Askar DARIMBET
ALMATY, May 19
(THE GLOBE)
An increasing attention to Kazakhstan on behalf of the international community may force the local authorities to take constructive decisions to change the domestic policy concerning the democratic reforms.
In the beginning of May the hearings on Kazakhstan were conducted in the US Congress. The three representatives of the Kazakh opposition took part in these hearings. They presented their reports on situation in our republic. The democratic issues and human rights are known to be of non-national character. According to the experts, the hearings should not be interpreted as interference into the internal affairs of the country.
One of the leaders of the opposition, spoken at the hearings, a co-chairman of �Azamat� movement Pyotr Svoik gave an exclusive interview to THE GLOBE.
I would like to emphasise from the very beginning, that not a single CIS country took part in the hearings on democracy and observance of the human rights separately, Kazakhstan was the first one. It proves that the situation caused by worsening political and economic conditions has taken shape in our country.
I received an official invitation to take part in the hearings as an eyewitness, from the US embassy. When I reached Washington, I found out that the idea of such events is totally new, and there was no definite mechanism had been worked out to conduct the hearings. It is possible to say, that the hearings had a demonstrative character.
Despite they were held in the Congress, actually they were held under the aegis of OSCE, as in the US Congress there is a inter-Houses Commission on security and co-operation in Europe (CSCE), which includes all the senators and congressmen. It is known, Kazakhstan is a member of OSCE, and according to the mandate, the Commission has the right to follow how the countries-members of OSCE observe principles of this organisation.
The CSCE chairman�s speech at the American hearings is worthy of especial attention. He evaluated the condition of democracy in Kazakhstan from the point of view of the OSCE standards, in particular regarding the extra-ordinary Presidential election. The ambassador of the US government emphasised the insufficiency of the democratisation tempo in Kazakhstan. He announced, in connection to that the US government would definitely correct the policy in respect to the republic.
Apart from the opposition leaders, the representative of the Kazakhstan diplomacy, the ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States spoke from the Kazakh side, though before it had been planned that the Minister of Foreign Affairs would take part in the hearings. His speech sounded officially. According to the ambassador, the country is steadily moving towards democracy. His answer to the question of the Commission about non-admission of Kazhegeldin to the election, was laconic: �law is law.�
I would like to emphasise that in my speech I touch upon the co-operation, including sphere of the reform, between America and Kazakhstan, which accompanied our country for the recent time. I dared to recommend to continue and deepen this co-operation, despite the current situation. To my mind, any economic projects should be combined with political ones.
Apart from the offers to change the existing law on elections, I emphasised the necessity to form a new government, which unlike the existing one would begin execute purposefully the economic reforms tightly connected with political ones.
We could see that the law on elections was approved fast and privately. It is obvious, that the Parliamentary election will be similar to the Presidential one. However, the president, despite the approval of the new law, is able to make the Parliamentary election close to the standards of OSCE. On one hand, OSCE, and concretely America, despite the double standards and different geopolitical aspects, will not allow Kazakhstan to ignore themselves, that is proved by the hearings. The compromise is possible: first, to abandon administrative restrictions; second, to include representatives of the parties in the composition of the election commissions.
Taking into consideration, that according to the legislation current in force, the compositions of the election commissions are to be determined by the akims, �Otan� party, which leaders officially became the representatives of the akimats, will be widely represented in the election commissions. That is why our movement several times offered to change the law, to supplement the law with the provision that the election commission should be formed by the Maslikhats on the alternative basis or representatives of the managerial organisations, budget organisations and submitted persons should not be included in the commissions. At least, a compromise decision to include the political parties in the composition of the election commissions will be the most appropriate, as the party of authorities has been already included there.
In case Kazakhstan does not accept these changes, the total situation in the country, I think, will worsen. The investors and international financial organisations will pay less attention to Kazakhstan, though many our partners have already understood that it is practically impossible to establish anything long-term and stable. Moreover, the people will feel hopelessness.
To my mind, in general the hearings arose great interest in Kazakhstan, at least the hearings were actively eliminated in the press. But the majority of the population is badly informed, and has inadequate idea what happens in Kazakhstan indeed. The main reasons are underdevelopment of the political system, the mass media, and the system of political parties, and hence, it is impossible to realise any social ideas. If we concretise it, qualification of the mass media in the republic is not high. Often journalists, especially TV journalists, cannot catch the main meaning of an event and present their material which does not comply with the demands of adequacy.
