Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed on March 15 a new Budget Code, which gives more powers to the government to manage public money. Under new budget rules, the use of transfers from the National Fund will be limited to guidelines approved by the president.
Tokayev created a new Atomic Energy Agency and appointed former minister of energy Almasadam Satkaliyev to be its new head on March 18. The new agency will be responsible for uranium mining, nuclear energy use, as well as radiation safety measures. [Read more here.] Yerlan Akkenzhenov, Satkaliyev’s former deputy, was promoted to the position of minister of energy the following day [Read more here.]
The time zone merger from last year is now prompting local administrations to revise working times. On March 18 the city of Astana said it would consider changing the work schedule to an earlier start. From March 20, the entire East Kazakhstan region will start its workday at 8:00, the local government said.
The Infectious Diseases Center under the ministry of health said on March 18 that a number of programs for HIV prevention will be affected by the decision to suspend funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Organizations relying on USAID funding in the regions of Pavlodar, East Kazakhstan, and in Abay could no longer be able to provide free medical care. On the same day, the government told the press it would further investigate all programs which received USAID funding.
On March 19, representatives of the pro-government People’s Party said they would take charge of drafting a new law on “foreign agents”. This follows repeated attacks on NGOs and media outlets that receive funding from abroad, especially since Donald Trump was elected president in the US and started a policy of budget cuts against foreign aid.
The National Competition Agency said on March 17 it is conducting an investigation into mobile operators in the country. In the context of repeated price increases, the agency said it is looking into a potential collusion between the operators. The agency said it also conducted an analysis of internet service providers, among which state-owned Kazakhtelecom.
A Ukrainian drone strike on March 19 hit an oil depot in Russia connected to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan’s main oil export artery. The oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya was being used to send oil to the Kropotkinskaya pumping station, which had been hit by another drone strike in mid-February.
The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, an organization that advocates good governance in resource-rich economies, suspended Kazakhstan on March 14 for failing to file its 2022 report. Contacted by Vlast, the EITI said Kazakhstan should “ensure that timely information on Kazakhstan's extractive sector is made available to stakeholders.”
The Prosecutor General fined on March 17 Buzachi Operating, a Chinese joint venture operating in an oil field in the western Mangistau region for environmental damage. Over the past six years, according to the prosecutor, the company failed to contain oil and gas leaks. It will now have to pay 8.4 billion tenge ($16 million).
The National Competition Agency said on March 17 that it plans to privatize at least 50% of two oil refineries. The refineries in question are located in Atyrau and in Pavlodar and are owned by national oil and gas company Kazmunaigas. Kazakhstan has three refineries, and the one in Shymkent is owned by a private Kazakh-Chinese joint venture.
Yerbolat Dossayev, the mayor of Almaty, said on March 20 that his fellow residents are “not ready” for separate waste collection. Dossayev said that previous experiments with separate containers “on the contrary, began to repel people; no one even wanted to go near them.”
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