A bi-weekly online publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan www.mfa.kz Issue # 64 Friday, 28 May 2010 [PDF]

Abdullah Gul: Kazakhstan Is Heart and Rising Star of Asia

(Turkish President’s four day official visit boosts brotherly ties)

Kazakhstan Strives to Revive its Military-Industrial Complex

(Astana hosts the first International arms exposition “KADEX-2010”)

World Bank Approves US$ One Billion Loan for Kazakhstan’s Reforms

(Decision demonstrates confidence in Kazakhstan’s credibility)

Kazakhstan Set to Implement Brand New Economic Program

(The MPs were presented with a plan for industrial development)

On Eve of Memorial Day, Kazakhstan Pays Tribute to Victims of Great Purge

(President Nazarbayev meets relatives of victims of Stalinist repressions)

Kazakh Authorities to Investigate Reasons of Mass Deaths of Saiga Antelopes

(Thousands of antelopes die in West Kazakhstan from a mysterious disease)

Abdullah Gul: Kazakhstan Is Heart and Rising Star of Asia

President Abdullah Gul of Turkey has paid an official four day visit to Kazakhstan at the invitation of his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev on May 23-26, which gave a new boost to further strengthening of economic and humanitarian bonds between the two nations.

The visit’s significance was highlighted by the Kazakh-Turkish strategic partnership agreement signed last October, along with the newly established Turkic Council in Nakhchevan, Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship this year, and Ankara’s upcoming chairmanship of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

Following an official meeting in the Akorda Presidential palace in Astana, the two presidents made several statements at a joint press conference on the results of negotiations.

Talking about economic cooperation, Nazarbayev and Gul have set a goal to bring the volume of bilateral trade up to US$10 billion in a few years, which means increasing it fivefold.

“The commodity turnover has dropped due to the global recession and came to two billion US dollars. We are setting a task to raise the trade volume to $10 billion in years to come,” Nazarbayev noted. In addition, he suggested Turkey takes part in the industrial development in Kazakhstan and devises a joint economic program with a specific investment plan.

“We constantly appeal to our entrepreneurs to invest in Kazakhstan. So far we have only aimed for the development of production sector of your nation. Kazakhstan’s economy reached such a level that production will only grow and this is a very attractive sector for investments”, Gul replied.

The two leaders also discussed an international political agenda w during the talks at the Akorda. The OSCE and the CICA, the two large international organizations Kazakhstan and Turkey are chairing this year, aim at strengthening both global and regional security.

Speaking on the current Kazakh OSCE chairmanship, Abdullah Gul stressed: “I believe Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in the OSCE is performed quite successfully. Other OSCE member states highly appreciate the role of your country as well. We fully support the idea of holding an OSCE summit in Astana. And Kazakhstan’s forthcoming chairmanship in the Organization of the Islamic Conference is considered to be yet another major accomplishment.”

The parties also discussed issues regarding improvement of transport communications between Kazakhstan and Turkey, development of tourism and cooperation in the humanitarian sphere.

The talks between Nursultan Nazarbayev and Abdullah Gul resulted in the signing of a package of agreements worth US$ 400 million, which will constitute a new wave of Turkish investments in the economy of Kazakhstan.

Attending the Kazakh-Turkish business forum as part of the visit, President Gul called on business people in two countries to make mutual investments.

“Kazakhstan is the heart and the rising star of the Asian continent,” Gul said. “Our bilateral relations have been deepening and improving since the day Kazakhstan acquired its independence,” he added. “There are a number of Turkish businesses operating in Kazakhstan. They mainly work in the sector of construction. President Nazarbayev asked us to encourage Turkish businessmen to also make investments in the sectors of mining and energy”.

The four-day visit did infact began with a strong cultural component meant to stress the brotherly ties between linguistically and culturally close peoples of Kazakhstan and Turkey. Thus on the first day of his trip, President Gul, accompanied by a large delegation, visited the Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Turkish-Kazakh University, an international and autonomous mutual joint education establishment in Turkestan. There, the two presidents laid the foundation for construction of a new educational building for 1,850 students with an area of 24,827 square meters and visited the university’s new administrative building.

Delivering a speech at the university where he was awarded an honorary doctorate, Gul highlighted Nazarbayev’s contribution in the current level of solidarity and cooperation between Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Calling bilateral relations between Ankara and Astana “exceptional,” the Turkish President pledged to lend support to all kinds of bilateral cooperation in the field of education.

