cultural memory.

Israeli Artists Showcase Works in Astana Exhibition

Emir Baygazin (l) was warmly welcomed at the Tribeca festival by viewers and movie celebrities including Robert De Niro.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesB4

Country

Young astronomers are quite hopeful their skills and inventions will be in demand in the future.

A new museum in Kostanay will preserve the glorious past for current and future generations.

By Valery Vedenko KOSTANAY – An open-air mu-

seum of military history is sched-uled to open in Kostanay on May 7, the Day of the Defender.

The museum, which is unique in Kazakhstan, will exhibit samples of the most famous Soviet military equipment, including tanks of sev-eral modifications, armoured fight-

ing vehicles and pieces of artillery on low pedestals, with sidewalks of paving stones designed not to obstruct visibility running between them.

Kostanay Victory Park will celebrate its 45th anniversary this year. The park features me-morial plates and busts of sol-diers killed in the Civil War and participants of the Great Patriot-

ic War. Among the residents are dozens of heroes of the Soviet Union and full members of the Order of Glory. A memorial in the form of a large-scale sculp-ture of a victorious soldier, an eternal flame and a vast marble panel inscribed with names are dedicated to all those who died in the wars, protecting the moth-erland.

The project has been imple-mented as part of preparations for Victory Day and the Day of the Defender celebrations held by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of De-fence in cooperation with the re-gional Department of Defence, regional administration, business structures and non-governmental organisations.

By Natalia Valuiskaya

ALMATY – On April 20, 130 of the country’s best secondary school students gathered at the Bobek Na-tional Scientific and Practical Edu-cational and Health Centre for a na-tional forum of young astronomers and astronauts. Amid them were winners of competitions and con-ferences on astronomy and space, members of national astronomi-cal workshops and talented young people involved in astronomic and space scientific groups.

“Astronomical space education is a priority not only in Kazakhstan, but also in world education,” Bobek CEO Professor Korlan Zhampeiso-va said. “The fact that our children are actively involved in various national and international competi-tions and win prizes is a convinc-ing example of it.”

The head of the centre added that today much attention is given to astronomy due to its importance in many aspects of life, includ-ing economics, agriculture and meteorology. Space education in Kazakhstan includes a system of additional training after children make an initial choice about their future profession in the seventh and eighth grade.

Among Kazakhstan’s stars in international competition at the gathering are students of the ‘Self-Cognition’ Gymnasium Nikolay Egovtsev and Artem Kozulin, Dau-let Kurmantayev from school-lyc-eum No. 165 and Azamat Kaliyev from Bobek Observatory Centre.

President of Kazakhstan’s Na-tional Academy of Sciences Murat Zhurinov congratulated the par-ticipants on behalf of the scientific community.

“The desire to discover the world has always existed in mankind,” he said. “Today, nanotechnologies help us. You are walking a true and important path, and I wish you to always remain such purposeful and

inquisitive persons.” The head of the scientific department expressed hope that many participants will choose the challenging path of re-searcher and make a real contribu-tion to science.

The participants took part in an academic competition, met with interesting people and visited the Astrophysical Institute and the Tien Shan Mountain Observatory.

The team from secondary school No. 31 from Taraz included five young people. Together they were involved in the development of projects and helped each other conduct research and construct models with their supervisor, An-drey Sohn.

“My project is a model of an electromagnetic accelerator cre-ated to replace flying satellites launched from the earth,” said Konstantin Scherbakov, one of the five students in the group. “And my colleagues developed projects like transmitting information on a laser beam, space rovers and a rocket engine based on the Biefeld-Brown effect. We hope to win a prize.”

“I have been actively engaged in natural-scientific subjects since seventh grade, because I like to discover nature and the world around us,” ninth grade student at specialised lyceum No. 165 Daulet Kurmantaev said. “I am interested in physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology. I am lucky to take part in such events, because astronomy in Kazakhstan is a developing sci-ence.”

The jury included Kazakh cos-monaut Aydin Aimbetov, scientists, astronomers and physicists from the Umirzak Sultangazin Institute for Space Studies, the Vasiliy Fes-enkov Astrophysical Institute, the Abu-Nasr Al-Farabi Kazakh Na-tional University, the Abay Kunan-bayev Kazakh National University and colleagues from Kyrgyzstan.

Open-Air Military History Museum launches in Kostanay

Nation’s Budding Young Astronomers Present Projects

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – The first Tamgaly Tas International Tourist Festival was held from April 26 to April 28 in a mountain area near the Ili River in the Almaty region.

The main aim of the festival was to promote the national identity of the Turkic peoples and preserve their cultural heritage while pro-moting sports, the protection of nature and the development of do-mestic tourism.

The festival’s motto was: “The road to knowledge of antiquity and health begins with us: Come to Ka-zakhstan to Tamgaly Tas.”

The festival was organised by the Tabigat Ecological Coalition and the Almaty regional govern-ment with the support of Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MINT).

The Tamgaly Tas Festival com-bined sports, entertainment and ethnic culture. Sports contests were held in kokpar or buzkashi (a Central Asian version of polo played on horseback), volleyball, rock climbing, paintball and endur-ance races. A boating regatta was held on the Ili River.

A steppe shashlik (barbecue)

and pilaf festival was held be-tween different teams using se-cret recipes. Children from the Ushtobe orphanage participated in rafting, rock climbing and hik-ing. A boat race on the river was held in the regatta. It was won by a crew from Talgar.

