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Elena Rybakina

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina To Become World No. 1

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan has secured the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career after defeating Zheng Qinwen of China in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Wednesday. Rybakina, 27, is the first man or woman from Kazakhstan to ascend to the top of the rankings, according to the WTA. She overtakes Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and will officially become the new No. 1 in singles when the updated rankings are released after the U.S. Open on September 14, the WTA said. Moscow-born Rybakina said she dreamed of becoming the world’s top-ranked player since she was a young girl. "I’m so proud of this moment,” she said in remarks that were posted by the WTA. “I want to thank my whole team for their support and being able to celebrate this achievement with me." President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan congratulated Rybakina, commending her for her talent, hard work, self- belief, and “exemplary conduct” on and off the court. “With this remarkable achievement, you have brought great pride to Kazakhstan and inscribed your name in the history of world tennis. Your journey inspires thousands of young athletes in our country and millions of tennis fans around the globe,” Tokayev said. Rybakina has had particularly strong results over the last year, winning the 2025 WTA Finals title as well as the second Grand Slam title of her career at the 2026 Australian Open. She won Wimbledon in 2022. The Kazakh beat Zheng 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. She was down 3-4 in the third set and faced a break point that would have put Zheng in a commanding position and serving for the match. But Rybakina turned things around with a run of points and is now in her first U.S. Open semifinal.

6 days ago

landlocked developing countries

Turkmenistan to Chair Group of Landlocked Developing Countries

Turkmenistan’s mission to the United Nations says the country has been elected the next chair of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries, which consists of 32 countries facing particular trade and transit challenges because of their geography and reliance on neighboring nations. Turkmenistan will begin its two-year term as chair on January 1, 2027, after receiving unanimous support from all members of the group in a meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on September 3, the Turkmen diplomatic mission said. Azerbaijan will become vice-chair of the group of landlocked developing countries. The current chair and vice-chair are Bolivia and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. The new leadership will be endorsed at a ministerial-level meeting at the U.N. on September 24, according to the Turkmen mission. It said that Turkmenistan will take the lead in coordinating the group’s activities on pressing issues such as “energy and transport connectivity.” A key priority for the group is implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action for 2024–2034, a U.N.-backed plan that promotes infrastructure investment, deeper integration into global trade networks and other measures to help the countries overcome their geographical disadvantages. The United Nations says that the group of countries often face difficulties such as reduced foreign investment, limited export options, and slower economic growth. “Without direct access to coastal ports, landlocked developing countries must rely on transit countries to connect them with international markets. This can lead to increased transportation trade costs, delays in the movement of goods, and susceptibility to political and economic instability in transit countries,” the U.N. says. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are also in the group. While Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have coastlines on the Caspian Sea, they are still classified as landlocked countries by the United Nations because the Caspian, an enclosed body of water, doesn’t have direct access to the world's oceans.