He emphasized the importance Ankara attaches to bilateral cooperation between the two countries in education and described the Khoja Akmet Yassawi University as the most precise example of this cooperation.

For his part, Nazarbayev remarked that Turkey is a reliable strategic partner for Kazakhstan, in a reference to the fact that the presidents of the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement during his official visit to Turkey in October 2009.

“The Khoja Akmet Yassawi University is one of the best examples of the friendly relations between Turkey and Kazakhstan,” Nazarbayev said. “We should establish an education system that befits the understanding manifested by Akmet Yassawi.”

On the last day of his visit, President Gul met the Kazakh Senate Speaker and addressed the parliamentarians in Astana.

 “Turkey and Kazakhstan will have to play an important role and to bear a historic responsibility for promoting new transport, communications and energy corridors, in other words, create a new Silk Road linking Europe and Asia,” he stressed.

“The completion of the Kazakhstan-assisted project to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will link China and the Far East with European markets promptly and reliably, will mark a crucial step toward our goal of reviving the historic Silk Road”.

Later President Gul attended the inauguration of the new Turkish embassy building in Astana, and opened the Astana branch of the Yunus Emre Cultural Centre.

Kazakhstan Strives to Revive Military-Industrial Complex

The first ever defense exhibition in Kazakhstan, KADEX-2010 (Kazakhstan Defence Expo) has had an excellent launch in Astana with more than 200 domestic and international manufacturers of arms and other military appliances presenting their products to potential customers from across the post-Soviet area and beyond. As is to underscrore its significance, Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and Abdullah Gul of Turkey also attended its opening ceremony. The exhibition is taking place on May 26-29 at a sector of Astana International Airport occupied by Kazakhstan’s Air Force.

Opening “KADEX 2010” Kazakh Minister of Defense Adilbek Dzhaksybekov described it as “a great opportunity to analyze the capacity of national companies, attract the world’s largest manufacturers of military and special products. It also offers the possibility of forming joint projects as a result of relationships established between companies from around the world.”

The showground consists of four pavilions and a large open space, giving the exhibition a total floor space of 15,000 square meters. It exposes armaments and military equipment, IT-technology and communications, infrastructure, as well as rear logistics and military medicine presented by more than 200 companies from more than 20 countries, including Russia, China, Germany, France, Holland, the USA, Belarus, Ukraine, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Korea, and Spain. An impressive list of participants is evidence of high potential demonstrated by the new exhibition.

A major part of the exhibition - more than 100 displays - is held by representatives of domestic companies producing for the needs of the Kazakh Armed Forces. The companies presenting the goods ranging from rear products to modernized armors are sponsored by the National Company “Kazakhstan Engineering|”. There are other exhibitors, such as “Western Kazakhstan Machine-building Company”, which produces devices and provides services for military purposes, special design and technology bureau “Granite”, IT-company “NAT Kazakhstan”, telecommunications company “Astel”, Kazakhstan centre for geographic information systems and others.

Appreciating the high level of preparation for the expo, Kazakh Senator Mukhtar Altynbayev, himself a general and former defense minister,noted that “Kazakh defense factories are quite good and have great potential to sell their products abroad.”

A large area in the pavilion is occupied by the Russian state corporation “Russian Technologies”, which includes “Rosoboronexport”, “Oboronprom”, JSC “RusSpetsStal”, Corporation “VSMPO-Avisma”, “AutoVAZ”, and other affiliated firms. Their pavilion attracts serious attention from potential customers, as Russia remains one of the strongest players on international markets of defense products, especially for the member states to the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Inspecting samples at the expo, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Defense Talgat Zhanzhumenov explained: “One of the main goals of the exhibition is to analyze the capacity of domestic manufacturers and their development prospects in accordance with the needs of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan, as well as to attract foreign manufacturers of weapons and special equipment to supply the Kazakh army with modern military materiel.”

Perhaps, the most spectacular part of the “KADEX-2010” was the performance of troops and special units of Kazakhstan’s Armed Forces. Both heads of state and other guests witnessed actions of a tank platoon driving T-72 and of a rifle platoon on the BTR-80 (armored personnel carrier).  Air force units performed an air show using L-39, MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets. Paratroopers landed and conducted a mock storming of a hypothetical enemy’s headquarters.

