KAZAKH PREMIER RECEIVES SECRETARY OF STATE OF JAPAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
ASTANA. On August 20 in Astana Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Nurlan Balgimbayev received Secretary of State of Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Takami Keidzo.
During the metting with participation of Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev there was considered issue of the forthcoming international conference on problems of Semipalatinsk proving ground, which will be organized by the Japan side early September this year.
The economic cooperation is growing. Kazakhstan and Japan build an unique bridge over Irtysh river, conduct works at frontier station of �Druzhba�. Joint efforts let speed-up oil prospecting at the Caspian shelf, Japan investments help to restore roads of Western Kazakhstan.
GRAIN YIELD CAPACITY IN KAZAKHSTAN - 11,6 CENTNERS FROM HECTARE
ASTANA. This year grain cultures will be harvested on the area of 11 mln 367 thousand hectares. That is 2 mln 159 thousand hectares less than in 1998, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
The harvest of grain crops is being finished in Almaty, Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan region. Yield capacity made here 13,8 centners from a hectare.
Good harvest is in East Kazakhstan region, where yield capacity is 11 centners of grain from a hectare in average. At the same time consequences of heat in July influenced yiled productivity of grain crops in West Kazakhstan region, which makes only 1 centner in average.
Northern regions began to harvest grain. 26 thousand tons of grain are threshed in Akmola region by yield capacity of 12,5 centners.
The average yield capacity in the republic is 11,6 centners from a hectare, when last year it was only 9 centners.
MEETING OF INTERNATIONAL CHAMBERS� OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY COUNCIL IS PLANNED TO BE HELD IN ALMATY
ALMATY. The participation in the private sector of Kazakhstan�s economy offered more than 20 companies from Belarus, Ukraine and Macedonia, dealing with production of furniture, textile and equipment on agrucultural products� processing.
Constacts are being established due to the activity of the republic�s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In Almaty on October 8-9 this year it is planned to hold the VI meeting of the International Council on co-operation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry from the CIS countries, Baltic states, Central and East Europe. For the first time the question of international cooperation of the economy�s private sector is included to the agenda.
Experts from 20 countries are expected to participate in Almaty meeting. They will discuss joint actions in prevention of world economic crisis� results and problems of the interaction of Chambers of Commerce and Industry with state structures and economy�s private sector.
DEBTS ON ALLOWANCES AND SALARIES INCREASE
ASTANA. According to the information of the Agency on economic planning of Kazakhstan, akimats of district and regional level have debts to the sum of 5 bln Tenge on the payment of children�s and dwelling allowances. Only Almaty region and cities of Astana and Almaty have no debts on children�s allowances.
In the period from July to August indebtedness of budget organizations on salaries increased sharply.
In the republican budget 1999 subsidies for the support of agricultural producers are not foreseen. State funds will be used only for purchasing of the manufactured products of the agriculture on high state prices.
KazAAG, Aug 23
ALMATY, Kazakhstan,
Aug 23 (AFP)
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin fly to Kyrgyzstan this week to discuss regional security and economic issues at the third �Shanghai Five� summit.
Along with their Central Asian counterparts, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan and Imomali Rakhmanov of Tajikistan, Yeltsin and Jiang will discuss progress on demarcating and demilitarizing the nearly 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) former Sino-Soviet border.
Boosting trade between China and its neighbors and political issues are also on the agenda of the two-day summit Monday and Tuesday in Bishkek, the tiny capital of the mountainous Central Asian republic of 4.8 million people.
Kyrgyzstan and China will also sign a separate bilateral document to boost cooperation along their shared border, the Interfax news agency quoted a Kyrgyz presidential spokesman as saying last week.
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China were expected to sign a trilateral agreement, the spokesman told Interfax. No further details were provided.
The meeting between Yeltsin and Jiang will be their first since the ailing Russian president received the Chinese leader at Moscow�s Central Clinical Hospital in November.
Although Yeltsin was hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia, the two leaders managed to sign a border accord and an agreement on Sino-Russian political relations in the 30-minute encounter.
Yeltsin�s last visit to Central Asia in October was also marred by health problems.
After he stumbled at the airport and was steadied by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, the Russian president cut short his Central Asian tour after making a brief one-day appearance in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
His spokesman put the president�s weakness down to a �cold.�
The Shanghai Five got its name for its first summit in Shanghai, China, in April 1996 where the five countries penned a historic treaty to demilitarize their common border.
That treaty asserted the countries� intention to replace military forces along a wide band on each side of the frontier with border guards and exchange data annually on military activities along the border, such as troop exercises or deployments.