Kulimkhan HASENOVA
ALMATY, May 18 (THE GLOBE)
Unlike the leaders of �Otan� (the authorities� party) Sergei Tereschenko and Marat Ospanov, who in the last week had arrived to the press-conference by �Mercedes-500� (one of the Almaty newspapers placed a photo-report about this event), the leader of the Civil Party Azat Peruashev arrived to the ceremony by a city taxi. He said about it to the audience with a hidden meaning, emphasising that CPK did not have a lot of money, and it was called the party of money in vain: his party was not going to waste any money. Modesty of the party�s leader must have been appreciated by 40000 of potential members of CPK, as 40000 applications to join the party were submitted. �A number of people who are eager to enter into the party is so big, that we have to stop reception of the applications for some time, as we cannot prepare the party-membership cards in time,� Azat Peruashev announced modestly. Multiplicity of the CPK should be the main trump in the next Parliamentary election. The second trump should be the fact that it is the party of �industrialists and workers.� Such a combination of different interests was not observed in Kazakhstan for last several years. Just the opposite, the industrial elite represented by the heads of �aluminium�, �chrome�, �oil� and other companies, JSCes, etc. shunned the working class.
For the last several months CPK prepared its �maximum� and �minimum� programs. Explaining the essence of these programs, Azat Peruashev applied to all devices of the public speaker. The maximum program is �an establishment of the new Kazakhstan, where the aged people will live well and know what they will eat for dinner.� The minimum program is their victory at the next Parliamentary election. The young leader of CPK emphasised, that �we are not greedy, 10 to 12 sits will be enough for us.� But CPK is ready to fight for them �till the end and aggressively, if it is required.� What did the latter mean, we may only guess. Today when other parties and movements move themselves, hold numerous press-conferences, criticising the new Law on elections, doubting that they will succeed in the election, CPK is creating the headquarter on to prepare or the election. Most probably, they do not doubt that they will win. �Our leader is Nursultan Nazarbaev,� the leaders of CPK repeat constantly. The party �Otan� also considers Nazarbaev as its leader, but it does not prevent the CPK members to talk impartially about that party. At least, during the solemn ceremony devoted to handing out the party cards, a phrase that they did not accept anybody by force in the Civil Party (unlike �Otan�), was pronounced, as well as the phrase �we are not the party of the governing elite.�
Atyrau, May 19 INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
Despite the p[olitical conflicts in the world, in particular in the Balkans, the company �Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company� (OKIC, an operational company on sea works in Kazakhstan) is interested in the further development of the oil project in the Caspian shelf in Kazakhstan. That was announced by the production manager OKIOC Paul Jeffrey in his interview to the correspondent of �Interfax-Kazakhstan�.
He said, he did not agree with the rumours, that USA pressed the companies included in OKIOC to delay that project.
P. Jeffry stated, that �recently relations between America and Kazakhstan were stable enough and unproblematic.�
Moreover, he announced, the Kazakhstan government had been an initiator of the project realisation in the northern Caspian sea. According to this project, at the first phase OKOIC is only to prospect the mineral resources in this territory.
He also declared, OKIOC had been working in the Kazakhstan market for five years. P. Jeffrey emphasised, that for that period �the company had felt great support both by the government of the country and by common people.�
At present, OKIOC company has already conducted the thorough seismic and ecological researches in the region. According to Mr. Jeffrey, now the company is thoroughly preparing for drilling the first prospective well. That is why drilling in the Caspian sea will happen in any case, the manager stated. He also supposes, �it is planned to drill five wells more in the next two years.�
He emphasised, we should take into consideration the company did not talk about oil mining in this site, the company was only prospecting the supposed oil reserves. �It will take minimum five to six years before OKIOC talk about output,� P. Jeffrey said.
As far as the preparation for the first drilling is concerned, P. Jeffrey announced, preparation works are at the final stage. In his opinion, �they have to complete some works connected with a drilling barge.�
As the barge is unique and its modernisation has no analogues in the world, the project is regularly perfected and supplemented, the manager announced. That is why P. Jeffrey considers �it is difficult to talk about concrete time of the beginning of the project.� However, �the company will not be in a hurry to put the object into exploitation, until it is absolutely confident that the barge complies with safety and international ecological standards.� It is one of the principles of the oil industry, P. Jeffrey remarked.
Aktau. May 19. INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
The Kazakhstan sea basis Bautino (Mangistau region, western Kazakhstan) is absolutely ready for drilling of the first prospective well in the Eastern Kashagan of the Northern Caspian sea. That was announced by the manager of the basis Ed Eelman at the meeting with the journalists in Buatino.
In September 1998 the company �Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company� (OKIOC) completed construction of the sea basis in the village of Buatino intended for maintenance of the drilling works in the northern Caspian sea. The contractor of this construction was the American-Turkish joint venture �Bektel-Enka�.
According to E. Eelman, all the stores, tugboats with barges, tankers, as well as the 82 metres moorage, which allows the ships with capacity up to 2500 tons to come to it, are ready for exploitation. The total value of the sea basis is US$ 11 million.