Later, at the exhibition complex “Korme” the international military-technical conference titled “The process of military modernization and development of military-industrial complex of the Republic of Kazakhstan” took place. The participants discussed the prospects of technical equipment of the Kazakh army in the framework of implementing the state military-technical policy, as well as the possibility of integrating the military-industrial complex of Kazakhstan and other countries.

Parallel to the exhibit, KADEX offers seminars, presentations and round tables, with the participation of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan and a wide variety of specialists from the attending companies.

As part of the fair and to explore directions for a mutually beneficial cooperation Minister Dzhaksybekov also met with a number of foreign representatives including Republic of Korea’s Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Kee Jung, CEO of Israel Military Industries Ltd. Avi Felder, high-ranked representative of the French Institute of Higher National Defence Studies Olivier Darrason, vice-president of “Finmeccanica SpA” Sergio Bertolli, and vice-president of “Elbit Systems” Jacob Gadot.

In addition, Dzhaksybekov meti Iran’s Deputy Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Mohammad Eslami and Chairman of the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus Sergei Gurulev.

The exhibit lasts four days. The first two days it is open for official delegations and specialists, and on May 28-29, the exhibition welcomes all visitors.

World Bank Approves US$ One Billion Loan for Kazakhstan’s Reforms

The World Bank Board of Directors approved on May 25 a US$ one billion Development Policy Loan (DPL) for the Republic of Kazakhstan to provide budgetary support to the country to help it implement its current economic program, the WB’s press service reported.

According to the World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia Motoo Konishi, the new Development Policy Loan for Kazakhstan reflects a high level of confidence of the World Bank in the country’s current economic policy and reforms.

“Since Kazakhstan has other alternatives than borrowing from the World Bank, it also reflects the confidence that the Government has in the World Bank as a development partner,” he added.

The new loan supports the Government’s economic program for ensuring financial stability and sustainable growth, with a particular focus on fiscal policy, budgetary management, and banking regulation. The loan has an interest rate equal to 6 months LIBOR plus variable spread, and a maturity of 25 years, including a three year grace period.

“Kazakhstan is borrowing a US$ 1 billion from the World Bank to finance the 2010 national budget deficit, support growth, and maintain higher social commitments stipulated in the budget,” said Bolat Zhamishev, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan. “We are pleased to be increasing our cooperation with the World Bank under this loan, which is another additional vehicle for constructive engagement to support program for reforming and ensuring stability and fiscal security.”

 The World Bank’s overall mission in Kazakhstan is to help the Government in achieving diversified and sustainable economic growth and improving the living standards of population. To date, the Bank has provided 35 loans to Kazakhstan of more than US$ 5.2 billion since July 1992.

According to the World Bank’s Kazakh page, in the first few years of the nation’s independence, the institute focused mainly on helping the country to implement financial and private sector reforms. After a certain degree of stabilisation 1997, the focus shifted to public administration reform, with specific attention to improving the country’s welfare and social protection policies. At present, the World Bank is assisting Kazakhstan with prudent management of oil revenues, promoting competitiveness, investing in human capital and basic infrastructure, and ensuring environmentally friendly growth and mitigating ecological liabilities of the past.

Kazakhstan Set to Implement Brand New Economic Program

The Programme for Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development (PAIID) for 2010-2014 represents a new approach to achieving the modernization of the Kazakh economy, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and New Technologies Asset Issekeshev claimed as he explaining the project to the Majilis (lower house of the Parliament).

Issekeshev cited the results of previous programs on industrial development of the country’s economy and stressed that the experience gained in implementing them has enabled the Government to develop a more structured programme in which issues of workforce productivity and new technologies come to the fore. 

He believes it is more about new economic thinking. “The principal difference of this approach is in its precision,” he said.

In previous years, Issekeshev explained, there were dozens of different programs with overlapping and confusing goals. For example, those which concerned modernization of the economy numbered 52. PAIID reduced their number to four. 

The government has clear criteria for deciding whether to invest public funds into an industry, with a thorough analysis of its current state and prospects, export capabilities, focus on manufacturing products with high added value, innovativeness in low energy consumption, and environmental friendliness.

Another specific feature of the programme is a target-oriented method which is used at all levels of implementation: bringing all activities into a single format, appointing one responsible department or an official for each programme, and creating a comprehensive monitoring system. In other words, a special attention will be given on controlling the expenditure of public funds.