Teams from the Almaty region, in cooperation with Zhurgenov Kaza-kh National Academy of Arts built a traditional yurt village, which recre-ated the ancient nomadic lives and arts of the Turkic peoples. Elegant jewellery was on display.

The venue of the festival spread over several square kilometres. A music concert and a traditional Atash fire festival were also part of the festivities.

The festival also included con-tests and exercises to teach ecolog-ical awareness and responsibility. A “Clean Up Your Stuff” campaign was held and participants were given bags for garbage collection Even the ancient art of painting petroglyphs was encouraged: visi-tors were distributed with special stones to create a Mound of Good Wishes on which they could paint and leave messages and signs.

Tamgaly Tas Festival Held by Ili River

From Page A1

It was earlier noted that the cur-rent rates of commission fees, charged by private pension funds, reduce the volume of citizens’ sav-ings by 26 percent. “According to experts’ calculations, the current rates of commission remunerations reduce the volume of savings, i.e. the funds reserve a quarter of sav-ings, neglecting their growth,” the head of the Kazakhstan govern-ment stated.

He noted that nowadays 10 ac-cumulating pension funds operate in Kazakhstan, totally managing more than 3.2 trillion tenge ($21.2 billion) of pension savings of the population of Kazakhstan. Accord-ing to legislation, these companies regulate pension accounts them-selves and independently decide on investing their pension savings.

“Such a control scheme has gen-erated a number of serious system-ic problems... It became obvious that private pension funds were not able to provide full coverage of the employed population of the funded pension system,” the prime minis-ter said.

According to the prime minister, only 5.6 million out of 8.4 mil-lion of the employed population are participants of the system, and the contributions of less than four million people are regularly trans-ferred, which is less than a half of the total employed population.

“Unfortunately, the funds were trying to expand the number of the depositors on account of people not covered by the pension system, but they were drawing over the existing investors. This, of course, is beneficial for the funds, but not for citizens of Kazakhstan and the state as a whole,” Akhmetov said.

He believes that the funds have not been able to “effectively use the re-tirement savings, which have led to low returns.”

“In these circumstances, the es-tablishment of the Single Pension Fund was a logical response from the government,” Akhmetov said in the television interview.

Adoption of a law that unifies the retirement age for the women of Kazakhstan may be delayed though.

The controversial draft law has also been discussed by members of the upper chamber of the Par-liament. Senators have criticized some provisions and offered to postpone the adoption of the law for about three years and cover the “gaps” of the budget by higher ex-port oil duties.

As was earlier reported, on April 24, the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan in a second reading

approved the draft law “On Pen-sion Provisions in the Republic of Kazakhstan,” and a package of re-lated amendments.

The document provides for the unification of the retirement age for women. It also provides for the establishment of the Single Ac-cumulative Pension Fund (SAPF) based on the state accumulative pension fund called GNPF.

As is known, Halyk’s pension fund accounted for 33.3 percent of all pension fund assets in Ka-zakhstan, officially estimated at almost 3 trillion tenge ($19.9 bil-lion) as of Jan. 1, 2013. BTA’s Ular-Umit fund held 12.6 percent of all Kazakh pension fund as-sets, and Grantum 9.6 percent. The state-owned GNPF pension fund had 19.6 percent. So, creation of a single pension would mean higher returns.

Government Seeks Additional Pension Fund Reform

A festival by the Ili river has brought together many fans of history, archeology and outdoor fun.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The Astana TimesB5

society

By Marina Parkhomenko

ASTANA – “The new generation of computer games are not only un-safe for children’s health, but also for their souls,” Raisa Sher, head of the Committee for Children’s Rights under the Education and Science Ministry, told The Astana Times.

A three-year-old child with an iPad in her hands instead of a toy is no longer a surprising sight, and persuading a kid to watch a chil-dren’s film instead of spending hours in the virtual maze seems a hopeless effort. Naturally, in the age of IT, life is unthinkable with-out computers, iPhones, iPads and other modern digital gadgetry, but something can and must be done to stop the children from falling into complete dependence on technol-ogy and their losing their sense of reality.

“Good computer games,” Sher says, “help users learn foreign lan-guages, carry out research projects and develop logical thinking. But let’s imagine a different scenario: a darkened room, featureless walls, children with their eyes glued to a

monitor with flickering pictures for hours on end.”

According to research, 80 per-cent of 12- and 13-year-olds are computer addicts, sitting at their monitors for days without food or rest. The situation seems alarming.

What is the harm to health of “shooters” in role-playing games?

Gaming addiction is already recognised by the World Health Organisation, on par with drug addiction and alcoholism. And it is hard to treat this dependency. Children sitting up too late at night at the computer don’t get enough sleep, fresh air; their biorhythms are disturbed. And role-playing computer games contribute to an aggressive form of dependency, alienation from public life and de-pression.

According to the National Re-search Centre for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, children with be-havioural disorders due to compu-ter addiction often skip school and run away from home to play in the clubs at night. Approximately six percent of them have psycho-logical deviations, impaired con-

sciousness, loss of orientation, hallucinations spawned by gaming addiction. Here is an example: a 13-year-old boy spent three days in one of the computer clubs of Almaty. When his parents finally found him, he had no idea where he was. It took a few days to get him out of that state, out of the world in which he was a hero of games, fighting an enemy visible only to him. Other health impair-ments found in the research are headaches found at 20 percent of the quizzed children, 33 percent complained of eye fatigue and five percent of bad sleep.

But that’s not all. Almost all the clubs are short of proper catering facilities, selling only soda, ton-ics, chips, crackers, chocolates... especially dangerous to children’s health.

