KAZAKH PRESIDENT NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV MADE A SPEECH AT THE KAZAKH PARLIAMENT�S SESSION. RFE/RL correspondents report from Astana, that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was given a floor at the joint Session of the Kazakh Parliament�s both Chambers yesterday. President Nursultan Nazarbayev reportedly called the Parliament members to continue �to deepen the democratic and economic reforms, and to strengthen the struggle against organized crime.� He also criticized some opposition parties and movements for their calling to revise the Kazakh elections laws. Some opposition parties, namely ORLEU, led by well-known politician, journalist Seydakhmet Quttyqadam and People�s Democratic Party led by the former Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin called the Kazakh government and the Parliament to revise the elections laws, especially focusing on the fact that the regional governors in Kazakhstan were being appointed by President Nazarbayev, but not elected. Kazakh President said at the Parliamential session yesterday that such sort of calls �would hurt social and economic stability in the country�.
KAZAKH PARLIAMENT REVISED AND ADOPTED THE STATE BUDGET FOR 1999. RFE/RL correspondents report from Astana that the State budget for 1999 was at last adopted b y the Kazakh Parliament yesterday. In the results of the discussions lasted for more than 4 months, many privileges for some social groups were eliminated, in order to save more cash for the state treasury this year. Meanwhile RFE/RL correspondents report from the former capital - Almaty, that Workers Movement staged a picket at Almaty Veterans Pension�s building area yesterday, protesting the decision of the Kazakh Parliament to cut the privileges for such social groups as veterans of WW2, participants in the Afghan war and liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster�s consequences.
WORKERS OF ZHANATAS PHOSPHORUS PRODUCING PLANT WARN TO HOLD PROTEST MARCH. RFE/RL correspondents report from Almaty that workers of Zhanatas Phosphorus Producing Plant warned the facility�s administration about their intention to organize a march of protest, in case if their overdue salaries were not paid by April 16. The plant�s owner, an international concern called TEKSUNA owes about 100-150 thousand Tenges to every worker of the plant. $1 equals 86 Tenges currently.
(RFE/RL)
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, March 30
(THE GLOBE)
�Our head company is not interested in working with Balgimbaev�s government an with the Minister Burkitbaev�, the chairman of the board of JSC �International airport Almaty� declared.
Alexander Krinichansky determined the government of Kazakhstan as a theatre of absurdity, and he called the Minister of transport, communications and tourism a follower of Dr. Goebbels.
According to Mr. Krinichansky�s words, before the airport was transferred to their management, it had a take-off and landing strip, which was dangerous for the planes, US$ 16 million unpaid to the Italian contractors and the debt in amount of US$ 12 million before the National Air Company.
He said that for the last year-and-a half the Consortium did not break the undertaken responsibilities. Beside that, the total value of reconstruction of the existing strip was about US$ 20 million, US$ 4.5 million was invested to the construction of the loading complex 80 thousand tons capacity, and about US$ 1.5 million was spent to erect the VIP building.
He considers that the government had no money to improve the Almaty airport, moreover, under the current deficit it will not have money to maintain the airport.
He supposes that �those financial groups, which initiated this appointment, are not interested in the enterprises in bad condition, they are interested in the companies which stand on their own feet and do not require any investments.�
The managing team declared at the press-conference, that they do not want to continue their business relations with the government of Kazakhstan. The only thing, which they demand is to cancel the contract and to observe the legislation and the investors� rights.
�All that we ask the government to do now, is to apply to the legislation at least once and to try to do everything according to the laws�, the chairman of the board said.
At present the managing company sued a statement of claim to the republican court.
ALMATY, April 1 (AFP)
Inflation in Kazakhstan in the first quarter of 1999 was 0.6 percent and the national currency, the tenge, is relatively stable, the National Bank said in a statement on Thursday.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, has gradually devalued the tenge, which slipped 4.7 percent over the first quarter to 88.1 to the dollar, the statement said.