7 days ago

Oil and Gas

Kazakhstan Pauses Collection of $5 Billion Fine from Kashagan Operator

Kazakhstan has suspended enforcement proceedings to collect about $5 billion from North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), the operator of the Kashagan oil field. The fine itself remains in force. The pause followed a new challenge by the company in a Kazakh court, and the Justice Ministry has said it intends to resume collection efforts. Enforcement proceedings involving 2.3 trillion tenge ($5.06 billion) were suspended on September 7. NCOC challenged the actions of a state enforcement officer, after which the Specialized Interdistrict Administrative Court of Atyrau Region requested the case materials. While those materials are before the court, enforcement proceedings must be suspended. Before the suspension, authorities had stepped up collection efforts. The deadline for voluntary payment expired on July 20, after which the authorities began enforcement proceedings. On July 21, NCOC’s property and vehicles were frozen. The company’s managing director, Giancarlo Ruiu, was also warned of possible administrative and criminal liability for failure to comply with the court ruling. At issue is sulfur produced as a byproduct of processing oil and gas at Kashagan. Kazakhstan’s environmental authorities accused NCOC of storing volumes exceeding the limits set by its environmental permit. The consortium rejects both the allegations and the fine. Although the authorities’ original order was overturned over procedural violations, environmental regulators subsequently issued a new one. The reissued penalty was upheld by Kazakh courts, including the Atyrau Regional Court in June 2026, allowing the authorities to move toward enforcement. The dispute also has an international legal dimension. NCOC’s foreign shareholders have challenged the penalty through international treaty arbitration. Separately, NCOC said in July that a tribunal applying the rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) had issued an interim order barring Kazakhstan from enforcing the fine while those proceedings were pending. Kazakh authorities rejected NCOC’s interpretation of the order, arguing that the commercial arbitration tribunal could not prevent the state from enforcing its environmental laws and domestic court judgments. The Justice Ministry has made clear that the current suspension stems from NCOC’s challenge to the enforcement officer in a Kazakh administrative court, rather than from the UNCITRAL order. Kashagan is one of Kazakhstan’s largest oil fields and one of the world’s biggest oil discoveries of recent decades. Recoverable reserves are estimated at 9 billion to 13 billion barrels. The field produced 18.2 million tons of oil in 2025. The project is backed by some of the world’s largest oil companies. KazMunayGas holds 16.88%, while Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies each hold about 16.81%. CNPC owns 8.33% and Japan’s Inpex 7.56%. For Kazakhstan, Kashagan is one of its main sources of oil production and export revenue. For the international companies, the dispute is also a test of the operating environment at the country’s largest oil fields. Kazakhstan accounts for around 2% of global daily oil supply, and the Kashagan case comes amid several multibillion-dollar legal disputes between Astana and international oil companies. The environmental fine is not the only dispute surrounding Kashagan. Kazakhstan has also brought claims against investors over costs...

7 days ago

Learning Korean

The Language Gap: Why the Korean Language Is Outpacing Japanese in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Two weeks ago, Kazakhstan officially joined South Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS), becoming the 18th country admitted to the program. Even before the change, thousands of Kazakhstani nationals were working in South Korea, many without legal status. Kazakhstani authorities estimated the total at around 15,000 in 2025, including 11,000 without legal documentation. To work legally in South Korea under the EPS, applicants must pass the EPS-TOPIK, a standardized Korean-language test. In this context, learning Korean has become a direct route to better-paid work for many young people in Kazakhstan. Japan, however, has generated no comparable rush. A Widening Gap, By the Numbers The contrast is also evident in language-learning trends. In 2022, Jang Ho-jong, a professor at the Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages, told The Korea Times that Korean ranked alongside English and Chinese among Kazakhstan’s three most popular foreign languages and was taught at 15 to 20 universities. About 400 students were taking Korean courses at his university, compared with just three or four when the program opened 20 years earlier. South Korea has also expanded teaching and testing infrastructure. In July 2026, the King Sejong Institute at Akhmet Baitursynuly Kostanay Regional University became Kazakhstan’s first official center for the Sejong Korean Language Assessment (SKA), allowing candidates to take the exam without traveling abroad. Official enrollment data from the King Sejong Institute Foundation show that 1,320 students were enrolled at its institutes in Kazakhstan in 2025, down slightly from 1,481 in 2024. The picture is very different for Japanese. The Japan Foundation counted 581 learners across eight institutions in Kazakhstan in 2024, compared with 1,569 learners in 2006. In Uzbekistan, Korean-language education has expanded even faster. The country recorded the largest increase worldwide in 2025, adding 68 schools offering Korean classes. Sri Lanka placed second with 43. Enrollment at King Sejong institutes in Uzbekistan rose from 1,873 in 2021 to 7,931 in 2024. It eased to 6,308 in 2025, according to the same official dataset. Japanese-language study has also grown in Uzbekistan, but more slowly. The same Japan Foundation survey counted 4,201 learners across 19 institutions in 2024, up from 3,579 at 18 institutions in 2021. Although the two datasets cover different types of institutions, the nationwide Japanese total remained below enrollment in Uzbekistan’s King Sejong network that year. A More Complicated Picture Next Door Across the rest of Central Asia, however, the comparison is less clear-cut. The Japan Foundation’s 2024 regional survey recorded 1,708 Japanese-language learners at 14 institutions in Kyrgyzstan, taught by 50 teachers. That was almost three times Kazakhstan’s total, even though Kyrgyzstan’s population is roughly one-third as large. Among the learners in Kyrgyzstan, 411 were in primary or secondary education. A 2020 account by a Japan Foundation specialist described young people learning through anime and the internet, while Japan International Cooperation Agency volunteers introduced Japanese in rural schools. Some later traveled to Bishkek for more formal study. This points to demand developing from the ground up alongside institutional support. Korean-language...

