KAZAKH PRESIDENT CHAIRED SESSION OF THE STATE SECURITY COUNCIL. RFE/RL correspondents report from the Kazakh capital, that yesterday, June 16, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev participated in the session of the Kazakh State Security Council. The main issues discussed at the session were about the situation around illegal immigrants to Kazakhstan and the Kazakh State Border delimitation. Kazakh leader called the Security Council to strengthen its activities in those spheres. Special operation called MIGRANT started being implemented by the Almaty City Police Department this week. Hundreds of the first illegal immigrants living in Almaty City and its suburbs started being deported to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Also some illegal Chinese immigrants were reportedly detected. The issue of the Uzbek-Kazakh borders delimitation has not been solved during working visit of the Kazakh Nurlan Balghymbayev to Tashkent earlier last month.
KAZAKH PRESIDENT AWARDS CANADIAN AND TURKISH AMBASSADORS TO KAZAKHSTAN. According to information provided by Kazakh Presidential Office, Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev signed Decrees yesterday, June 16, due to which Charles R. Mann - Canadian Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kurtulus Taskent - Ambassador of Turkey to Kazakhstan, were handed special Honorable Diplomas for their �contributions into the strengthening of the cooperation between their countries and Kazakhstan�.
KAZAKH STUDENTS TO BE ADMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITIES THROUGH NEW REGULATIONS. RFE/RL correspondents quote Kazakh Ministry of Science and Higher Education as reporting that this summer the quota for students to be admitted to the Kazakh Universities for free would be limited. Vice Minister of Science and Higher Education Bazar Damitov said yesterday that 9179 full-time students would be admitted to the state run Kazakh Universities and Institutes free of charge this year. 7598 distance students will start getting University Education for the state money. All those money will cover tuition only. As for dormitory and monthly stipends, those will be the matters of the students themselves. According to Vice Minister Damitov, the priority will be given to orphans, kids from villages and representatives of lower social groups. All the money given to the students by the state treasury will be required to be returned back to the government in ten years after the students� academic terms are finished
CITIZENS OF TEKELI REGION IN TALDY-QORGHAN AREA TO ELECT THEIR GOVERNOR THEMSELVES. Citizens of Tekeli Region, Taldy-Qorghan Area, Almaty Oblast, officially expressed their desire to repeat the experience of Qarasay Region and elect their new governor themselves. The first local governor elections were held in Qarasay Region, native place of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, earlier last month. RFE/RL correspondents report that 60 per cent of the Tekeli�s population are pensioners, 70 per cent are unemployed. The inhabitants of the region accuse their current governor Qanatbek Azhigulov of having been unable to solve the social hardships faced by the local population.
ALMALY DISTRICT COURT CONFIRMS THE DECISION OF GENERAL PROCURACY TO START CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST FORMER PREMIER. RFE/RL correspondents report from Almaty that yesterday, June 16 Almaly District Court in Almaty examined a letter sent by Vitaliy Voronov - lawyer of Akezhan Kazhegeldin, formerly Kazakh Prime Minister, now leader of Kazakh Republican People�s Party. Mr. Voronov tried to persuade Almaly District Court that the criminal case opened against his client by the Kazakh general Procuracy and Tax Police was a �mistake�, noting that all the accusations put forward against Akezhan Kazhegeldin were �groundless�. Mr. Kazhegeldin is being accused of taxes disarray and illegal owning of some real estate in Belgium. Almaly District Court made a decision not to satisfy Vitaliy Voronov�s requests, adding that the Kazakh General Procuracy�s decision was right.
FOOD POISONING IN SOTSIYALIZM VILLAGE, WESTERN KAZAKHSTAN. RFE/RL correspondents quote Kazakh Commission on Extraordinary Situations as reporting that 54 citizens of SOTSIYALIZM Village in Western Kazakhstan Oblast were brought to hospitals of Oral (Uralsk) City with food poisoning diagnosis. The abdominal disease was caused by consumption of locally produced meat reportedly. Investigations are underway.
PS. All the news are based on reports sent by RFE/RL correspondents Sultankhan Aqquly-Uly and Aselim Qalken Qyzy from Astana, Sayasat Beyisbay and Saltanat Baghashar from Almaty.
(RFE/RL)
AKTOBE, June 16
(THE GLOBE)
On June 16, in Aktobe, �Kazakhtelecom� opened the digital automatic inter-city telephone station (AITS) of the 5ESS system produced by �Lucent Technologies�.
According to the specialists, the new station will significantly improve the quality of inter-city and international communication. Now the population of Aktobe is able to use the most modern telecommunication services: E-mail, high-speed data transmission and access to the worldwide Internet.
