(THE GLOBE) Sept 5
August 1
The composition of founders of �RIK� Radio changed. Three non-governmental organisations (Sauranbai�s Public Fund, Association of Independent Electron Mass Media (AIMM) and Independent Informational-Analytical agency �PoliTon�) became the new owners of the radio station. Sergei Duvanov, the former chief of the radio �MAKS�, radio �M� and �TVM�, which stopped broadcasting after the tender of radio frequency held in January 1997), was appointed the director of the radio.
August 2
The National Bank of Kazakhstan abandoned licenses of 6 commercial banks of the country for conduction of banking operations. These are three Almaty banks (Shapagat, Torgbank and Kazenergoprombank), and two Astana banks (Celinenergobank and Izhevskbank) and the Eastern Kazakhstan Chingizbank. In accordance with the resolution of the National Bank of Kazakhstan this decision was taken in the result of systematic infringements of prudential standards and other obligatory norms and limits stipulated by the NBK.
August 3
According to the decree of the Ministry of Press 23 republican budget editions were temporarily stopped, including many semi-official newspapers and magazine, as well as the only literary magazine �Prostor� and children�s newspaper �Druzhnye rebyata� published in Russian. The state will continue to finance only �Kazakhstanskaya pravda�, �Yegemen Kazakhstan� and �Zhas Alash�.
August 5
In Kzylorda the Shalkin non-ferrous metals deposit was announced a bankrupt to be sold by auction. A number of companies expressed their wish to buy this deposit, including the Kazakhstan-Bulgarian JV �Victoria� and some companies from Czech republic and South Korea.
August 7
The first lethal case due to bubonic plague was registered in the Kzylorda region. A 13-years-old boy died, as his relatives went to the hospital too late. In this year some cases of this disease had been registered in Western Kazakhstan.
August 9
At the meeting of the Board of the ONC �KazakhOil� held in Astana a decision to change the company�s logotype was taken. According to the press release, the necessity to change the logotype was caused by the company�s new strategy oriented to a more dynamical development of all types of activity, promotion of products in the international oil and gas markets, establishment of a net of filling stations in Kazakhstan and abroad.
August 10
In Astana the Defence Minister of RK Mukhtar Altynbaev and the chairman of CNS (Committee of National Security) Nurtai Abykaev sent in their resignation. The President of the country approved the resignation of both the Defence Minister and the chairman of CNS. The reason for the dismissal was the scandal connected with serious infringements of the order of realisation of military technique (sale of 6 MIGs, which were arrested in Baku. The head of the General Headquarter of the Kazakhstan army Bakhytzhan Yertaev was appointed the acting Defence Minister. Alnur Musaev was appointed the chairman of CNS.
August 11
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published an announcement regarding the unsuccessful negotiations with Kazakhstan. IMF mentions the absence of the Kazakhstan government�s economic program to be supported by IMF, as a reason for the failure. According to IMF, Kazakhstan is to reduce expenses and abandon tariff restrictions, which were introduced recently. Iskander Beisembetov, the deputy the chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan named criticism of the announcement of the International Monetary Fund extremely tough. According to Mr. Beisembetov, the government is not going to change the course radically to justify expectations of IMF.
August 12
In the north-east of the Kazakhstan part of the Caspian Sea, drilling of the first well was started. The drilling platform (85 m in length, about 50 m in height and 10 000 ton) may guarantee drilling works both at the depth of 4 000 to 5 000 m and in shoal as the northern part of the Caspian Sea. The press centre of the Atyrau regional Akimat and specialists of OKIOC company, which fulfils the drilling works, announced that more than US$ 100 millions had been spent towards preparation of the drilling platform.
August 14
A criminal groups was arrested in Almaty. Members of the band are accused of a murder of seven persons and cannibalism. Three of them before worked at the republican psychiatric hospital.
August 16
The chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Kadyrzhan Damitov announced that from August 17 the refinancing rate was to be reduced to 20%.
August 17
In Almaty at the conference of the Republican People�s Party of Kazakhstan the list of party�s candidates to the Parliament deputes was approved. The leader of the party, the former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Akezhan Kazhegeldin, heads the list. Besides, a famous advocate Vitaly Voronov, the chief editor of �21st Century� newspaper Bigeldin Gabdulin, a political scientist Nurbulat Masanov and other well-known representatives of the opposition became candidates of RPPK.
August 18
In New Delhi India and Kazakhstan signed the bilateral agreement on �non-visa� regime. The two countries agreed to improve trade links. �
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited� (ONGC), the Indian state oil and gas company was granted a permission to exploit Kazakhstan vast oil fields.
The tribunal of the army of RK considered a criminal case of the former deputy of the chairman of CNS general Hadeev. He was sentenced before to 10 years of imprisonment along with confiscation of his property, as he was accused of a high treason. Now the Tribunal sent an appeal to the President regarding incompatibility of R.M. Hadeev�s crimes with his military title of general-mayor. According to the decree of the state�s leader, R. M. Hadeev was reduced to the ranks.