Children who prefer violent games are more aggressive, ex-tremely rude, irritable, insensitive to loved ones; their world shrinks to the size of the monitor screen and they are more prone to sui-cide. In 2012, 205 cases of suicide among minors were recorded.

What has to be done to combat it?

First, we need to start the practice of licensing computer clubs and do this work within the relevant regu-lations. And computer clubs ought to be monitored by the public and nongovernmental organisations, too. We need a scaled awareness campaign in the media.

International experience in the area would be useful. In Germany, a special organisation helps people get rid of addictions to computer games. Furthermore, Internet sites breeding violence, cruelty and oth-er anti-social phenomena and host-ing pornography must be closed to children.

We have repeatedly brought up in the government the need to regulate by law the information safety of minors and establish an office to run this. And it is very good that the bill “On the protec-tion of children against informa-tion harmful to their health and development” is already in Par-liament.

Computer Game Addiction New Youth Health Threat

Kids in Kazakhstan, like hundreds of millions around the world, have taken to playing computer games with gusto. Alas, with all the negative consequences this brings.

By Manshuk Bekentayeva

ASTANA – As part of the State Programme of Accelerated Indus-trial and Innovative Development of Kazakhstan for 2010-2014, JSC “National Agency for Technologi-cal Development” (NATD) has been working in partnership with Columbia University since 2011 to identify new promising areas of technological and innovation development and the formation of recommendations based on best in-ternational practices.

For three years now, NATD has invited teams of graduate students from Columbia’s School of Inter-national and Public Affairs (SIPA) to Kazakhstan for cooperation fa-vourable to both parties: students write theses on specific problems in Kazakhstan in the sphere of in-novations.

In 2011, the subject of the project was to analyse the innova-tive development of Kazakhstan. In 2012, the report highlighted the development and gave further recommendations to strengthen-ing the venture capital financing of innovative projects. This year, the project focuses on energy ef-ficiency of industrial enterprises in Kazakhstan.

The Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, JSC “KazahEnergo Examination,” JSC “Kazakhstan Institute of Devel-opment of Industry,” and others found the idea of the project very interesting. The project also fits perfectly the theme of the upcom-ing EXPO 2017 which is to focus on alternative sources of energy.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in a recent speech about the coun-try’s transition to a “green” econ-omy, has focused on the devel-opment of recommendations in “green energy” and the effective support of small and medium en-

terprises, using environmentally friendly technologies. This makes the joint research project in this area very important.

The Kazakhstan government has expressed its desire to initi-ate appropriate measures to avoid the “oil curse” and its concomitant negative pressure on the non-ener-gy sectors of the national economy, especially on manufacturing and small and medium-sized enterpris-es (SMEs).

Thus, the government has intro-duced several important steps to-wards the sustainable management of energy revenues. These steps in-cluded the introduction of the State Programme of Accelerated Indus-trial and Innovative Development (PAIID) and the Green Bridge Strategy in 2011. The purpose of establishing these national strate-gies is to stimulate the non-oil sec-tors of the economy, especially the “green economy” sector, to pro-mote the competitiveness of the na-tional economy in the international market, and to identify and support SMEs to work on the introduction of innovative new technologies in-cluding “green technologies”.

This year’s team will continue the assessment of the measures undertaken by the Kazakhstan government in improving the na-tional and legal environment un-der the PAIID and Green Bridge Strategy. The students focus on evaluating what options exist for existing entrepreneurs in the cur-rent SME space, and how these can be expanded; what green economy policies are being implemented by the government and how these can be integrated in the SME sector; what other comparable countries’ policies exist in the SME-green economy interface, and whether comparable strategies can be ap-plied to Kazakhstan.

As part of the research, students review government and other rel-

evant sources and other specialized literature, interview international experts, including consultants and trade experts in the USA with rele-vant country and sector knowledge. They also conduct interviews with relevant experts in Kazakhstan including programme managers, policymakers, representatives of international organizations such as the World Bank, and private sector actors, especially small and me-dium-sized enterprises, to gather comparative information.

“We greatly enjoyed working with NATD. The objective of the project was to prepare a set of rec-ommendations to promote energy efficiency in Kazakhstan’s industri-al sector. We were interested in this project because energy efficiency and, as a whole, green economy, is a national priority for Kazakhstan to ensure competitiveness and sustain high levels of economic growth going forward. Through a combination of international case study analysis, interviews with experts and field study, we were able to develop policy recommen-dations to improve institutional, technical and financial capacity for energy efficiency in the industrial sector,” Marina Leytes, representa-tive of the American students team, said.

“In particular, our recommenda-tions included legislative aspects, such as amendments to the cur-rent law on energy efficiency, to facilitate its implementation and increase its likelihood of success, as well as financial incentives to support investments in energy ef-ficiency. We expect our work to contribute to the dialogue on en-ergy efficiency in the industrial sector of Kazakhstan, and we hope that some of the recommendations will be implemented in the short to medium term, subject to specific constraints faced by the policy makers,” she continued.

“As part of the project, the team had an opportunity to visit Astana and Almaty. We conducted a se-ries of interviews with government agencies, international organiza-tions as well as financial sector players in order to understand the current situation. We are grateful to NATD and other stakeholders with whom we have met for their support of the project,” Leytes explained.

