Author: Bakyt Sharipov

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General Berik Assylov reported the recovery of assets totaling 262 billion tenge (US$548 million), including $205 million from abroad, during his presentation to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Sept. 19, reported Akorda. Property and shares in enterprises worth 82 billion tenge (US$171 million) were transferred to the asset management company. Agreements for the return of assets valued at 450 billion tenge (US$941 million) were approved. Assylov also reported that 445 investors who invested 8.3 trillion tenge (US$17 billion) in Kazakhstan’s economy received legal assistance. As part of the “prosecutor’s filter,” 500 state body decisions against investors were…

Kazakhstan aims to boost output of metals needed for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and is issuing hundreds of new exploration licences to attract fresh investment in the sector, the country’s industry minister told Reuters. The former Soviet republic promotes itself as a dependable supplier of the majority of critical materials outlined by the European Union, at a time when Russia has threatened to curb exports and China is tightening control over rare earths. Kazakhstan has signed deals with the European Union and Britain on the supply of critical minerals. “People know that Kazakhstan is very reliable… We’ve been supplying markets for a very long time,”…

The Diplomat writes that on August 21, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka and The Geopolitical Cartographer, a Colombo-based think tank, organized a forum on Central Asia. Colombo has been eyeing Central Asia for quite some time and between 2011 and 2021, sent delegations to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Apart from helping strengthen diplomatic ties, little else followed. The recent consultations mark a new phase in Sri Lanka’s relations with the region. Amid the war in Ukraine and rising tensions in the Middle East and Eurasia, both Sri Lanka and Central Asia are adjusting their foreign policies, and all five Central…

Kyrgyzstan has high hopes for the activity of a joint fund with Azerbaijan, Vice Minister of Economy and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan Kanat Abdrakhmanov told Trend. “In August, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan had another meeting within the intergovernmental commission. The protocol of this meeting included key directions and a consensus on creating a mechanism for financing joint projects by establishing a Kyrgyz-Azerbaijani fund with the authorized capital of $25 million,” he said. According to the vice minister, the headquarters will be located in Bishkek and it is expected that the next meeting of the fund’s board members will be held in the near…

Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti has reported that as many as 50,000 labor migrants living in Russia, many of them from Central Asia, may end up losing their legal residency status this year because of personal debts. In its August 2 report, the business daily cited an Uzbek diaspora activist as estimating that the number of people ending up as undocumented migrants expand by 100,000 by 2024. Under Russian law, foreign nationals are required to leave the country after the period of legal residence has expired. As Vedomosti’s sources have noted, however, those same foreigners are increasingly being slapped with exit bans by…

Berlin (25/7 – 16.67) The table is set for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast to remain a geopolitical hotspot. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), eastern Tajikistan, is the home to the Pamir Mountains, also called “the roof of the world”, whose sharp mountain ranges and deep valleys resemble a lunar landscape. A far-flung frontier, situated in a troubled neighborhood, next to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, GBAO is a geopolitical treasure tethered to exterior interests: the authoritarian central Tajik government in Dushanbe, Chinese economic and military interests, and Russia, which historically frames the Pamirs as a part of its…

As the Republic of Mongolia prepares to welcome Pope Francis early in September, the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, says the visit is an historic event that the young Mongolian Church will treasure. The Pope is expected to travel to Mongolia marking his 43th Apostolic Journey abroad from 31 August (date of departure from Rome) to 4 September. He was invited to visit the country on August 24, 2022, when a delegation from the Mongolian government visited the Vatican and handed him an official invitation from the Mongolian President, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. Presenting the official programme, motto and logo…

Kyrgyzstan and Italy are ready to cooperate in the textile industry, Azernews reports, citing Kabar. The press service of the National Investment Agency of the Kyrgyz Republic reported that this issue was discussed last week by Deputy Director of the National Agency Jalyn Jeenaliev and President of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Fernando Pelazzo at a meeting in Bishkek. Pelazzo emphasized that Italian textiles are in great demand in the world, and expressed a desire to develop cooperation with the Kyrgyz Republic in this direction, creating joint ventures. As a result of the negotiations, further steps were outlined for the…

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development projects that the economies of the five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – will grow by at least 5.2 % on average in 2023 and 5.4 % in 2024. This trajectory has been in place for two decades, which is undoubtedly welcome news. Over the past 20 years, Central Asian countries’ GDP has grown more than sevenfold at an average rate of 6.2%, which is faster than in most developing countries and more than twice as fast as the world as a whole. The region is also taking…

Representatives of Kyrgyzstan got interested in MAZ construction machinery, BelTA learned from the press service of the enterprise. A delegation from the Kyrgyz Republic led by Minister of Transport and Communications Tilek Tekebaev arrived at MAZ to study the assembly of chassis and the assortment of equipment. The delegation noted that they were primarily interested in road construction equipment that could operate in mountainous areas. Minsk Automobile Plant is one of Belarus’ largest mechanical engineering companies. It specializes in making heavy-duty trucks, special-purpose vehicles, buses, trolleybuses, and trailing units. MAZ vehicles are compliant with the environmental standards Euro-3, 4, 5,…