That policy has been criticised by some economists who argue that a quicker devaluation would boost Kazakh exports.
Kazakhstan�s 1999 budget revisions and Russia�s framework agreement with the International Monetary Fund should further stabilize the economy, the National Bank said.
Parliament�s adoption of budget revisions, which forecast a deficit of 3.7 percent of output, �is one of the most important positive events that will further preserve stability on Kazakhstan�s financial markets�, the statement said.
The bank called a framework agreement between Russian Premier Yevgeny Primakov and the IMF �another stabilising factor of no small importance�.
Kazakhstan�s Central Asian neighbours � Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan � have all experienced big devaluations on their national currencies on the official and black markets since the Russian crisis.
Meanwhile Finance Minister Uraz Djandosov said that the government was satisfied with spending levels in a 1999 budget revision passed by parliament this week, Interfax reported.
Djandosov also said the government was �85 to 90 percent satisfied� with spending of 357 billion tenge (3.81 billion euros, 4.08 billion dollars), the news agency reported.
The expenditures exceeded the original budget by about 10.5 billion tenge.
In February, Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev proposed cutting the budget by 31 billion tenge after the resource-rich Central Asian republic has reported poor export earnings in the fourth quarter of 1998.
The first deputy finance minister, Zhannat Yertlesova, said that the increase of spending was connected with the fall of the tenge, the national currency, against the dollar and additional expenditures required for several construction and water-supply projects in the new capital, Astana, Interfax reported.
The 1999 budget revisions also put revenue at 289.9 billion tenge (about 3.13 billion dollars), which was three billion tenge higher than the original budget, a finance ministry spokesman told AFP.
The budget deficit had been set at 67.1 billion tenge (716.6 million euros, 766.8 million dollars), or 3.7 percent of output, he said.
ALMATY Mar 29 (AFP)
The start of exploratory drilling for oil in Kazakhstan�s sector of the Caspian Sea is expected to start in June, the operations manager for the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC) said Friday.
The drilling, the first offshore exploration in Kazakhstan�s 20 blocks of the Caspian, had been scheduled to start before the end of 1998.
But building a specially adapted rig in Astrakhan, Russia, that can operate in the Caspian�s shallow waters and extreme climate changes took longer than expected, Paul Jeffery, operations manager for OKIOC, told journalists.
Drilling of a wildcat well � or an unexplored site � called Kashagan East will take a minimum of three months. An additional month of testing would
ALMATY, March 31
(AFP)
Kazakhstan�s parliament approved a revised 1999 budget Wednesday that takes into account a drop in export earnings in the fourth quarter of 1998, Interfax reported.
Preliminary budget figures call for expenditures of 338.6 billion tenge (about 3.9 billion dollars) and revenues of 247.5 billion tenge (about 2.8 billion dollars), the news agency reported.
The budget deficit is expected to be 3.7 percent of output, the news agency said.
According to previous budget figures provided to AFP by the finance ministry, the revisions cut eight billion tenge from what the government had originally expected to spend, far lower than the slash in spending of 31 billion tenge called for by Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev in February.
Estimated revenues would be 39.4 billion tenge lower than the previous forecast.
The 1999 budget revisions were called for in February after the Central Asian republic posted poor export earnings in the fourth quarter of 1998.
Low world prices for oil and metals � the country�s most important exports � cost Kazakhstan about 40 billion tenge in the fourth quarter.
This year, the government is forecasting a drop in output of 1.5 percent compared to 1998. Output is expected to be 1.8 trillion tenge (about 20.5 billion dollars), the news agency reported.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, March 30
(THE GLOBE)
�A possible merge will result in destabilization of the banking sector, in the distrust of population to the State People�s Bank and will cause a misbalance of some assets. The merged bank will be a monopoly in many respects�, the head of one of the Kazakhstan banks said about possible merge of �Kazcommertsbank� and the People�s Bank.