Issekeshev briefed parliamentarians on the essence of new approaches to state support, using metallurgy, one of the most important industries in Kazakhstan, as an example. 

Currently, with the industry’s share in total volume of the nation’s industrial production equalling 17.5%, the analogous share of ready-for-use metal products is 1.2% only, while the country has to spend US$ 6.3 billion annually to import such goods. PAIID would seek to double the gross value added through reaching higher levels of processing raw materials and creating new metal conversions. The key issues would concern discouraging exports of raw materials and encouraging implementation of innovative projects, giving the SMEs access to base metals, and development of infrastructure.

This year four pilot integrated sub-programs of business support are to be launched within PAIID.

The first is called the “Investment – 2020”, and it proposes to maintain and expand investment preferences provided under the Law “On Investment”.

The second sub-program, “Productivity-2020”, suggests the introduction of better management technologies with parallel development of new products (technology transfer, funding for innovative grants, co-funding R&D developments undertaken by private companies, i.e. grants, tax deductions).

The third one, “Export - 2020”, provides export support services for commodities manufactured in Kazakhstan, including the identification of potential markets internationally, search for partners-buyers within the nation’s trade missions abroad and arranging “buyers and sellers” meeting, the calculation of optimal logistics export routes and providing information on the procedures of customs clearance, cargo insurance, and the preparation of shipping documents.

Last but not least, is the sub-program “2020 Business Road Map”. In order to support business initiatives in non-oil sectors of the economy the following activities are provided: interest rate subsidies on loans, partial guarantees on loans, development of industrial infrastructure, service support, and personnel training.

In response to queries from the MPs to the effect that such an ambitious programme requires a significant number of trained professionals, Isekeshev claimed each industrial program will be provided by a separate program of proper personnel training. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Education and Science are working to develop a new special programme for modernizing educational institutions.

The MPs agreed that unlike the previous programmes with somewhat similar goals, the PAIID is a fundamentally new document clearly outlining the steps the country needs to make to achieve a significant leap forward and long-awaited economic diversification.

A State Programme for accelerated industrial and innovative development for 2010-2014 is the first five-year programme to implement a 10-year development strategy of Kazakhstan developed by the government and approved by a presidential decree in March this year.

On Eve of Memorial Day, Kazakhstan Pays Tribute to Victims of Great Purge

May 31 is commemorated in Kazakhstan as a Memorial Day for the Victims of Political Repressions, which had a ravaging effect on the Kazakhs and other peoples of the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule, inflicting deep scars on those who suffered and the society as a whole.

On the eve of the date, on May 26, President Nursultan Nazarbayev met the descendants of those subjected to Stalinist repressions in the Akorda presidential residence. Guests came from Switzerland, Israel, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, as well as from different parts of Kazakhstan.

Addressing the participants, Nazarbayev said: “We have gathered today to remember those years, to pay tribute to our ancestors who were repressed during the time of Great Purge. We have the same history and the only thing we want is to get to the bottom of it objectively. Our children and grandchildren should keep in memory those events and never repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Among guests were the descendants of the victims of political repressions and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin and those deported to Kazakhstan from the 1930s through 1950s.

Those who came to meet President Nazarbayev included Rozetta Aitmatova, whose father Torekul Aitmatov was killed in 1937 and whose brother Chingiz later became the most prominent Kyrgyz and arguably Central Asia’s writer of the 20^th century, Azariy Plisetsky, whose mother Rahil Plisetskaya was a prisoner ALZHIR (“Akmola camp for wives of traitors of the Motherland”) and whose sister Maja became a world-famous ballerina, Salman Geroyev, chairman of the Chechen-Ingush ethnic cultural centre, and the Paata Kalandadze, Georgia’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan, whose grandmother was also imprisoned in ALZHIR.

In Nazarbayev’s words, 1.5 million people of different ethnicities were deported to Kazakhstan. Remembering the tragic legacy of this land’s history, from the first days of its independence Kazakhstan has adhered to the ideas of tolerance, equality and friendship of all nations.

“Due to this our country enjoys respect and trust in the world; due to tolerance we host the Congress of the World and Traditional Religions Leaders in Astana. We have initiated integration processes not only on the territory of the Soviet Union but also in the world,” Nazarbayev noted.