So far this year, the total volume of investments of �Kazakhtelecom� to telecommunications in the Aktobe region has come to 500 million tenge. According to the evaluation of the specialists, the pay-off period of this project is 5 years.
We remind you that Aktobe was the eighteenth town in Kazakhstan to obtain digital international and inter-city communication.
At the end of August, a similar AITS will be put into operation in Uralsk. Following this, all the international and inter-city stations of the republic will be digital.
ALMATY, June 16
(KazAAG)
�As the result of the completion of the second line of the gas pipeline Gazli-Shymkent-Almaty, Almaty will be provided with the blue fuel uninterruptedly,� the general director of the JSC �Intergas Central Asia� announced.
On June 15, construction workers ceremoniously welded the last joint and the fuel was soon supplied to customers.
�Now we will forget the term �no pressure�,� Krym Abdyrrazak stated.
According to Abdyrrazak, the second line of the gas pipeline would have more capacity than the pipeline built 30 years ago. Should any accident in one of its pipes occur, the closing of this pipe will not influence the provision of gas to all towns and settlements along the pipeline. Moreover, it is supposed to store the 700 m� fuel reserve for Almaty.
At the present time, the constructors of the gas pipeline are moving to Kyrgyzstan, where they will have to build the last 60 kilometres of the second canal. Then the pipeline will be joined into a single line from the deposit to the most distant customers. It took nine years to build the second pipeline.
MOSCOW, Jun 16
(AFP)
Kazakh Finance Minister Uraz Djandosov threatened parliament with a no confidence vote if deputies did not approve budget cuts during a joint session next Monday, the Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.
An outcome which did not accept the government�s proposed cuts would be �suicide,� the news agency quoted Djandosov as saying at a meeting with the Aul faction of deputies.
The cuts �are of an objective character and connected with the decrease of tax revenues,� Djandosov said. �A compromise is not possible.�
The resource-rich Central Asian republic of 15 million people has been hit hard by the financial crisis in Russia, its largest trading partner, and low world prices for its most important export commodities of oil and metals.
Kazakhstan has enjoyed good relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other lenders, and Djandosov said that deputies needed to ensure that the country could continue to attract foreign loans.
�It is necessary to demonstrate to creditors practical approaches in forming budget revenues,� Djandosov said.
In March, the parliament approved budget cuts and the government announced a series of belt-tightening measures after admitting that Russia�s economic crisis was taking its toll on the republic.
The government�s budget forecasts a deficit of 67.1 billion tenge ($508 million, 483 million euros), or 3.7 percent of output. The government set revenue targets at 286.9 billion tenge ($2.17 billion) and spending at 354 billion tenge ($2.68 billion).
Lawmakers have accused the government of using an unrealistic exchange rate when calculating budget revenues.
Facing re-election in October, deputies are also reluctant to vote through cuts in social spending.
Under the Kazakh constitution, the parliament must pass a no-confidence vote by a two-thirds majority. President Nursultan Nazarbayev would then have 10 days to accept or reject his government�s dismissal.
If he rejects the dismissal, he has the right to dissolve the parliament.
Erkanat ABENI
ALMATY, June 15
(THE GLOBE)
�The Memorandums that are supposed to form the basis of mutual relations, were signed between the Istanbul Stock Exchange and KASE, as well as between �Takasbank� and the Central Depository,� the acting President of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) announced on June 15 in Almaty.
According to Damir Karasaev, negotiations with the heads of the National Commission on Securities of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KASE and the Central Depository of securities of RK were held during the visit of the delegation of representatives of the Istanbul Stock Exchange and �Takasbank�. These negotiations were devoted to the cross listing of securities of listing companies of the two Exchanges and to the opening of mutual accounts of the bank and the Depository.
The Chairman of the Board of the Istanbul Stock Exchange stated that the objective of their visit was to get acquainted with the Kazakhstan stock market, as well as to establish mutual relations between the Exchanges and the Central Depositories of the two countries.
Osman Birsen announced that before their visit to Kazakhstan, they had visited Kyrgyzstan with a similar aim. After Kazakhstan they were going to visit the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The head of the Exchange stated that for the 14 years of its existence, the Istanbul Stock Exchange had achieved comparatively high results in developing the stock market. Presently the capitalisation of the Turkish stock market is US$ 50.2 billion. The average annual volume of auctions is US$ 306.6 million. (Compare: the capitalisation of the market of KASE�s stocks is US$ 1.1 billion).
At the present time, six organisations with participation of Turkish capital are members of KASE, including 4 banks and 2 broker companies.
For the period from 1993 to 1999, the volume of the direct investments of Turkish companies to Kazakhstan was US$ 443 million, i.e. 5.7% of the total volume of foreign investments to Kazakhstan.
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