“We have also been humbled by the hospitality and warmth of the people of Kazakhstan, which made our trip enjoyable and memorable despite the cold weather! We have heard about Kazakhstan before as the largest economy in Central Asia and one of fastest growing economies in the world. As we

study economic development is-sues, Kazakhstan presented an in-teresting case for us as its economic growth is largely natural resource driven and, therefore, is vulnerable to commodity price fluctuations. Therefore, we felt that the project on energy efficiency was of real importance, which encouraged us in our work,” she continued.

Recently, the group presented its findings to some of the stakehold-ers via a teleconference organized by the NATD.

“We have received many com-ments and questions, which showed great interest in the topic and our work,” Leytes said. “We hope our recommendations will be helpful and that NATD will contin-

ue its cooperation with Columbia University in the future.”

NATD continues to see its role in giving full support to the work of group of students in Kazakhstan. The students arrive in Kazakhstan and for 14-15 days are meeting with potential beneficiaries and other organizations, which are in-terested in the results of the project, doing interviews and sharing infor-mation.

“As we are working with Colum-bia University for the third year in a row, we decided to strengthen our relationship by signing a memo-randum this year,” Aiman Kyr-bassova, expert of NATD’s Centre of Analytical and Methodological Support, said.

NATD, Columbia University Seek New Areas for Technological and Innovative Development

Students from Columbia University believe their research projects in Kazakhstan are mutually beneficial.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesB6

Tourism

From Page B1

The health of newborn chicks is generally determined by their eat-ing and digesting processes.

The golden eagle eggs were hatched in an incubator to ensure optimal conditions for their de-velopment. With precise tempera-tures, humidity and air circulation and regular turning of the eggs, incubators increase the chances of hatching a healthy chick up to 95 percent. Golden eagles, unlike other birds of prey, are very sensi-tive to human presence during their nesting period.

Eight birds are planned to be set free within the framework of the Make Your Contribution project. Scientists and employees of the nursery will feed the birds and help them develop under natural condi-tions. This means supplying food without bringing the birds into contact with humans and taking other precautions to ensure that the birds are ready for life on their own when they are released.

Kazakhstan’s population of golden eagles has decreased lately because of insufficient food sup-plies, fires, high-voltage power lines and human activities like building resorts, particularly in the highlands. The mere presence of humans can cause the birds anxi-ety and disrupt their breeding. The project to study the birds from birth started in July 2012 with the selection of four pairs for breed-ing the chicks. They were placed in a separate aviary and recorded constantly for three months. Fol-lowing the results of ornithologi-cal research conducted in the sum-mer of 2012 in the south, southeast and east of Kazakhstan, about 650 golden eagle couples critical for the preservation of the population were discovered.

Sunkar nursery is a unique facil-ity, having focused over its 23-year history on Kazakhstan’s disappear-ing wild birds. So far, Sunkar’s experts have raised more than 700 wild birds. A total of 500 falcons raised there have been released

into the wild. The nursery is espe-cially interested in the endangered golden eagles. By resettling young golden eagles in habitats they had abandoned, the project hopes to re-store their numbers.

“Now we have 435 wild birds in our nursery, including golden eagles, saker falcons, hawks and vultures. Each year, we set free 30 percent of the chicks that we are breeding. Sunkar is the largest exporter of hand-reared wild birds in Kazakhstan. The nursery is reg-istered in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and according to the conclusion of its experts, is recognised as one of the best nurseries of the world,” said Sunkar Director Ashot Anzo-rov.

In addition to birds, Sunkar breeds Tazy (Kazakh hounds) hunting dogs and horses. The nurs-ery became a popular place for ex-cursions, where visitors can watch falcons and golden eagles are be-ing trained.

By Galiya Nurzhan

ALMATY – Kazakhstan’s 13th International Tourism Fair (KITF) was held from April 24 to April 26 at the Atakent International Exhibi-tion Centre in Almaty.

The KITF is a major annual event in the national tourism industry. It showcases new developments and allows participants to share informa-tion and attract foreign companies to Almaty, which is the financial and commercial centre of Kazakhstan.Experts believe it has great potential for eco and sports tourism, and the Almaty region, through the develop-ment of skiing tourism, is well posi-tioned to become a global brand.

“Tourism is a key sector of the national economy. President Nur-sultan Nazarbayev has identified this sector as a priority programme for development,” Asset Issekeshev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and New Technologies (MINT), told the ceremony.

“Tourism plays an important role in the resolution of social and eco-nomic problems in the regions,” Issekeshev said. “It creates tens of thousands of new jobs and develops the local infrastructure. Systematic plans for tourism development of the country, Almaty resorts and for the Akmola, Mangistau and East Ka-zakhstan regions have been worked out already in the industrialisation programme. Based on them, a draft of the long-term national tourism de-velopment plan has been drafted.”

“KITF provides an excellent op-portunity for discussions with the world leading tourism industry ex-perts to share experiences, discuss current issues, present new trends and identify effective ways to de-velop the sector,” he said.

Zoltan Somogyi, executive direc-tor of the World Tourism Organisa-tion (UNWTO), told the conference that tourism had become “one of the priorities of the global economy and it requires a complicated, high-yield inter-industry complex. It helps to provide high employment and social welfare. It improves the quality of life, sustainable develop-ment, economic unity and cultural diversity of states.”

“The impressive economic growth of Kazakhstan and the de-velopment of its national capacity over the past 20 years give us confi-dence that tourism too will develop for the benefit of the people of this country,” Somogyi said. “Kaza-khstan is steadily moving towards the transformation of its unique nat-ural and human resource capacity and improving its quality of service and international reputation.”