Yerlan Tatishev, the chairman of the Board of �TuranAlem� bank considers that three parties will take part in this merge: �Kazcommertsbank�, the People�s Bank and the state. Each of these three parties has its own interests. He supposes this situation more profitable for the �Kazcommertsbank�, which will settle its problems to improve its financial indices.
�The main point is how it will be done�, he emphasized. If in the last year �TuranAlem� bank was privatized openly and US$ 70 million was contributed to the budget. In this case the state will get nothing in the result of the merge, except an insignificant share equity in the merged bank�, Mr. Tatishev remarked.
There is no necessity to privatize the bank. Though if it is privatized, it should be done openly (we should sell the stocks to earn money for the budget).
As far as �TuranAlem� bank is concerned, in the last year its profit was 1.526 million tenge, i.e. 1.5 times more than the profit of �Kazcommertsbank�, and 2.5 times more than of the People�s Bank.
For the last year more than 30 thousand accounts were opened in the bank by the juridical persons and almost a half of million � by natural ones. The most important directions of work are accumulation of people�s deposits, the hard currency operations, as well as crediting of natural and juridical persons. Among the Bank�s clients are such big companies as: �Kazakhstan Temir Zholy�, �Kaztransoil�, �Astana-holding�, �Ispat-Karmet�, �Hurricane Kumkol�, etc.
According to Mr. Tatshev�s words, the Bank�s operation in the last year was successful. As on 31st December,1998 the assets of the bank was 18,372 million tenge (in comparison with the previous year it is an increase by 30.4%). The paid authorized capital of the bank was 7.931 million tenge, the biggest one among the second-level banks.
The most important achievement of the bank was the maximum increase of the private capital (all the gained profit was capitalized). The share capital became 3.7 times more, i.e. 3.676 million tenge.
In spite of the world financial crisis, the bank is going to increase its profitability and to widen the range of its services in the next year.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, March 31 (THE GLOBE)
�I am only a detached observer, but I think, that the efforts made by the government to support the national currency will rather do good, than harm�, a representative of one of the foreign banks said on March 31 in Almaty.
David Eldon, the chairman of the board of �Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited� gave an example of the Asian countries� experience in 1997 to 1998. �If we compare the current situation in Kazakhstan with the experience of these countries, we can state that the national currencies of the states, which did not support them, at last got very weak and the interests were very high�, he said. Then he emphasized, that �it is an internal affair of the country either to support the currency or to let her fall.�
Brampton Mandi, the chairman of the board of �HSBC Bank Kazakhstan� considers, that the Kazakhstan banking system does not cover the entire economic sector of the republic. �The volume of deposits is insignificant in comparison with the GNP. The Kazakhstan banks get high interests�, he said.
�HSBC Bank Kazakhstan�, which is a subsidiary bank of the HSBC group, one of the biggest financial organizations in the world, was officially opened in Almaty on March 30. The head office of the HSBC group is in London. The capital of this group is more than US$ 41 billion, a number of its share-holders all over the world is equal to 160,000. The shares of the HSBC group are highly quoted both at the London and the Hong Kong stock exchange.
ALMATY
On 25th March, 1999 THE GLOBE published the Appeal to the deputies of the Kazakhstan Parliament by the representatives of several political parties and public movements. This appeal contained a n insistent demand to issue the new Law �About elections�. Otherwise the Parliament should make the necessary changes and supplementation to the President�s Decree �About the elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan�. Those changes in future will create a basis for the new Law.
For the time being no reply (at least no public one) followed that Appeal. But that Appeal was a signal for the authorities: separate during the pre-election campaign opposition parties, seem to be uniting again mainly due to a single idea � necessity of the new Law on elections.
All the known parties signed the Appeal, except �Azamat�. It is known that during the last weekend the civil movement was reorganized at the constituent congress to the party of the same name. Its Chairman Galym Abilsyitov announced at the press-conference held on Tuesday, that it is time when the organized political parties may and should enter the authority �Azamat� does not conceal its readiness to do that.