1 week ago

Caspian Sea Middle Corridor

Shrinking Caspian Sea Raises the Cost of the Middle Corridor

The falling level of the Caspian Sea is becoming an economic problem for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), or Middle Corridor. Kazakhstan and other countries in the region are expanding ports and counting on growing freight traffic between China and Europe, but shallower waters are already forcing vessels to reduce their loads and ports to spend tens of millions of dollars on dredging and berth reconstruction. The scale of the problem was illustrated on September 8 by Alakbar Azizli, Director of Sustainability and Emissions Management at Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company (ASCO). Speaking at Baku Climate Action Week, he said one of the company’s ferries can now carry only 80% of a full cargo load from Kazakhstan. “This means 20% less cargo is transported,” Azizli said. According to him, vessels face similar restrictions in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan’s Port of Alat. For now, the necessary depths are being maintained through dredging. But there are limits to how much dredging can be done around berths without risking damage to the structures. If the sea continues to retreat, Azizli said ports may eventually have to extend their berths so vessels can reach them at lower water levels. Vessels Are Losing Part of Their Cargo Capacity The Caspian is one of the most complex sections of the Middle Corridor. Freight from China travels by rail through Kazakhstan, is transferred to vessels at Aktau or Kuryk, crosses the sea to Azerbaijan, and is then transferred back onto rail. Every transfer adds cost and time. Falling sea levels introduce an additional restriction: vessel draft, or how deep a loaded vessel sits in the water. According to the Caspian Policy Center, some vessels on the Caspian can now be loaded to only 75–80% of capacity. At Aktau, re-berthing a grain vessel can cost around $2,200, while annual dredging expenses have been estimated at roughly $880,000. A 20% reduction in cargo load means more voyages are needed to move the same volume of goods. Fuel, crew, and port-handling costs increase, while the effective capacity of the fleet declines. The problem is emerging just as traffic along the corridor is expanding rapidly. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Middle Corridor has gained additional importance as a China-Europe route that bypasses Russia. Freight volumes on the TITR increased from less than 1 million tons annually at the beginning of the decade to more than 4.5 million tons in 2024. Kazakhstan plans to raise the corridor’s capacity to 10 million tons a year by 2028. In the first five months of 2026, container traffic between China and Europe along the route increased by another 30%. Growing freight volumes require new terminals, rail capacity, and vessels. At the same time, part of the investment has to be diverted simply to maintain existing fleet access to ports. Aktau and Kuryk Deepen Their Waters Large-scale dredging has already been completed at Kuryk. More than 1.7 million cubic meters of soil were removed from the port waters, turning basin, and access channel, increasing the...