“The KITF has become a tradition-al and integral part of national tour-ism,” the UNWTO chief said.“Such exhibitions are attractive because of their special atmosphere of open-ness and free communication. This allows participants to demonstrate their achievements and offer prod-ucts and to strengthen their mutually beneficial partnerships. Fruitful con-tacts within the framework of this important event make it possible to relate national priorities of tourism development to international trends and provide an opportunity to com-municate with a mainstream audi-ence, representing various sectors of the tourism industry and related economic sectors.”

Alexander Yakovlev, Russia’s

trade representative in Kazakhstan, told the conference that it had be-come “the largest Kazakh exhibi-tion in the field of international pleasure travel. Each year, the event is becoming more and more popu-lar and important one for tourism professionals from Kazakhstan and foreign countries. This provides an excellent opportunity to offer the people in Kazakhstan in a profes-sional manner all the latest achieve-ments in the travel industry, new ed-ucational and recreational areas and routes all over the world, including Russia.”

“Such exhibitions help acquire new knowledge, learning and the adoption of best practices for sus-tainable tourism development. They also contribute to broadening coop-eration and international contacts,” Yakovlev added.

The event was organized by the Committee of Tourism Industry of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MINT), the ITE Group Plc. from Britain and Iteca from Kazakhstan. The ITE Group is the leading organiser of exhibitions in the Russian market and has 30 of-fices worldwide. It holds 250 events

per year in 15 countries. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the city government of Almaty supported the event.

The KITF has become the most important annual tourism event in Central Asia. This year, it welcomed more than 7,000 visitors. Trade pro-fessionals from around the world showcased the latest travel products and services, top resorts, hotels, flight options and exclusive travel offers.

More than 550 companies from 43 countries took part, a record number. Kazakhstan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, China and Malaysia provided the largest number of par-ticipating companies.

The KITF combined B2B (Busi-ness-to-Business), B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2G (Business-to-Government) formats. It offered its participants the opportunity to expand business links, attract cus-tomers, make direct sales and book-ings, acquire first-hand information and gain new clients. Prize draw promotions were held on the second day of the event.

Cuban companies participated in the fair for the first time this year.

The number of tourists from Ka-zakhstan to that Caribbean nation is projected to grow by 17 percent from 2011 to 2016.

Independent tour operators, ho-tels, and service providers turned out in larger numbers this year, and leading tour operators Natalie Tours and Pelagos Tours and Travel par-ticipated for the first time presenting seminars on challenges facing the industry.

Medical and health tourism was well represented. Germany and South Korea promoted their clin-ics and hospitals Clinics, hospitals, recreational centres, resorts and hotels from Kazakhstan, Turkey, the Czech Republic and Thailand also participated. The Metropolitan Hospital, Rejwan Travel Service, Tairiku Travel, Tourasia, Tropical Collection, Your Travel London, Look Asia Holidays, Renti Tours and Reollo took part in the fair for the first time.

The show welcomed back previ-ous exhibitors, including tourism boards from Dubai, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Morocco, India, Hungary, Catalonia (Spain), Geor-gia and the Dominican Republic.

The exhibition was held in pa-vilions 10 and 11 of the Atakent Exhibition Centre. Pavilion 10 was dedicated to national groups, min-istries of tourism and tourist oppor-tunities in Kazakhstan. Pavilion 11 included private companies: travel agencies, hotels and resorts from international countries and regions, and the medical and health tourism sector.

Destinations showcased included Dubai, South Korea, China, Ma-laysia, Morocco, India, Hungary, Georgia, the Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Britain, Russia, Maldives, Brazil, Slovenia, Japan, Italy, Seychelles, Greece, France, Mauritius, the United States and Catalonia (Spain).

A diverse business programme provided travel professionals with the latest information about industry developments.

The first two days of the exhibi-tion were exclusively for industry professionals. The final day was open to the public.

“Each year KITF continues to at-tract new companies willing to pro-mote in this lucrative market. For some destinations the growth of the Kazakh outbound market has ex-ceeded Russian and thus KITF has become a permanent fixture on their calendar,” Maria Badakh, head of sales for the ITE Group, said.

Dorsai Khaghani, leisure director at the Sofitel Hotel in Dubai, said that participating in the fair was “a great opportunity to understand the market of Kazakhstan.”

“We have a lot of visitors from your country. We think that Kaza-khstan is an important and growing luxury market and it will be good to have partners from this country,” he said. “Our hotel is located in Palm Island, the great destination of the United Arab Emirates.”

Shakira Adilbekova, deputy di-rector of the Kazakhstan Tourism Association said the fair was an important platform for her organiza-tion to present its work. “Our asso-ciation brings together the tourism market, and the hotel business of Kazakhstan. We work with airlines, the mass media and the higher edu-cational institutions,” she said. “We are very pleased that the exhibition is growing year after year. More and more foreign partners are participat-ing in it.”

“We meet here a growing number of interested persons. Foreign and domestic travel companies offer training experiences for our stu-dents. We also give consultations regarding legal issues,” Adilbekova said.

Alisher Doskanayev of MINT said his ministry was pleased by the success of the fair. “We received favourable impressions from the exhibition,” he said. “We are happy to see the increased number of coun-tries represented this year. Even the ambassadors of many states are appearing at the stands of many of them. This fair is very helpful for our work in developing new tech-nologies.”

Zhanna Mukhamedova, head of sales at the Avia Travel Agency, also known as Transavia, also found the fair a success. “Our company repre-sents Ukraine International Airlines in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and we are happy to see the exhibition becoming more effective every year,” she said.