To drill doing no harm to the environment, the plant for reprocessing of the waste products has been erected in the basis. That plant was designed for storage and processing of the potentially polluted slag, i.e. solid remains, to ecologically inertial powder. According to the manager, this object was constructed mainly for maximum re-circulation of the materials and to minimise the slag volume, which are to be taken away. The remaining after procession solid material may be used for construction purposes.
According to the manager preparation drilling solutions Peter McParland, output of pure oil from the first prospecting well will be less than 0.5%.
Processing of the slag will be made by drilling solution. The type of the drilling solution was chosen taking into consideration the ecological conditions. So, according to P. McParland, to drill the upper sector of the well, the drilling solution with mineral base with low toxicity will be used, as it will significantly reduce the slag volumes.
P. McParland considers, the drilling solution, extracted after processing of the slag on the ground will be reused in the drilling device. The drilling solution with hydration basis will be used for drilling the bed and preparation of the necessary volumes to control the drilling continuously.
Beside that, E. Eelman stated, in the structure of the basis they had already prepared the premises for 28 persons, the clinics and restaurant for 110 sits. 60 specialists have been employed, 50 of them are Kazakhstan citizens, 10 � foreign ones.
Astana, May 18. INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
The Agency on reorganisation and liquidation of the enterprises and the manager of the gold-mining JSC �Kazakhaltyn� declared about the auction for sale of the property complex of this enterprises which would be held on May 28 in Astana. It was announced also on Tuesday by �Kazakhstanskaya pravda� newspaper.
The auction will be held according to the Dutch method.
The property complex of �Kazakhaltyn� will be presented at the auction as a single lot, which includes buildings, erections, equipment and mechanisms, transmission devises, communication networks, inventories, including stores located in the villages Aksu, Betyube, Zholymbet.
The government of Kazakhstan demands a buyer should guarantee continuity of the labour agreements with workers of the enterprise, to repay the debts before creditors, to compensate the expenditures connected with the continuous work of �Kazakhaltyn� during the competitive production till the date the rights on this property will be transferred to a new owner. These expenses will not be included in the sale price of the enterprise.
The initial price at the auction will be 1 billion 555 million tenge (US$ 1=117.9 tenge). The minimal price is supposed to be 121 million tenge.
The guarantee deposit for the auction participators is determined in the amount of 12 million 100 thousand tenge.
Pavlodar, May 18 INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
The Kazakhstan�s open mine �Severny� (Ekibastuz, Pavlodar region, the north of the republic) recommenced despatch of coal to Russia after a month and a half break. It was said to the �Interfax-Kazakhstan� agency by the deputy of the general director of the open mine Yuryi Artyomenko.
The open mine �Severny� stopped its work from April 1. The stoppage was initiated by the regional tax committee, as the open mine had a debt before the budget in the amount of 3 billion 455 million 279 thousand tenge (US$ 1=117.9 tenge).
Accroding to the deputy of the akim (governor) of the region Muhamedkali Ospanov, the decision about cancellation of the prohibition to despatch coal from �Severny� was taken at the meeting with the regional akim with participation of the head of the JSC �Energougol� (subsidiary of the JSC �EES Rossii�), governing the open mine, Vadim Melkov. V. Melkov stated that at present Moscow had sent the first 50 million tenge to repay the debt before the budget.
According to Y. Artyomenko, �Severny� will export coal only to �Sverdloenergo� and �Chelyabenergo�, which guarantee payments for the supplied coal. Despite the fact, that in March the heads of the Pavlodar and Omsk regions clarified the issues concerning supply of coal to �Omskenergo�, and found the ways to repay the Russian debt before the Kazakh partner, this problem is still unsettled.
Shymkent, May 18 INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
The chairman of the southern Kazakhstan regional court Musabek Alimbetov is unsatisfied with the actions of the manager of the JSC �Phosphor� Pavel Tsoi. The chairman announced about it at the meeting of the boards of creditors of the JSC �Phosphor�.
According to Musabek Alimbetov, the manager of the JSC �Phosphor� �infringes the law on bankruptcy.�
At the meeting Musabek Alimbetov read the determination of the regional court �about dismissal of P. Tsoi from the post of the manager of the JSC �Phosphor.� However, the board of the creditors of the enterprise retained P. Tsoi at his position.
In his own turn P. Tsoi promised people present at the meeting to find a real investor for the phosphor plant �at the earliest.�
Musabek Alimbetov evaluated the activity of the entire agency on reorganisation and bankruptcy of the enterprises in the southern Kazakhstan region as �unsatisfactory.�
According to the information of Musabek Alimbetov, from the moment of the beginning of the agency�s activity, 25 enterprises in the southern Kazakhstan region had been announced bankrupts, however, only 10 of them completed the competitive production.
