Kazakhstan�s President visited the anniversary NATO summit
As it was reported by Kazakh radio, the official visit of Nursultan Nazarbaev to USA (began on April 23) connected with his participation in the events devoted to the 50th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been completed. Consisting of 14 leading countries of the Western Europe, as well as of Canada and USA, the organization expanded earlier this year with the inclusion of the Czech republic, Hungary and Poland. Five years ago Kazakhstan also began its cooperation with NATO, after signing NATO�s �Partnership for the sake of peace� (PSP) document. Twenty-five countries, including all the post-soviet countries took part in the program. The development of Kazakhstan�s relations with NATO influences different fields, from military cooperation to ecology. It should be noted, that from May 13 to 19, the Central Asian battalion will take part in exercises in Florida. Fifteen persons from each country (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan) will participate in the exercises.
Nursultan Nazarbaev�s participation in the NATO summit was of a business character. Kazakhstan�s President had a meeting with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus. During the meeting, the President shed light on the conditions created for the investors in Kazakhstan. Later Nazarbayev had a round of talks with Roger Sant, the chairman of the board of AEC, and with Kennet Derr, the chairman of the board of �Chevron�. The President of Kazakhstan accepted an invitation to speak at the Carnegie International Research Center. According to the Habar agency, the President spoke about military actions in Balkans, emphasizing the importance of taking into consideration the UN�s attitude towards them. Nazarbayev declared that it is hardly right to ignore the opinion of such a powerful state as Russia. The President of Kazakhstan also talked about Kazakhstan and its changes, answering numerous questions regarding the privatization of land, property, oil pipelines routes, and about the role of government organizations. Melor Sturua, a professor of the University of Minnesota, commenting on a speech of Nazarbayev stated: �Kazakhstan is in the process of becoming a country of big potential under the conditions in which there was no signs of a civil society nor a middle class. Taking into consideration what Kazakhstan had to start with, its successes seem astonishing. I think, it is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the President to these achievements�. Nursultan Nazarbaev met also the FBI chief Tennet and answered questions of US mass media.
Kazakhstan � Qatar: widening economic cooperation
According to the representative of the press-service of the Kazakhstan President, the agreements on development of relations in the spheres of energy, tourism, trade, as well as in investment activity were concluded on Wednesday. The agreements were completed during the official visit of the emir of the Qatar, sheik Hamad Bin Halif Al Tani to Astana. Issues of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries were discussed during the negotiations of the Kazakhstan�s President and the guest from Qatar In the nearest future, the beginning of regular flights are planed to develop trade and tourism. As it is known, in 1998 Qatar expressed its readiness to invest US$ 10 million in the construction of some objects in Astana. The Kazakhstani government welcomed the emir�s plan to open the Islamic cultural center in Astana. The intergovernmental commission was entrusted to fulfill the agreements. In addition, the parties emphasized the importance of the summit of the Islamic Conference Organization, to be held in 2000. The Kazakhstani party will summarize proposals of the two parties concerning heightened cooperation to soon organize the visit of representatives of the Ministries and departments of RK, to Qatar.
Office of Public Prosecutor will strengthen control for functionaries
According to the newspaper �Vashe Pravo�, 60% of the criminal charges laid against functionaries concerned abuse of official status and bribery. The latest coordination conference of the law reinforcement organizations of Kazakhstan was held in the General Office of Public Prosecutor. One of the main issues considered at the conference was the fulfillment of the state program of struggle against corruption in 1999 to 2000. As it was noted by the head of the department of control for fulfillment of the law of RK �On the struggle against corruption� Bolat Dembaev, that the main measures planned for the first three months of this year have been fulfilled. In particular, in order to conduct more objective analysis, the General Office of Public Prosecutor along with the Ministry of Justice have determined a concrete list of corruption crimes, to check which the control methods had been worked out and sent to the departments. Their main objective is to make the control for functionaries� activity tougher. At the same time, the law reinforcement organizations are not investigating corruption crimes fast enough. The reasons of this delay in investigation and court prosecution of the concrete crime cases concerning corruption were discussed in the General Office of Public Prosecutor behind the closed doors.
�Hurricane� concluded an agreement with Pavlodar oil processing plant
According to the �Habar� agency, the Canadian company �Hurricane� mining oil at the Kumkol oil-field in the Southern Kazakhstan, signed the agreement with Pavlodar oil processing plant (POPP) to process of crude oil. Though earlier the company had refuted information regarding its negotiations with the POPP. In accordance with the signed contract, �Hurricane� will provide the POPP with 60 thousand tons of crude oil by the oil pipeline per month and the same volume by railway.
