In this issue:
Parliament Votes for Election Legislation Reforms
Biotechnology Cluster at Former Weapons Plant Needs $120 Million in Investment
Parliament Approves New National Bank Chairman
Say it in Kazakh:
One --- Bir, Two --- Yeki, Three --- Ush, Four --- Tort, Five --- Bes
Parliament Votes for Election Legislation Reforms
Both houses of Kazakhstan's Parliament on Monday January 26 voted overwhelmingly for a draft election legislation that institutes important reforms in the way national election is held in the country.
The bill, passed in its first reading and subject to a second reading on February 20, envisages changes in ways local and regional election commissions will be assembled and other novelties designed to ensure transparency and fairness of the election process, such as switching to transparent ballot boxes. According to the bill, the commissions will include representatives of political parties competing in a constituency, one from each party, after an approval of local assemblies (maslikhats).
The bill leaves in place a ban on electoral aspirations of people who still have criminal conviction to serve out.
The bill has been in the works for many months and is based on a series of round-table discussions sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as well as on the discussions within the Permanent Conference on Democratization. Representatives of all willing political parties, NGOs and foreign observers took part in both forums.
The run-up to the vote was not without its intrigue, though. Up until the last moment there were several competing drafts of legislation, sponsored by political parties and the government. In the end, the Auyl (Village) social-democratic political party withdrew its draft citing the fact that the government's draft included most of their provisions.
Gani Kaliyev, Auyl's leader, said on January 26 following their meetings with the Government and the Central Election Commission: "We had a constructive dialogue with authors of the government's draft and achieved a consensus."
The Otan political party withdrew its draft in December 2003 for the same reasons.
According to Kazinform news agency, sixty-five Majilis members out of 77, and 37 senators out of 39 approved the bill on Monday. The conference committee will have until February 20 to iron out more than 400 amendments into the bill still pending, although they are characterized as minor and not affecting the conceptual nature of the bill.
The next parliamentary election in Kazakhstan is scheduled for early October 2004, and the next presidential ballot is due in January 2006.
Biotechnology Cluster at Former Weapons Plant Needs $120 Million in Investment
Nuraly Bekturganov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, said the government's plans to develop a cluster of biotechnological enterprises based on former bioweapons plant would require $120 million in investment.
Mr. Bekturganov spoke at the January 26 presentation of 12 investment projects for the Biotechnology Park at Stepnogorsk, home to the world's largest anthrax production and weaponization facility during the Soviet times.
According to Kazakhstan Today news agency, he said the projects would involve deep reprocessing of wheat and creating sophisticated products from it, such as vaccines, antibiotics, substances for further production of antibiotics, and others.
Products are meant to go for domestic and external markets to be used in industries such as food and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, mining, and oil production.
The technological park, called Progress, includes the Stepnogorsk-based Biomedpreparat enterprise, Biopromtechnolgiya Institute and medical and biological faculty. It is part of the industry-specific clusters the government is creating under the innovation strategy until 2015. Other clusters include software technological park in the outskirts of Almaty and the National Nuclear Center at Kurchatov, center of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site.
Parliament Approves New National Bank Chairman
Anvar Saidenov, 43-year-old British-trained
economist and banker, was appointed
chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan
January 26 after his nomination got approval
from both houses of Parliament.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Saidenov had been
deputy head of the bank since 2002. In the late
, Mr. Saidenov headed a state investment
and he also worked as deputy finance minister
from 1999 to 2000. Earlier, he also worked for
the London-based European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Speaking in the parliament at his confirmation hearing on January 26, Mr. Saidenov said "the National Bank's primary goal from now on is ensuring price stability, which reflects its stated goals of introducing principles of inflationary conversion and standards of the European Union."
He was referring to a recent establishment of the Agency on regulation and oversight of financial markets and financial institutions, which took over the specified functions from the National Bank.
"Therefore, the National Bank will play a classic role of any central bank," said Mr. Saidenov.
He replaced Grigori Marchenko, who earlier in January was named First Deputy Prime Minister with specific responsibilities over financial and tax policies. Mr. Marchenko has been widely credited both in Kazakhstan and internationally for engineering and overseeing rapid growth and marked improvement of standards of Kazakhstan's banking sector since becoming chairman of the bank in 1999.
Commenting on the appointment of Mr. Saidenov, President Nazarbayev said "Kazakhstan's financial system has been praised by international financial institutions, and the new leadership must not lose momentum."
Mr. Marchenko called Mr. Saidenov "one of the best financiers in the land, an absolutely honest professional."
Things to Watch:
- On January 29, a Kazakhstan-based NGO, Central Asia For Peace and Harmony, begins a 7-month long research of the status of ethnic minorities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. NGOs from other three countries will participate.
- On February 20, both houses of Parliament will reconvene to discuss draft election legislation in second reading.
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News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and agenciy reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
1401 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Tel.: (202) 232- 5488 ext. 104, Fax: (202) 232- 5845