Musabek Alimbetov said that �majority of the managers think more about their future, than how to transfer the bankrupted enterprise from irresponsible owner to a more businesslike and clever one.�
Almaty, May 19 INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
The ceremony of the first bucket of iron ore will be held on Friday at the mine �Atansor� (Akmola region, central Kazakhstan).
According to the press-service of the president of Kazakhstan, the head of the state Nursultan Nazarbaev is expected to be present at this ceremony.
The beginning of ore output at the Atansor deposit was preceded by the development of the manufacturing infrastructure. The Kazakhstan concern �Elrovo� which from 1998 has a licence for exploitation of this deposit, planned to spend more than 200 million tenge (US$ 1=117.9 tenge) for this purpose. At present �Atasuruda� is busy with organising of ore department. It is planned to construct at Atansor a railway dead-end-siding, to install the electrical networks, electrical substations and so on.
It is supposed, that in 1999 the ore output at Atansor will be about 600 thousand tons. According to the specialist� prognosis, the projected capacity of the deposit may come to 2 million tons of iron ore per annum.
Karaganda, May 18. INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan does not agree with the demands of the Swiss company �Kam Finance� to compensate the loss of the company caused by cancellation of the agreement for the management of the JSc �Balkhashmys� (today it is the JSc �Balkhashsky mining-metallurgical plant� (BMMP), Karagandy region, central Kazakhstan). It was announced at the press-conference by the president of the JSC �BMMP� Vladimir Malyshev, who took part in the court process as an expert.
At the meeting of the international Arbitrage in Stockholm �Kam Finance� demanded the government of Kazakhstan to compensate the loss in the amount more than US$ 41.5 million, including US$ 6 million spent to design the investment program on reanimation of the JSC �Balkhashmys�, US$ 558000 � to pay the specialists� salary, tour expenses and others. The lost profits of the company are evaluated in the amount of US$ 35 million.
According to V. Malyshev, during the hearings they managed to reduce the claimed amount from US$ 41 million to US$ 17 million, and later by US$ 7 million more. However, the Kazakh side does not agree with this amount either.
V. Malyshev announced, by the end of May independent experts of the court would continue to work with the documents, after that the international Arbitrage would declare its resolution.
The JSC �Balkhashmys� was transferred to �Kam Finance� in the result of the tender on October 17, 1995. On December 13, 1995 the decision of the tender commission was approved by the government�s decree.
However, from June 18, 1996 the government cancelled the agreement with the Swiss company, as the conditions of the agreement had not been fulfilled.
By that time �Kam Finance� began to finance the JSC �Balkhashmys� at the mortgage of the reserve copper fund in the volume of 10000 tons of copper, the enterprise was allotted the credit in amount of US$ 100 million. In connection with the cancellation of the contract the company applied to the international Arbitrage.
Almaty, May 18. INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN
In the beginning of May the Aksu ferroalloys plant (AFP, Pavlodar region, north of Kazakhstan) began to pay the dividends to owners of the privileged stocks for 1997.
According to the AFP press-service, payments come to annual 10%.
The nominal cost of a stock is 1000 tenge (US$ 1=117.9 tenge).
The total volume of payments will be more than 28 million tenge.
Th decision to began to pay the dividends was taken in February at the open meeting of the shareholders by the board of the plant.
The dividends of natural persons will be paid in cash, dividends of the juridical persons will be transmitted to their accounts.
The press-service also announced, for the four months of this year the production volume of ferroalloys at AFP was 151.3%, in comparison with the respective period of 1998 the sale index (expressed in money) increased by 41.2%.
For the first three months of 1999 the volume of the manufactured products increased by 72.5%. the growth tempo in March was 124% (in comparison with February).
Besides, today the profits of AFP is more than 1.5 billion tenge.
The press-service states, the today�s results of the activity of AFP are caused by the taken anti-crisis measures �which allowed to create a basis for stable work of the enterprise in 1999.�
The Aksu ferroalloys plant is included in the JSC Trans-National Company (TNC) �Kazchrome�. �Kazchrome� consists also of the JSC �Ferrochrome� (Aktyubinsk ferroalloys plant), JSC �Donskoy GOK� (Aktyubinsk region, western Kazakhstan).
28.575% of the stocks of �Kazchrome� belong to �Kazakhstan Mineral Resources Corporation (KMRC), 28.575% � to �Kazchrome� (these stocks belonged earlier to the British �Trans World Group�, then they were withdrawn and in accordance with the resolution of the Superior Court in January 199 these stocks were transferred to the balance of �Kazchrome�), 31.3% belong to the state, the rest are the privileged stocks of the workers.
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