1 week ago

Direct Flights

Uzbekistan Announces Direct Flights to Mauritius, Starting in December

Uzbekistan’s tourism industry is opening a new African market. On December 26, direct flights on the Tashkent-Mauritius route will start for the first time, also strengthening the Uzbek capital’s potential as a transit hub linking Central Asian and other regional countries with Mauritius, Uzbekistan’s state Tourism Committee said on Monday. “According to the plan, at the initial stage, a total of four round-trip flights on the Tashkent–Mauritius route will operate on December 26 and in January. Starting from June 2027, regular flights on this route are planned to operate once a week,” said the committee, which didn’t identify an airline. The FlyCentralAsia platform, which covers aviation in the region, reported that there will be four charter flights on December 26, as well as January 3 and 11, and an additional date in January. It reported that Uzbek tour operator Prestige Travel is organizing the flights on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft operated by Uzbekistan Airways. The direct flight is expected to take about 8.5 hours, significantly shorter than trips with connections in Dubai or Istanbul, according to FlyCentralAsia. Uzbekistan’s Tourism Committee said it collaborated with Prestige Travel to host talks among representatives of the tourism industries of both Uzbekistan and Mauritius. Prestige Travel founder Oybek Akhmedov said the new flights will increase “mutual tourist flows,” according to the tourism committee. Akhmedov said Muslim travelers from the island nation in the Indian Ocean will be able to enjoy Uzbekistan’s cultural and Islamic heritage sites, as well as culinary traditions. Mauritius, in turn, would offer warm weather, beaches and lush landscapes to Central Asian tourists keen for a break from the harsh winter. The Mauritius initiative is being launched under Uzbekistan’s “Open Tourist Season” program, which provides subsidies for airlines opening new international routes to Uzbekistan, as well as financial benefits for local tour operators attracting tourists from long-haul international markets. Uzbekistan is seeking to expand ties with Africa. Uzbekistan Airways and Air Samarkand currently operate direct flights between Tashkent and Sharm el-Sheikh, the popular beach resort in Egypt. Uzbek diplomats have also held separate meetings with representatives of Ethiopia and South Africa to discuss the simplification of visa procedures, which would make it easier to travel between the Central Asian and African countries, the Dunyo news agency reported in July. Dunyo is the official agency of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

1 week ago

Cinematography

“It’s a Fantasy About Those Who Could Have Prevented the Tragedy”: Shugyla Yeshen on Kazakhstan’s New Cinema

Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was the scene of more than 450 Soviet nuclear tests, leaving a legacy of illness, environmental damage, and displacement that continues to shape the country. A new historical action film, Zheti Qaraqshy, reimagines that history through a group of seven young heroes who set out to prevent the tragedy. For 24-year-old actress Shugyla Yeshen, who plays one of the seven, the film prompted her to look more closely at a history she had known about since childhood. Yeshen also works at one of Kazakhstan’s leading Kazakh-language theaters and is beginning to develop projects of her own. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, she discussed the shortage of substantial roles for women, the discipline she learned in theater, her ambitions beyond Kazakhstan, and why her character goes into action armed with a slingshot. TCA: One of Kazakhstan’s most anticipated projects of the year, Zheti Qaraqshy, will be released on September 24. Tell us about the film and your character. Yeshen: Literally translated from Kazakh, Zheti Qaraqshy means “Seven Bandits,” but there is a play on words: it is also the Kazakh name for the Big Dipper. It’s a historical action film set in the 1980s. It’s about seven very different people who come together for one important mission. They all have very different personalities, but they’re interesting, and each of them has secrets. My character’s name is Gainy. She grew up in an orphanage with her foster brothers. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but at some point they become the heroes of one of the most important historical events. TCA: The film tells Kazakhstan’s history in the language of comic books. Is it a kind of Kazakh Suicide Squad? Yeshen: Probably, yes. Each of the seven has their own weapon. Mine, for example, is a slingshot. It seems like a childish, harmless weapon, but when you actually pick one up, it can be quite dangerous and hit a target very accurately. It all depends on who is holding it. I think that describes my character perfectly. Gainy is the same: she looks like a harmless girl, but in reality she is a strong and daring heroine. TCA: The film is connected to the tragedy of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where the Soviet Union conducted hundreds of nuclear tests. You belong to a very young generation of Kazakhstanis. How much did you know about this history before filming? Yeshen: Of course, I had known about it since childhood, but to be honest, I had never really gone very deeply into the subject. It was only when we started filming – and even after the film – that I began to fully understand what it was really about and how many lives the test site actually destroyed. An older colleague of mine said something I really liked. He said this film is a fantasy about a team of brave young people who could...