Golden Eagle Hatchlings Carry Hope for Eagle’s Population Growth

Tourism Fair Showcases Almaty to Global Market

Kazakhstan’s 13th International Tourism Fair (KITF) brought together more than 550 companies from 43 countries.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The Astana TimesB7

Sports

MFC Kairat football players celebrate their victory the road to which saw them beating some of the world’s strongest teams.

President of AIBA Dr Ching-Kuo Wu (l) and President of Kazakhstan’s Boxing Federation Timur Kulibayev (c) congratulate Astana Arlans on their impressive victory on May 11.

By Yuri lifintsev

ALMATY – The athletes and management of Kairat mini-foot-ball club (MFC) were warmly wel-comed at Almaty airport after their triumph in Tbilisi at the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup.

The rapturous welcome was comparable only to that organ-ised in honour of the heroes of the Summer Olympics of 2012. Children with posters of Kairat MFC training school lined up in the lobby and the junior national team of Kazakhstan came to con-gratulate their older friends on the victory.

“They should get into the spirit of winners,” former Kairat striker Vladimir Nidergaus said.

And, of course, there were many relatives, friends and fans of Ka-

zakhstan’s—and now Europe’s—leading club. The appearance of Head Coach Ricardo Cámara So-bral (Cacau) caused delight. He raised the UEFA Cup, the players appeared after him and the gath-ered crowd exploded with chants of “Champions! Champions!”

Deputy Mayor of Almaty Zau-resh Amanzholova, head of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports Khairbolat Khaidarov and Vice President of the Football Federation of Kazakhstan Alexan-der Mazmanyan congratulated the winners.

At the impromptu press confer-ence, Coach Cacau, team captain Dinmuhambet Suleimenov, goal-keeper Leonardo Leite Vieira de Mello (Higuita), forward Joao Dos Santos Núñez (Joan) and Football Federation Vice Presi-dent Mazmanyan answered jour-

nalists’ questions. “It is a historic moment in my career. I want to thank all the people who trusted in this project, especially our vice president, the one who hired me. I want to dedicate this win to eve-rybody in Kazakhstan. I am excit-ed to be in our first final. My team played really well technically and tactically. All my players were like warriors. It is what I wanted. We have beaten the best team in the world, a team that has won everything in the last two years,” said Coach Cacau. On behalf of the team he expressed gratitude to President of the Football Fed-eration of Kazakhstan Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, Mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yessimov, the man-agement of the club, fans and all citizens of Kazakhstan for their invaluable help and support.

On April 29, Kairat defeated

their rivals, Dynamo, of Moscow, in the UEFA Cup final held at the Palace of Sports in Tbilisi.

The game ended with a score of 4-3 and Kairat became winners of the highest trophy in continental mini-football for the first time. The Kazakhstan players had already had a sensational victory over Eu-rope’s former top team, Barcelona, in the semifinals.

Dynamo beat Georgia’s Iberia-Star in the second semifinal. In the game for third place, Barcelona won 4-1 against the Tbilisi team.

President of the Senate of Kaza-khstan Kairat Mami congratulated the Kairat players on their victory.

“Congratulations to Almaty MFC Kairat and all Kazakhstan fans on a victory in the game against Dy-namo for the UEFA Cup! This is a long-awaited and truly heroic vic-tory for our club,” he said.

MFC Kairat Claims UEFA Championship Title

By Michelle Witte

Kazakhstan is known for many things. It has a vast ancient steppe that stretches nearly the size of Western Europe. It has a new capi-tal designed by the world’s great-est architects. It is also the world’s ninth largest country and the plan-et’s biggest landlocked nation.

What it is not known for, how-ever, – and logically so – is water sports. But this vast ancient land is filled with rivers and lakes and wind and a community of diehard water sports fans who have found a way to enjoy the water in a loca-tion as far from the ocean as you can get.

There’s a spot on the Kapchagai Reservoir where the wind starts blowing at 6 a.m., reaching 18 meters per second. By noon, this steppe wind raises waves two and three meters high. Artyom and Denis Chibisov, brothers from the Kapchagai area who have been coming to this spot for years, will tell you that this is one of the most popular spots among Kazakhstan’s growing number of windsurfing fans.

Kapchagai is a big place. The Ili River pours into the Kapchagai Gorge, where a dam subdues it

and creates huge Kapchagai Lake, stretching about 100 kilometers long and 25 kilometers across. Shallow sections and nearby re-sort pools are enough for most visitors from Almaty, 70 kilom-eters away. But for the new gen-eration of water sports fans, it’s the lake’s wind and waves that keep them coming back. “It’s just you, a sail, a board, and nature—one on one!” the brothers told EdgeKz.

The brothers have travelled as far away as Egypt to wind-surf, have participated in inter-national competitions, and even won awards. They’re big promot-ers of the windsurfing scene in Kazakhstan and of Kapchagai’s planned new windsurfing station, which will offer equipment and coaches. But windsurfing in Kaza-khstan isn’t all new school. Wind-surfer Alexander Voronin also got his start at Kapchagai. He’s been windsurfing since before anyone in Kazakhstan knew what it was. “In the 1980s… not many peo-ple knew about it. The equipment was completely different than it is today. The boards were big and heavy. The sails were delicate and often broke.” Eventually he took matters into his own hands and

opened a shop to sell the equip-ment he wanted. Today, it’s Al-exander’s company Alex Grand KZ (www.alexgrand.kz) that will open the windsurfing station in Kapchagai. “We are totally sure windsurfing in Kazakhstan will get more popular every year,” he told EdgeKz.