Pyotr Svoik, a true companion-in-arms and deputy the leader of �Azamat� in his exclusive interview to THE GLOBE emphasized, that the party�s objective is not a struggle against the existing authorities, but a dialogue with it. Maybe that was the reason why �Azamat� did not sign the Appeal. But Pyotr Svoik begins his interview from this.
1. Why did not �Azamat� support the opposition�s Appeal.
�By the way, I am the only cochairman, who knows something about that Appeal. I was given this paper in the very last moment through a messenger. By that time the paper was signed by everybody. I was told that Aldamzharov (the deputy the chairman of the Republican Party) was going to forwarded that paper to Astana. If we wanted to sign we should have do it immediately. Not a single comma could be corrected in that document. �Azamat� knows what else should be supplemented to the election legislation. But we could not react to this. I could not even notify my colleagues.�
2. The unique situation in Kazakhstan
�There is no alike situation all over the world. Not only Kazakhstan citizens, but citizens of other CIS countries seem to be in a historical museum. There are some countries which move from one transformation to another, e.g. from feudal to monarchy, presidential and democratic. There is civilizations which transform a little, they are they same from century to century due to the objective reasons: geographical, climate, etc. We have these objective reasons. On one hand we have entered the modern world, on the other � we are still in the past. We face that every day. When we come to any petrol filling station in Almaty what do we see? A market? Yes, market. Is it criminal? Of course. Is it family-tribal? Yes. The same situation is in the banks. And in the government. These are the problems of different historical epochs.�
3. About the authorities.
The authorities guarantee stability in Kazakhstan. At least, for the time being. It is a positive occurrence. But our authorities� mentality cancels any perspective for the further development. The authority acts in accordance with the medieval principles, the main of which is tribal relations. If an outsider is allowed to enter the structure, the medieval town will be destroyed. A criminal-feudal market will be destroyed also.�
4. Who can take the society out of this situation?
�The President. But only if he overcomes his original environment on which he leans against. By the present moment he demonstrates that he is unable to do it. He tells he wants to do that. Will he do that? Let�s see. I say it once more: the president Nazarbaev can save the society. Unlike Kazhegeldin, Abilsyitov, Suleimenov�, who are still unable to that.�
5. About �Azamat�
�Azamat� has no illusions, that we are setting up democracy and the market, that we should . only bare a little and then we will have everything. We will have nothing, as we should press out our past drop by drop. �Azamat� is against of force measures. The principle of our party is the constructive criticism, and pursuance. �Azamat� has personal ambitiousness, but we have no ambitiousness which is absolutely contradictory to the existing power. For example, we are not against of Nazarbaev�s ruling for 25 years more. It is the best option, if during these 25 years he executes gradual reforms to convert the authoritarian power into normal democracy.�
6. Entering the power.
�If all of us (Galym Abilsyitov, Murat Auezov and Pyotr Svoik) are advised to work in the government, we will work. But if it is our government. I think, today our entering the power is impossible.�
7. About Balgimbaev�s government
�He has no perspectives. But even knowing that, the president will not take cardinal measures. It is a huge risk for the president: to change the government not dismissing him. He considers the latter the less harm.�
8. About the nearest future of Kazakhstan
�Tenge is at the edge of falling. In this year its rate will exceed one hundred (per dollar). They may lose control for the financial system. Hence an entire collapse of economy, as it is not functioning now, is possible.�
9. About weakness and strength of the opposition
�It is rather weak than strong. The opposition is weak due to an extremely small part of active society. Moreover, the existing opposition is dependent on the authorities.
Its strength is in the fact that the historical period called transitional epoch is coming to its end, let�s say agonizing. That means future changes, a renewal.�
Prepared Kulimkhan Hasenova
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.