As is well-known, oil drilled by the Canadian company was previously processed at the �Shymkentnefteorgsyntez� plant. However, in the last year a conflict arose between the partners. Following the dispute, �Hurricane� began to look for alternative processing options. It is known that POPP offered better conditions to the Canadians.
The company hopes that working with the new partner will provide for more profitable conditions. The low price of oil products and high prices for processing of Kumkol oil, previously strained the resources of �Hurricane Kumkol Munai�.
Big potential of small business
According to the Statistic Agency of RK, about 115000 small enterprises were registered in the republic in 1997. However, only 41% of the enterprises actually worked. Approximately 70% of the companies were established by their owners� savings, the savings of their parents, or by money borrowed from their friends. Only one tenth of them managed to find a loan and applied to the second level banks for credits. According to an informed source from Astana, a conference �at the round table� organized by the Agency on strategic planning and reforms in RK with a support of the international organizations, such as EBRD, PRUNO and USAID, was held in the new capital. The representatives of the Parliament, Ministries and departments, public funds, different federations and associations of businessmen all took part in it.
�At last we have managed to overcome the prejudice that micro-business cannot be effectively credited by banks,� deputy the director of the USAID department of market reorganizations Thomas Moris emphasized. Here are the facts: in 1994, the EBRD jointly with three national banks financed only 10 projects. As of the current moment, the credit lines of the EBRD for small and middle-sized enterprises comes to US$ 158 million. The number of the companies to receive them has risen to 1200. The direct investment by EBRD, IFC and USAID amounted to US$ 141 million. The other credits received by small and middle enterprises through the PRUNO channels and the US Charity Corpus � US$ 4.5 million. Apart from these sources, new financing programs providing local small businessmen with technical consulting assistance were opened. A significant help to the businessmen is rendered by the State by the micro-crediting program of Kazakhstani citizens of little means. The participators of �the round table� analyzed the realization of the micro-credit program in Kazakhstan�s regions.
One third of the participators of the international exhibition are from Kazakhstan
The representative of BCC has announced, that the international exhibition KIHE-99 will open the next exhibition season in the business cooperation center (BCC) �Atakent� on May 11. Financial difficulties caused by the falling tenge�s rate did not prevent the biggest manufacturers of medical equipment from 15 countries to present their products in the exhibition. It is noteworthy that 30% of the participators are Kazakhstani companies. KIHE-99 held by �ITE� company and its partner in Central Asia, �ITECA� company is completely supported by the Committee of health, education and sport, JSC �Medtechnica�, Kazakhstani dental association and Diabetic association of RK. In the frame of KIHE-99 � Healthcare-99, a separate exhibition �Apteka-99� will be held. As it was mentioned by Mrs. Subbotina, the vice-president of JSC �Medtechnica�, the exhibition was timely, as it would attract to our market those pharmaceutical products which were unknown in the republic. At present only 3000 drugs are registered in Kazakhstan. The inflow of the medicines will be promoted by a recently approved law scrapping the VAT on imported medical items. The organizers of the exhibition also talked about their future plans. In spring and summer they are going to prepare 13 exhibitions, half of which will be held in Astana. In June the first international conference �Astana-invest� will be held in the capital.
Finance Ministry widens the instruments
The Ministry of Finance RK began the emission of the state hard currency bonds with circulation periods of three, six, nine and twelve months, due to which it has widened the instruments used to cover the budget deficit. It is supposed to be especially important under the conditions of the free floating tenge�s rate. According to the press-service of the Finance Ministry, the hard currency bonds are emitted in non-documentary form and have the nominal price of US$ 100.
They exterminated mosquitoes in Astana, but people suffered
Sixteen citizens of Astana suffered from disinfecting measures taken in the new capital, �Express K� reported. All of these people were exposed to the pungent smoke, which was used in spring by the joint-stock company �Desinfectsia� to exterminate innumerous mosquitoes. The company did not warn the people living in the micro-district �Alatau� beforehand. All victims applied to medical help. One of the victims was hospitalized. The case is under investigation. The responsibility for the incident is to be shared by JSC �Desinfectsia� (which has been fined for 6000 tenge) and the housing cooperative �Kavia�.
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