Aleksey Lichman is a 39-year-old skier who says he was lost

without some intense, nature-based activity to keep him going from snow to snow. That is until someone told him to try windsurf-ing. “Despite numerous falls and a lot of water consumed, I liked it,” he said. So he continued, despite a lack of training and equipment. “It’s a good way for me to get my dose of adrenaline.”

In addition to Kapchagai, many

of Kazakhstan’s other lakes offer the key elements of windsurfing: water, wind and beautiful scenery. Balkash Lake, Bartogai Reservoir and Alakol Lake all draw their share of windsurf junkies. Balkash is Lichman’s favorite. “It is quite large, and the wind and nature make nice, dynamic scenery… The thermal wind blows from noon to sunset, plus other winds that come

from air traffic and weather chang-es.”

In Kazakhstan, however, the best windsurfing doesn’t always coincide with the most developed areas. You have to be a romantic, Lichman says, and “not be in love with comfort.” If you’re going to seek out the best windsurfing in Kazakhstan, you may want to add a tent to your packing list.

Getting Wet in the World’s largest landlocked Country

Windsurfers enjoy the breeze on the Kapchagai Reservoir in the Almaty region.

From Page A1

After the first day of boxing, Ka-zakhstan’s team led Ukraine’s 3-2.

Meirbolat Toitov (Arlans) beat Viktor Gogolyev (Otamans) in bantamweight; Arlans captain Sa-mat Bashenov lost to two times Olympic and world champion Va-syl Lomachenko of the Otamans in lightweight; Arlans Ukrainian box-er Sergiy Derevyanchenko beat Evgenii Barabanov (Otamans) in middleweight; Croatian Hrvoje Sep (Arlans) beat Sergiy Lapin in light heavyweight. Arlans Roma-nian boxer Mihai Nistor almost provided the biggest upset of the match as he put on a remarkable fight against Ukraine’s London Ol-ympics champion Oleksandr Usyk of Otamans in the heavyweight di-vision, but ultimately lost.

On the second day of boxing, Mi-ras Zhakupov (Arlans) beat Myko-la Butsenko (Otamans) in bantam-weight (under 54 kg); Ireland’s Eric Martin Donovan (Arlans) lost to Vyacheslav Kyslytsyn (Otamans) in the lightweight category; Israel’s

Konstantin Snigur (Arlans) lost to Dmytro Mytrofanov (Otamans) in the middleweight division; Iran’s Ehsan Rouzbahani (Arlans) lost to Oleksandr Gvozdyk (Otamans) by a technical knockout in the light heavyweight division; and, in one of the most anticipated match, Ruslan Myrsatayev (Arlans) beat Rostyslav Arkhypenko (Otamans) in heavyweight (+91 kg).

As a result, Ukraine’s team went up 3-2 on the day, and the two teams got tied 5-5, prompting the 11th and decisive bout.

International Boxing Associa-tion (AIBA) President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu and Kazakhstan Boxing Federation President Timur Kuli-bayev congratulated the finalists and awarded the Ukrainian Ota-mans the WSB Silver Cup and a check for $150,000. The Arlans team received the Gold Cup and a $500,000 check.

Kazakhstan’s ethnic rock band Ulytau was present to congratulate the winners with one of its riveting compositions sending the roaring stalls in the state of euphoria.

Astana Arlans Win World Series of Boxing

Wednesday, 15 May 2013The Astana TimesB8

Capital

From Page B1

The Astana Tourism, Physical Cul-ture and Sport Department said that the 2012 visitors included 117,500 from abroad and 405,400 from oth-er parts of the country, compared to 105,900 from abroad and 373,100 from within Kazakhstan in 2011.

The number of Astana residents who took trips increased from 24,200 in 2011 to 24,200 in 2012.

The city government said169 tour-ist companies are operating in the capital and all of them participate in international and regional tourist exhibitions promoting Astana in the international tourism market.

The WTCF is a non-profit, non-governmental international or-ganization created voluntarily by tourist cities of all countries and re-gions, non-governmental organiza-tions, associations and enterprises related with tourism. It is based in Beijing.

“The federation aims to enhance cooperation between tourist desti-nations and serve as a platform for

releasing information, promoting projects and boosting the image of its member cities,” Li Xinjian, a professor at Beijing International Studies University and consultant for the federation, said.

The WTCF slogan is “Tourism – Making City Life more Beautiful.” The federation was established by 17 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou, and 20 cities in foreign countries, in-cluding Los Angeles, Vienna, Mos-cow and Barcelona. The federation aims to include 100 cities within three years.

Lu Yong, head of the WTCF’s or-ganising committee and director of the Beijing Tourism Development Committee, said cities were the main magnets attracting tourists to countries in large numbers.

“Most of the popular tourist attrac-tions are located in cities and most tourist expenditure is also concen-trated in cities. Cities are the core of tourism development. Cities make up the centre of tourism as they are major destinations for many tourists

and where they spend most of their money,” he said.

The WTCF will be financed by public and corporate donations, government grants and incomes from the sale of services. It will publish annual reports and statistics on the global tourism market and the development of the world’s ma-jor tourist cities.

On June 25, Beijing will host a Xiangshan summit of world tour-ist cities organized by WTCF and a first plenary meeting of the organi-sation. The events will then be held annuallyto allow member cities to share their experience and jointly developpolicies.

Lu said the WTCF will have a comparable international status to the World Tourism Organisation, the World Council of Travel and Tourism and the Asia-Pacific Travel Association.