August 19
The government of RK took a political decision to sell a half of its share in the oil field Tengiz, which comes to 10% of its total reserves. According to the government�s estimations, the cost of 10% of the state share of this filed is US$ 1.2 to 1.6 billion.
Michail Ivanovich Isinaliev, the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and a founder of the civil movement �Azamat� died in Almaty.
August 23
According to the decree of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the President of the NOC �KazakhOil� Nurlan Kapparov was dismissed for exceeding his authority while taking strategic decisions regarding the Kazakhstan oil and gas industry.
August 24-25
The summit of �Shanghai five� was held in Bishkek, where the President of RK Nursultan Nazarbaev and leaders of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were present. The leaders of the states signed the Bishkek declaration, which stipulates further priorities, including encouragement and development of the trade-economic co-operation based on principles of equality and mutual profitability.
August 26
The US International Trade Commission (USITC) abandoned its decision taken five years ago regarding ferrosilicy imported from Kazakhstan, Russia, Brasilia, Venezuela, China and Ukraine. Now USITC admits that the imports did not do either real or potential harm to the respective branch of the American economy.
August 27
The new law (a variant proposed by the NOC �KazakhOil�) on oil was approved in Astana. The law stipulates the status of the national company and that 100% of property is to belong to the state. The law emphasises that the National Oil Company is to monitor operations of foreign oil companies in Kazakhstan and to watch these companies observing republican laws and conditions of contracts.
August 29
In Pavlodar 13 to 14 teenagers (15 to 17 years old), who were under investigation escaped from the isolation ward of temporary arrest from the cell No. 1. Most teenagers arrested for thefts, acted according to �everybody escaped, and I escaped� principle. This was not a previously planned event.
August 31
At the meeting of the Kazakhstan government held in Astana the budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2000 was finally discussed. Nurlan Balgimbaev, the head of the Kazakhstan government characterised the new budget as difficult and hard, though realistic at the maximum.
Sergei MATYUSHENKO
ALMATY, Sept 8
(THE GLOBE)
Mazut at TEPS-2 will be sufficient for 10 days
Mazut at the thermo-electric power station-2 (TEPS) will be sufficient for 10 days,� the vice President of Almaty Power Consolidated (APC) announced on Wednesday in Almaty.
According to Valery Torlanbaev, the growth of the world�s oil prices led to the situation when local oil producers prefer to sell oil to foreign countries, but not supply it to the Kazakhstan OPP.
As a serious situation is taking shape in the republic due to the lack of oil products and especially of mazut, which is the main fuel for local TEPSs.
�Though we are proposed to buy Turkmen mazut, but its quality does not meet the ecological requirements,� the vice President of APC stated.
Situation may become critical
�If heating and power tariffs are not increased, the situation will become critical during the first weeks of October,� Marc Josz announced in Almaty.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of APC, the company plans to increase the tariffs for power and heat by 20%. This figure will allow the company to survive and to cover required expenses in the near future.
�In this year expenses towards fuel will be 90% more than in the last year,� he emphasised.
The company�s expenses towards regulation of frequency (by 862% in comparison with 1996) also increased, as well as payments for leakage and other taxes. KEGOC company also increased the tariff of power transit from 164 million tenge in 1996 to 327 million tenge.
�In general, expenses of APC in 1999 will increase by 125% in comparison with 1996 and will come to 8 billion 358 million tenge,� the head of the company stated.
The Chief Executive Officer said expenses towards maintenance and exploitation of the equipment had been minimised, as in the entire power industry of Kazakhstan, as this directly depended on the method of tariff calculation, which did not allow the company to be profitable.
�Till the present time we cannot lay bills for a product produced by us (heat and power), though our calculation centre was ready to service the population 12 years ago,� the Chief Executive Officer of APC said.
The city authorities are lobbying interests of an artificial intermediate the JSC �Parasat�, which often transmits the population�s money with a delay. This often arouses serious financial difficulties.
�Due to their intermediate activity for 3 quarters of 1999 APC has lost 16 million tenge only in the private sector,� Marc Josz emphasised.
The Chief Executive Officer of APC commented the proposal of �Almaty Power Consolidated�, whose representatives recently announced that they were able to supply power to Almaty at a price of 2 tenge per 1 kWh/h, as unreal, as this tariff does not include expenses towards distribution of power in Almaty and 14% of losses while transporting power from Ekibastuz.
�This is rather a political issue, than an economic one,� Mr. Josz remarked.
Marc Josz believes that if the Agency on Regulation of Natural Monopolies does not approve the APC�s proposal regarding the increase of tariffs, the company will be in a deadlock and will have to stop its activity in the Almaty region.
APC appealed to the government requesting to recommence the mission of the international expert-auditor, who is to �judge� the parties regarding the grounds for the new tariffs.
Heating and electricity tariffs are not the subject to change till the end of the year, - the Antimonopoly Committee
�In the Almaty region the electricity and heating tariffs will remain the same till the end of the years,� a representative of the regional Committee on regulating the natural monopolies and protection of competitiveness said in her exclusive interview to THE GLOBE.