1 week ago

Labor force

Kazakhstan’s Factory Expansion Faces a Skilled Labor Shortage

Kazakhstan plans to create tens of thousands of jobs at new factories, but lacks qualified workers. Around 200 industrial projects are scheduled to be launched in 2026, followed by new metallurgical, engineering, and chemical plants. The facilities can be built within a few years, but training the staff needed to operate them may take significantly longer. A 2025 estimate suggested the shortage of qualified workers in manufacturing, construction, and engineering-related fields could exceed 100,000. The projects planned for 2026 are worth a combined 1.7 trillion tenge, or approximately $3.6 billion, and are expected to create around 18,000 permanent jobs. The next wave of projects will require several thousand more workers. Seven new projects in ferrous metallurgy are planned for 2027–2028, creating more than 3,500 permanent jobs. Another six facilities in non-ferrous metallurgy are planned for the same period, creating more than 800 jobs. Behind those plans are facilities producing steel and ferroalloys, copper and aluminum products, trucks, road machinery, and chemicals. Kazakhstan is seeking to process more of its own raw materials domestically and export products with higher added value. For an economy that remains heavily dependent on oil, metals, and other commodities, the success of that policy will shape its prospects for further diversification. The Asian Development Bank has identified higher productivity and stronger human capital as important conditions for that transition. In March 2025, National Engineering Academy President Bakytzhan Zhumagulov said the shortage of qualified workers in construction, manufacturing, engineering and technical fields could exceed 100,000. Meanwhile, in April 2026, Science and Higher Education Minister Sayasat Nurbek warned that the gap between the specialists being trained and the needs of the economy was widening. The Ministry of Labor has pointed to another imbalance: on the Enbek electronic labor exchange in May 2025, demand for workers with mid-level qualifications exceeded supply by 16%. Tomorrow’s Factories and Today’s Labor Market The government is already trying to reshape vocational education. In 2025, 70% of state-funded college places were allocated to technical fields, including mechanical engineering, transportation, energy, IT, and construction. Kazakhstan operates a system for forecasting the economy’s labor needs, estimating demand by occupation, region, and industry several years ahead, taking into account both newly created jobs and the need to replace people leaving the labor market. These projections are intended to guide state-funded education and vocational training. The potential scale of future demand is substantial. A forecast published in 2025 estimated that the economy would require around 1.6 million workers over the following six years, including about 900,000 people with technical and vocational education. Demand for workers in skilled trades alone was estimated at more than 400,000. Construction, agriculture, and manufacturing were expected to be among the main employers. Yet the current labor market still reflects a fairly traditional pattern. Kazakhstan has a short-term vocational training program for unemployed people. Employers submit requests for the specialists they need and guarantee employment, while the state pays for their training. More than 11 billion tenge, approximately $23 million, was allocated to the...