Ten companies have also joined the WTCF including JTP Corp (a large Japanese consulting company), Kem-pinski Hotels (a worldwide network of luxury hotels) and Air China.

Astana Joins New World Tourism Cities Group

By Anastasia lebedeva

ASTANA – The first Astana Kurdastary, or “Peer of the Capi-tal,” city ball to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the city becoming the national capital was held in the Utemisov Palace of Schoolchildren on May 1.

Two students from Public School No. 60, Eldan Tleubergenov and Dana Smagul, were chosen as the king and queen of the ball. They will receive their titles formally on July 6.

Some 200 15–year-old students, including 50, who had qualified in contests held in the city’s schools,

danced waltzes, mazurkas and polonaises at the event The girls wore white dresses. The boys wore tuxedos.

The main hall of the Palace of Schoolchildren was designed in the style of a 19th century ballroom with massive columns, glittering with chandeliers. Despite the urban

landscape outside, the atmosphere indoors carried the participants and spectators back to the era of beauti-ful ladies and gallant gentlemen.

School No. 60 headmistress Elmira Sukhanberdieva, Gulzada Smailova, the head of the internal policy department of Astana’s Sar-yarka district akimat and Saltanat

Ali, chairman of the Astana branch of the Zhas Otan Youth Movement of the ruling Nur Otan Party, all attended and Asima Bimenddina, head of the Astana municipal edu-cation department congratulated the participants.

“The ball is just fantastic,” School No. 1 student Zauresh Azh-

galiyeva said. “It is the first ball in my life. Since childhood, I have been dreaming of it. It’s wonderful that such an event is taking place in our capital. Next year, I will again take part in it.”

The Gaziz Zhubanov State String Quartet of the Astana Philharmonic Orchestra provided the music.

Teenagers Waltz at Astana’s First City Ball

Cycling Culture Speeds Up in Kazakhstan

From Page B1

“Everything develops fast in Astana, and for you [residents and officials of Astana] it would be beneficial to gain experience of cycling culture and implement it quickly,” Peter Van Leuven, ambassador of the Netherlands in Astana commented.

The number of cyclists has in-creased more quickly than cycling infrastructure has been created. Still, one by one, governmental bodies and companies are buying into this new culture, encouraging employees to use bikes instead of cars and starting to create special bike parking lots.

Bicycles are now available for rent in all parks of the city. The av-erage price is 700 tenge ($4.60) per hour. “I do not have my own bike because I live in a flat and don’t have a place to keep it. Renting is convenient for me, and taking into consideration the relatively low prices and my infrequent use, I feel it suits me,” Astana resident Abzal Ospanov said.

The London Olympics helped present the benefits of cycling to Kazakhstan’s citizens in terms of improving health, protecting the environment and limiting traffic.

In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s big-gest city, cycling has also become a wide-spread practice.

“In London, for example, most of the streets lack bike lanes, but drivers are very aware of cyclists. We must inculcate this culture in our local car owners, that cycling is not only a sport, but has become a popular means of transporta-tion for the residents of Almaty,” Mayor of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yessimov said.

According to doctors, cycling brings enormous health benefits. During a bike ride, leg muscles strengthen and increase their en-durance, both the cardiovascu-lar and respiratory systems are strengthened and blood is enriched with oxygen, which spreads to brain cells and other vital organs. Cycling is especially useful for smokers, as the strong aeration helps purge the toxic substances

left behind by cigarette smoke. It also boosts the immune system.

There are over a billion bicy-cles worldwide, most of which are used for practical purposes. 70 percent are used as a means of transportation, 29 percent are used for recreation and only one percent are for sporting events. In many countries, bicycles are the main means of land transport for anything longer than a very short distance.

Among developed countries, bikes are most popular in West-ern Europe, where 115 million people have them. Denmark is the most bike-crazy nation: the aver-age Dane rides 893 miles a year. Bicycles are not a luxury item there, but a way of life. The Neth-erlands, of course, is also recog-nised as a bike-riding nation: in this small and mainly flat country, the popularisation of bikes has become government policy. The development of their use is given 10 percent of the cost of transpor-tation.

The Concept of changes to the environmental legisla-tion and other regulatory legal acts pertaining to special use of subsoil, environmental payments, procedure for obtaining environmental permits and assessment of en-vironemntal damages resulting from environmental pol-lution will be presented at the Forum.

The Concept is aimed at eliminating gaps in the leg-islation, establishing clear and unambiguous terms and definitions, at improving the current environmental leg-islation, drafting new regulatory legal acts, establishing uniform law enforcement practice.

The participants of the Forum will be the representa-tives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the General Prosecutor of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ma-

jilis and the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the representatives of oils companies, for-eign and national investors, the embassies of the foreign countries, national and foreign law firms, scientists and other person who are interested in the development of the environmental legislation in the Republic of Kaza-khstan.

General Information:Date: May 30, 2013, Thursday (free participation)Venue: RADISSON Hotel, 4 Sary Arka Str., AstanaThe participants of the Forum will be offered: Forum

materials and handouts in Russian and English, simulta-neous translation, coffee breaks, lunch.

If you have any questions regarding registration, con-tact the following persons:

Ainur Akhmet, E-mail: [email protected]. Tel.: +7 727 298067;

Aigerim Bralina and Anastasia drob: E-mail: [email protected], Tel.: +7 727 2916363, +7 7017127246

enVIROnMenTAL FORUMUsers of natural Resources Will discuss the Issues of Reforming the environmental Legislation

of the Republic of Kazakhstan

By O

span

Ali