Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, Dec 9 (THE GLOBE)
On January 1, 2000 the new law �On state service� will go into effect. Hiring and advancement in the state sector will be based on competition; state organizations will hold competitions independently, the chairman of the Kazakhstani Agency on State Service Alikhan Baimenov announced on Thursday, December 9 in Almaty.
Baimenov said that according to the new rules, state organizations are to publish advertisements on vacancies in official media. They must list the main qualification requirements for applicants. All applicants for government jobs are to know the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the laws �On state service� and �On struggle against corruption�, and the Strategy 2030.
As far as knowledge of the state language of Kazakh is concerned, according to Baimenov, it is up to each state organization to decide independently. Competitions may be either closed and open. Only administrative state officers can participate in closed competitions. These competitions will be held for vacancies in the Presidential administration, administrations of Parliamentary Houses, Prime Minister�s office, office of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Council. In all other positions, candidates are to be hired through an open competition.
Regarding closed competitions, the chairman commented that this is a commonly accepted practice in many countries, including Japan and Germany. �There are some positions that requires special qualifications. We suppose that this work requires an experience of state service,� he added.
A limited number of local officers are allowed to participate in closed competitions. �All Akims are state officers, according to the law,� Baimenov explained.
Hence, the appointment, election, and dismissal of Akims will still depend on the President. However, their deputies are not considered state officers.
The new regulations for competition include a candidates� interview with members of the competition commission. �We do not expect competitions to be objective, as any competition has a subjective element,� he stated.
Kuanysh
ZHUMANGAZINOV
ALMATY, Dec 7
(THE GLOBE)
Scientists from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and the US participated this week in a conference on informational technologies and management, organized with financial support of the US Navy European Office of Scientific Researches at a cost of US$ 20,000.
It is the first time such an international conference financed by the US Navy has been held in Kazakhstan. Western scientists credited the US Navy interest in the conference to the fact that Kazakhstan is an example of political stability during the difficult transitional period of the former Soviet empire.
�The international community of scientists working with information and management technologies should reassure Kazakhstani scientists that they are participants in international cooperation. This should assist them to establish connections with their US colleagues,� spokesman for the scientific laboratory of the US Navy Forces Victor Skormin announced on Tuesday, December 7, in Almaty.
According to Skormin, mutual understanding between scientists from different countries was lost during the Cold War. This cooperative attitude should be restored, despite remaining differences in ideology and in standards of life for Eastern and Western scientists, despite their different cultures, languages and geography, he believed.
The scientific conference is supposed to help settle urgent problems of modern science and scientific technique. Its participants are to develop a project on common informational space that also complies with demands of social-economic development.
Aidar AKHMETOV
ALMATY, Dec 9 (THE GLOBE)
On Monday, December 6, Tax Police officers raided the office of the law firm Yustitsya and took all documents connected with activity of the Azamat political party, as well as information on other Yustitsya clients. In a press conference following the raid, the Azamat chairman Galym Abilsiitov called the Tax Police�s actions a �legal autocracy with a political context.�
The director of Yustitsya Oleg Ohulkov sent the President and the General Public Prosecutor a letter of protest. In the letter, Ohulkov stated that he had prosecuted cases instituted by Azamat and politician Pyotr Svoik. These cases charged violations of election law by the Civil Party during the 1999 election campaign, as well as slander against Svoik by members of the Almaty Veterans� Union.
Ohulkov told press that he considers the actions by the Tax Police contradictory to Articles 17 and 18 of the Kazakhstani law �On Advocate Activity.� According to these articles, advocate documents are not subject to withdrawal or examination. Policemen ignored accounting records of the law firm, even though the Tax Police are required to first inspect all documents of this type. Ohulkov showed an Almatinsky court sentence that forbids such Tax Police�s actions as illegal. The Tax Police refused to fulfill the court sentence. In addition, a list of removed documents was not prepared, a serious violation of criminal-juridical code.
Ohulkov expressed the opinion that the raid was an act of autocracy violating the laws. To date, appeals to the Office of Public Prosecutor, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KNB have been ignored. In conclusion, Ohulkov told reporters that before the press conference, a tax policeman had called him suggesting to him that he not meet journalists.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, Dec 8 (THE GLOBE)
�Starting in 2001, we plan to devise the first Five-year Plan of economic and social development of the country. This will not be a directive plan, but an indicative plan,� Kazakhstani Minister of Economy Zhaksybek Kulekeev announced on Wednesday, December 8 in Almaty.
The new Minister of Economy, who previously headed the Statistic Agency, intends to work towards a planned economy, as it was in the Soviet period. In March 2000 his Ministry will submit a five-year plan that will stipulate definite tasks of central and local executive organizations. In his opinion, the President�s program Strategy 2030 is an abstract document. Its realization requires a group of economists to work out more detailed plans, he thinks.
Apart from five-year plans, the Minister is preparing documents for the World Trade Organization (WTO). To enter the latter, Kazakhstan must undertake responsibilities on trade with products and services. Kulekeev thinks that if Kazakhstan enters the WTO, this will help the country to penetrate in the world market with local raw materials. He states that the WTO is ready to accept Kazakhstan with the least Customs tariffs on supplied products. Today the tariff is about 9%, but Kazakhstan is going to protect 20% of barter. This is difficult, the Minister thinks.
At present, European countries reproach the country with the price damping. �They say that we are damping by our products, i.e. prices of our products exported to other countries are too low and as if we sell them at a price that is lower than their real cost. Today we cannot sell many our products in other markets, since they apply to the anti-damping regulation in respect to Kazakhstan,� he said.
When Kazakhstan would enter the WTO, the Minister could not say. �The earlier we enter, the more profitable it will be for us,� he stated. Conditions and terms will depend on negotiations.
Kyrgyzstan entered the WTO under unfavorable conditions, as they could not protect their conditions, Kulekeev thinks.
The Minister shared his conception of Kazakhstan�s entering the WTO with journalists immediately after a seventeen-hour flight from Seattle, where the International WTO conference had been held. According to Seattle Post Intelligence, the WTO conference failed. �Smaller and poorer countries are humbled in the WTO� they claimed that they had been excluded from important meetings. The third world countries found that their status was unprofitable,� the American paper stated.
As far as the present economic situation in Kazakhstan is concerned, in comparison with the third quarter 1998, 5% economic growth is observed in Kazakhstan and politicians talk about macroeconomic stabilization, Kulekeev said. �Prices in the world market are growing, oil prices are the same. This promotes a further growth of the Kazakhstani export industry, mainly.�
The increase of investments is 4%. This year was very successful for the agriculture: 19% of growth, though according to the indicative plan, only 2% expected. �A good economic climate is taking shape in the country,� he believes. �We can guarantee stable development of the country in the next year. We have all required premises for the same,� he said.
According to Kulekeev, in 2000 they expect 3% of the economic growth. Projected inflation is 16 to 17% of this year.
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