1 week ago

City Planning

Almaty and Astana Set to Retain Central Asia’s Economic Lead

Almaty long combined Kazakhstan’s political and commercial functions and established itself as Central Asia’s leading business center. After Astana became Kazakhstan’s capital, the two cities developed increasingly complementary roles, with Almaty remaining the region’s largest business and financial hub while Astana accumulated political, institutional and corporate weight. Kazakhstan’s updated figures put Astana’s growth at about 10% and Almaty’s at about 5%. Together, the two cities generated roughly $107 billion in 2025. Together, they have become a two-city engine anchoring much of Central Asia’s commerce. Almaty and Astana benefit from an economic scale unmatched elsewhere in Central Asia. Kazakhstan alone accounts for more than half of the region’s GDP and roughly two-thirds of its inward FDI stock, according to TCA’s Central Asia Balance Sheet. That scale helps generate the fiscal resources needed to build and maintain the municipal infrastructure that supports business activity. Kazakhstan also has Central Asia’s most developed capital markets. The combination of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) in Almaty and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and Astana International Exchange (AIX) in Astana gives companies access to equity, debt, institutional investors and financial infrastructure at a scale no other market in the region currently matches. Kazakhstan is also the only Central Asian country with an investment-grade sovereign rating, lowering the country-risk premium and helping reduce financing costs for companies and projects relative to lower-rated regional markets. These advantages have been reinforced over decades. Almaty and Astana have long served as regional bases for major global companies, creating an established ecosystem of corporate management, finance, professional services and skilled labor. That track record, in turn, strengthens their ability to attract further investment and regional headquarters. Tashkent and Bishkek are also growing rapidly Then there is Tashkent. Uzbekistan’s political and commercial capital had an economy of about $29 billion in 2025, about 40% the size of Almaty’s and three-quarters that of Astana. Tashkent has also experienced rapid growth, with its economy growing by 11.3% in real terms in 2025, according to preliminary national figures. Tashkent benefits from Uzbekistan’s demographic scale. The country’s population is almost twice Kazakhstan’s, giving its capital access to a much larger domestic market and labor pool. But that scale also raises the need for sustained job creation and continued investment in housing and infrastructure. If productivity and investment fail to keep pace with population growth, the demographic advantage could increasingly act as a constraint rather than help Tashkent close the gap with Almaty and Astana. Almaty and Astana, meanwhile, generate substantially more economic output per resident. In 2025, Gross Regional Product (GRP) per capita was approximately $29,900 in Almaty and $23,700 in Astana, compared with about $9,300 in Tashkent, using reporting-year average exchange rates. These figures measure output per resident, not labor productivity, household income or living standards. Like Tashkent, Bishkek combines the roles of political capital and principal economic center. On the reporting years used here, however, its economy is only about 30% as large. Its economy grew by 15.8% in 2024, according to Kyrgyzstan’s...

1 week ago

Finance

Kazakhstan Binance Plan Regional Settlement Hub

Kazakhstan plans to host a regional settlement hub for the Binance group, serving clients across Central Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and Eastern Europe. If the project secures regulatory approval, some of the cross-border payments and settlement operations of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange could be handled through Kazakhstan’s jurisdiction. The National Bank of Kazakhstan announced on September 7 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Binance Investments Co. The project calls for the creation of a Binance group entity in Kazakhstan and the localization of some of the group’s regional operations and infrastructure. The new entity would seek a National Bank license as a Category I payment organization. According to the regulator, the hub will handle international payments and money transfers, including settlements related to digital asset transactions for clients of the global Binance group from Central Asia, the CIS, and Eastern Europe. Binance said the parties have prepared a roadmap covering the development of payment infrastructure, licensing, and the launch of new products. Kazakhstan has spent several years building a regulated digital asset market. The new project would use that framework to serve clients beyond the country’s borders. Binance already operates in Kazakhstan through its subsidiary Binance Kazakhstan. The company is licensed by the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), the regulator of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), to operate a digital asset trading facility and provide custody and other regulated financial services. For the settlement hub, the National Bank says a Binance group entity and supporting infrastructure would be established in Kazakhstan and licensed by the central bank. The payment operation would therefore sit alongside Binance Kazakhstan’s existing AFSA-regulated digital asset platform under a different regulatory framework. “The development of digital financial technologies and modern payment solutions is one of the important areas in the transformation of Kazakhstan’s financial sector,” National Bank Deputy Governor Binur Zhalenov said. According to him, the regulator is interested in fostering innovation while maintaining the reliability of payment infrastructure and the stability of the financial system. Kazakhstan already has several building blocks for developing such services: a regulated digital asset market within the AIFC, the digital tenge, and the National Bank’s payment infrastructure. Binance would gain a jurisdiction with an established digital asset regulatory framework, while Kazakhstan aims to attract technological expertise and develop the export potential of its financial services. The settlement hub is one of several projects Binance is discussing with Kazakh authorities. On September 4, the company announced three memorandums – with the National Bank, the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, and the AIFC. The agreements cover payment infrastructure, digital assets, and investment instruments, including exploration of a potential stablecoin. The Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development said the parties plan to explore the issuance of a stablecoin in Kazakhstan, develop payments involving digital assets, and improve the tax and judicial framework governing the market. The parameters of a potential stablecoin have not yet been disclosed. The prospective issuer, reserve mechanism, and...

1 week ago

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