According to the chief of the department, grounds stipulated by APC are insufficient to increase tariffs for power.
It was found out that tariffs for heating energy for the Almaty population are being considered by the city committee on regulation the natural monopolies. However, Dina Bitasheva remarked that the city committee would not also permit any increase of heating prices for the fourth quarter of this year.
According to the law �On natural monopolies�, any natural monopolists is to submit all his calculation materials to be considered by the committee 45 days before they take any measures.
As calculations of APC for the fourth quarter have been considered and the company received a negative answer, till the end of the year �APC will not be able to raise the above-mentioned tariffs�, according to the law.
By Antoine VERBIJ
Almaty, Sept. 8
(De Groene Amsterdammer,
Holland)
A nation cannot blossom without an inspired intelligentsia, without people that experiment with ideas, be it in science or in arts, so as to help their fellow men and women to understand who they are and in what situation they find themselves. Even when a nation goes through a period of economic crisis, when its population is suffering from poverty and an extreme shortage of jobs, culture can help to live through that period by keeping alive the values that were built up in the past and by trying out new values that can be the cornerstones of future welfare. Kazakhstan is, as I learned from reading about it and as I have been seeing now for the last three weeks with my own eyes, going through a deep economic and political crisis. But how about its culture, how about the science and the arts in Kazakhstan?
Last week I made a long walk in the mountains near Almaty. I enjoyed the woods, I passed a lovely, turquoise shining lake, and I went up higher still. Then, some 2700 meters above sea level, I stumbled upon what evidently not so long ago used to be a cosmological centre of great importance. Telescopes, high tech-installations, buildings were standing there empty and desolate, as if a war had been waged on the site, or some natural disaster had chased away all living creatures. Suddenly there was a dog barking. From a little house, the only one that seemed to be not totally destroyed, a sleepy man came out. He turned out to be the only human being in the resort. He heartily invited me and my companion to have tea with him. As he told us, he was looking after the last telescope that was still functioning, keeping trail of some commercial satellites. A passioned scientist, who used to do fundamental research, degraded to a watchdog for a Russian communications firm.
A few days later I visited the Kazakh Filmstudios, somewhere at the edge of the city of Almaty. An impressive site, where huge halls give testimony of a once flowering cinematographic culture. As I was told, there used to work two thousand people in the buildings, making films that conquered the international film festivals. Now, only in one of the halls there was some activity. A handful of people were working on the 317th episode of �Perekryostok�, the popular soap-series of Khabar television. Soap-series may have their merits, reflecting as they do the daily sorrows and the daily glories of ordinary people. But what if it is the only thing that is being created in the immense filmstudios, while in the meantime talented filmmakers get no support whatsoever for making films in which really new ideas are being put into really new forms?
The next day I was taken to the Kasteyev Museum of Kazakh art of the twentieth century. I cannot say that I liked all the art that was shown, but there were certainly interesting paintings, sculptures and applied works of art to be seen. What I certainly did not like, were the buckets standing between the peaces of art and in the hallways, waiting to catch the rain that was sure to come through the roof whenever it would start pooring again. Objects were covered with plastic, and everywhere there were peaces of cloth lying ready, to protect the accomplishments of Kazakh culture against the whims of Kazakh nature. And some parts of the museum were not even open to the public because of the deplorable state they were in.
In the three weeks I spent thus far in Almaty, writing for my Dutch weekly paper on subjects like the press, medical care and the position of women in Kazakh society, I spoke to some dozen intellectuals, all very aspiring, all with many ideas about the scientific research or the artistic experiments they wanted to accomplish, but all with the same story: there is no money for it, the institutes are closed, the cultural infrastructure, that used to be there in Soviet times, is gone. Even the president of the Kazakh Writer�s Union confessed to me that in the Brezhnev era science and culture esperienced high tides of which the contemporary intelligentsia can only dream.
Is there really no money for people to realize their scientific and artistic ideas? I have noticed that traditional culture and folklore are being generously stimulated, that the floodlights of theatres and music halls are highlighting the ways in which people used to express themselves artistically in the past, when the Kazakhs were one of the most cultivated nomad peoples in the Central-Asian area. It is true, these cultural forms have been oppressed in the times of Soviet rule, so they deserve to be reactivated. But the realm of folklore and tradition is not the cultural laboratory from which new ideas and new forms emerge that can answer the questions posed by a people searching for a new identity in an utterly problematic world.
The history of the twentieth century has shown, I think, that during periods of crisis and rapid change, a living intellectual avantgarde can be of vital importance for a nation. Russian intellectuals in the first decades of this century, German intellectuals in the twenties, American intellectuals in the thirties and fourties, Eastern European intellectuals in the fifties and sixties � their deeply inspired products bear witness of a creativity that was unique for the time and the place they lived in, and they have earned well-deserved prominent places in the Pantheon of twentieth century art and science. And really, they didn�t need much more than a crust of bread to chew on. But even that scientists and artists seem to be lacking in today�s Kazakhstan.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.