Meeting a year later in Moscow, the five states agreed to mutual 15-percent troop reductions along the 3,000-kilometer (1,875-mile) border shared by the three former Soviet republics and China.
Such cooperation in recent years is a far cry from the border conflicts of the 1960s.
In 1967, clashes over the uninhabited Damansky island on the Ussuri River located between Russia and China left an estimated 54 people dead.
And twice, in 1961 and 1967, tens of thousands of ethnic Kazakhs and Uighurs tried to cross from China�s western Xinjiang province into Kazakhstan to escape Chinese repression.
This February, Kazakhstan returned three Uighurs who had illegally crossed the border from China, a move criticized by human rights observers who considered the three refugees.
China also has been keen to boost trade ties with the former Soviet republics.
In November 1997, Yeltsin and Jiang signed an economic accord in Beijing to boost economic development in the border areas mainly in Russia�s Far East.
A year later in July, Jiang traveled to Almaty where he and Nazarbayev discussed the construction of a Chinese auto plant in Kazakhstan and various construction projects in the new capital, Astana.
They also finalized the demarcation of their common border and settled ownership of several disputed areas.
ALMATY, August 23
(THE GLOBE)
�The government allots us less than 50% of the required means,� the deputy of the director of the republican Institute of Improvement of personnel skills of the educational system (IIPS) announced on Monday in Almaty.
According to Altynai Zhaitapova, at the present time, the number of the regional methodical departments, which mainly monitored the educational processes and diagnosed requirements of teaching personnel of the republic, was reduced.
The representative of IIPS emphasised that 16 million tenge annually allotted to them are obviously not enough to prepare specialists for the educational system to introduce timely modern educational technologies, which were stipulated in the new law �On education�.
�To overcome the present situation we have to look for other sources of financing,� she remarked.
Thanks to money allotted by the Asian Bank of Development in the last year 1144 teachers improved their skills in Kazakhstan.
In 1998 about 35000 teachers (out of 75000 teachers who really needed the courses) improved their professional skills at the courses, including 3000 at IIPS.
�Despite the Mazhilis� recommendations, till the present time the institutes of improvement of personnel skills have not been restored in some regions,� Altynai Zhaitapova said.
Another problem, which is to be immediately settled, is a low level of provision with modern technique and educational technologies in the entire republic.
The situation around the newspaper �SOLDAT�, which is the successor of �DAT� newspaper explains many aspects (actually, this is the same newspaper with a little changed name, that is why we will refer to it as �DAT�).
At the present time, all discussions regarding Kazakh language have been brought to just discussions. There is no serious official newspaper published in the state language. In fact, there is no successive policy in this direction.
�DAT� bursts into an absolutely free field, meeting no worthy competitors. The newspaper presents a compromising material, which causes a striking effect of the rural population. But this material does not promote any stormy reaction by the urban audience, especially by Russian-speaking one.
For a short period of time �DAT� has become very popular among the rural population. The ballyhoo around this newspaper somehow resembled to one of �Sovershenno Sekretno�, when the publication of �SS� was begun, people stood in queers to buy the newspaper.
It is noteworthy that the newspaper does not publish doubled articles, i.e. articles in Kazakh and Russian are different.
Summarising, we may mark two aspects. First, �DAT� has an easy field, where the newspaper has no competitors. On the other hand, that is why the newspaper faces such a tough reaction of the authorities. This pressure will be continued until any state edition able to compete with �DAT�, will be established.
N.A.
The first Kazakhstan TV serial seems to have decided to deal with the propaganda of Kazakh language. In the last series of �Perekryostok� televiewers could watch classes of Kazakh language. These episodes took more than a half of the film.
Some heroes of the film are Americans who came to Kazakhstan and ask a local Russian woman: �Why don�t most Kazakhstan citizen speak in their native language?� the woman answers, when our generation studied at school, we study Kazakh language only twice per week. The study was not serious, and it was difficult to learn Kazakh language. Then the foreigners wished to start immediately learning the language. Then the new hero, Rosa-apai appears, who teach them Kazakh language.
While there is no clear and successive policy regarding the state language, it is very interesting to watch the trial of propaganda through the local �soap opera�.
We remind that recently heroes of the film talked about the privileges of the pension reform.
On the other hand, unlike Russia, and for example, Kyrgyzstan, such a direction as social advertisement is not developed at all in Kazakhstan. This blank is being filled with plots of the TV serial.
It is difficult to say how it is effective.
Another thing is interesting. The election will be held soon. Heroes of �Perekryostok� will vote for sure, but for whom?
Erkanat ABENI
Read the monitor of public opinion about the state language on page 5.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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