According to official statistics, from 1924 to 1954 almost 100,000 citizens of Kazakhstan were subjected to repressions, the quarter of them were killed. Among them were outstanding public figures, representatives of creative and scientific intelligentsia, namely, Turar Ryskulov, Alikhan Bokeikhanov, Beimbet Mailin, Magzhan Zhumabayev, Akhmet Baitursynov, Myrzhakyp Dulatov, and many others.

Eleven GULAG camps across the USSR, including three in Kazakhstan, housed hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Almost 3.8 million Soviet people underwent Stalinist repressions, 642,000 of them were sentenced to capital punishment. Millions of families suffered from cruel and violent repressions, leaving no space to mercy or understanding. Around one million, or 42% of the Kazakh people of that time, died as a result of political repressions, and hunger caused by forced collectivization and sedentarisation of nomads. The same number of people had to leave their homeland.

ALZHIR was once one of those places of punishment for at least 20,000 women from 1937 to 1946 and beyond. According to the wall that surrounds the museum at the site now, located 25 km from Astana, at least 7,620 women are known to have perished at this camp.

The Karaganda Corrective Labor Camp was another among largest of the notorious labour camps of the Soviet era, founded in 1931 in central Kazakhstan. About 800,000 inmates were interned in Karlag over its history, most of them political prisoners.

Since 1997, May 31 is the Memorial Day of the Victims of Political Repression in Kazakhstan. The nation never forgets those times, handing down from generation to generation the testimony of predecessors’ history.

These days, Kazakhstan works to restore the historical justice in order to show respect to all victims’ families and relatives. Several decrees by President Nazarbayev ruled that everyone who was imprisoned during the time of Stalin’s reforms was rehabilitated, and the country witnessed the unveiling of museums and memorials at the sites of former prisons and forced labour camps.

At the meeting in Akorda, Nazarbayev said the government will undertake every effort to prevent the repetition of such mistakes from the past. The president asked all residents of the country to appreciate what the independent and free development of a multi-ethnic country provides for in terms of proper protection of inalienable rights and liberties of the citizens.

A number of other events are taking place in Kazakhstan these days commemorating the Memorial Day. On May 27-30, the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan in cooperation with the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation is holding a series of events within the international project “Memory for the Sake of the Future”, dedicated to the memory of victims of political repression. In addition, on May 28 the first international forum “From old times to the modern age”, involving historians from the CIS region, took place at the Gumilev Eurasian National University in Astana.

Kazakh Authorities to Investigate Reasons of Mass Deaths of Saiga Antelopes

In only a few days, about 12,000 Saiga antelopes have died in western Kazakhstan from an unknown disease, possibly pasteurellosis, further threatening a species already at risk of extinction.

This epidemic caused great concern among scientists and veterinarians, as a tragedy of such scale could not avoid attention from the media and caused a public outcry. To clarify the reasons for the disaster and identify ways to prevent such incidents from happening in future, the national and local authorities are taking most serious measures, with the General Prosecutor’s Office announcing on May 27 it was opening a criminal investigation into the case.

The first information about the mass deaths of Saiga appeared on May 20. At that time, about 1,200 corpses of antelopes were found in the Zhanibek district of West Kazakhstan Oblast, where the saiga antelopes of the Ural area population is concentrated.

A number of versions appeared on what caused the tragedy, but, according to the head of the regional department of sanitary and epidemiological surveillance Serik Imankulov, the results of bacteriological and microscopic studies confirmed that the animals died of pasteurellosis, an infectious disease caused by the bacteria genus Pasteurella hitting mainly animals but also, in rare cases, humans. A possible swift change of temperature in the area was also mentioned as a possible precondition which caused the outbreak to affect mainly female saiga and their calfs. The specialists regard the possibility of poisoning or problems associated with radiation as inconceivable, as some local media have speculated.

Taking into account the extent of the environmental accident, Prime Minister Karim Massimov charged to establish a special commission at the national level to investigate the matter.

“The commission includes representatives from the ministries of agriculture, defense, emergency, environmental protection, education and science, health, border guards and other concerned government agencies,” the deputy Chairman of forestry and hunting sector Qayirbek Musabayev said.

The staff of the veterinary service and the sanitary and epidemiological surveillance carries out preparatory actions for incinerating dead animals and conducting quarantine activities in the districts of Western Kazakhstan adjacent to Zhanibek.

Spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office Ravil Mazhitov reports that on the fact of mass deaths of saiga antelope, Kazakhstan’s Regional Prosecutor initiated criminal proceedings under Article 289 (violation of the rules of wildlife conservation) of Kazakhstan’s Criminal Code.

The Prosecutor General’s office, the ministries of internal affairs, defense, environmental protection, education and science, and the West Kazakhstan Akimat all are informed about the accident.

“The present situation with the mortality of saiga is a tragedy of large-scale character. It's a natural disaster,” Imankulov stressed. He recalled that such a massive death of saiga in the region was observed in 1984. "Then the animals had the same signs of disease like now," the chief medical officer of the area said.

“According to the preliminary estimates, damage to the nature of the Saiga case exceeded two billion tenge (13.6 million US dollars),” ministry official Kairat Kadesh concluded.

The Saiga antelope is a unique phenomenon of nature, one of the most ancient representatives of ungulates, listed in the International Red Book. It inhabits south Russia, Kazakhstan and parts of Mongolia.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the total number of Saiga in Kazakhstan in 2009 amounted to 81,000 heads, including the population in the Ural river area of 26,600.

Also in the News:

• OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Secretary of State – Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev met with the delegation of the European Union in Astana on 26 May. The parties exchanged views on a range of issues in bilateral cooperation, stressed the significance of further development of close and mutually beneficial partnership between Kazakhstan and EU with a view of creating a stable basis for security and stability in Eurasia. The head of the EU delegation, Paolo Bartolozzi stressed the importance of Kazakhstan as a “bridge” between Europe and Asia and expressed his backing for a new partnership agreement between the EU and Kazakhstan now being developed.
• On May 25, Kazakhstan’s Ombudsman Askar Shakirov met Mary Murphy, Director for political issues at Penal Reform International, as they discussed outcomes of implementing this NGO’s Kazakh project on “Fighting Torture: the Establishment of National Preventive Mechanism in Kazakhstan” and prospects for future cooperation.
• Minister of Transport and Communications Abelgazy Kussainov held talks with Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States Cheick Sidi Diarra in Prague on May 25, 2010. During the negotiations the parties discussed the issues of implementation of the Almaty Action plan and Almaty Declaration, adopted in August 2003 after the UN Ministerial Conference. They also considered the main ways of developing Kazakh transport potential, and promoting access to the world’s markets for landlocked countries.
• Today e-government of Kazakhstan offers 59 types of services, the Chairman of Board of JSC “National Information Technologies” Bikesh Kurmangaliyeva said when presenting the e-government project during a “Software engineering summit” conference in Almaty on May 26. The project has established a single system of e-document flow and control and works in 80 state agencies and 16 local executive bodies of the republic. 95% of the entire state documents flow and 100% intradepartmental workflow pass through the e-government system, she underscored.
• On May26, 2010 a Medical Forum was held in Astana under the aegis of the EU program “Central Asia Invest” within the project “Establishing stable partnership in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan: strengthening the role of mediator organizations in health care services in Central Asia”. The invitees at the forum comprised representatives of SPECTARIS German Hi-tech Association, “PharmMedIndustry of Kazakhstan” Association, Kazakh Business Forum, representative office of the German Economy in Central Asia, Bishkek business club and others.
• National Bank of Kazakhstan has issued a 5,000-tenge “Bars” silver coin, weighing almost one kilogram. 700 new coins are made of 925-sample silver, 200 of which are designated for the domestic market of Kazakhstan. On the one side of the coin, there is the republic’s state emblem, while on the other side there depicted two snow leopards. The coins were stroke in 2009.
• The 3^rd International Festival of Central Asian Theatre gathered people of art from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on Wednesday in Almaty. The Festival will last for five days, the winner being judged in 13 categories. The jury includes the renowned Kazakh actors, directors, playwrights, artists and representatives of the intelligentsia from the five participating states.

Things to Watch:

• Semifinals and finals of Asian Women’s Boxing championships are coming up on May 29-31 in Astana.
• On June 7, Almaty will host an international conference titled “Theoretical and practical aspects of state regulation on a single customs territory of the Customs Union.” The main objective of the conference is to help companies prepare for new regulations of economic processes within the Customs Union of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia.
• The 3^rd Summit of the Conference for Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is going to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 7-9.

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