ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan Global Investment Forum 2018 was held on October 2 in London (United Kingdom). Over 150 business representatives took part in the event. The Kazakh delegation was headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Askar Zhumagaliyev, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

The forum was devoted to new opportunities in the field of business and investment, as well as the prospects of Kazakh-British projects in the fastest growing sectors of the economy of Kazakhstan. The main topics discussed included current innovations in improving the country’s investment climate and tax and customs incentives, the State Property Privatization Program, the favorable geographical position of Kazakhstan at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, its participation in the Chinese initiative One Belt, One Road, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the functioning of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) which applies the norms of English law on its territory.

Among participants were more than 150 senior executives from the manufacturing, agricultural, chemical, mining and financial sectors, as well as metallurgy, alternative energy, logistics and digital technologies, including representatives of such large international corporations as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, JP Morgan Bank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the London Stock Exchange.

Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Zhumagaliyev, AIFC Governor Kairat Kelimbetov, Vice Minister for Investments and Development Arystan Kabikenov and Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest Saparbek Tuyakbaev spoke at the opening of the forum.

“Kazakhstan is interested in attracting British investors who will bring with them finance, technology and best business practices necessary for successful diversification of our economy and its integration into the global system,” Zhumagaliyev said. The UK is one of the largest investors in the economy of Kazakhstan. It accounts for $13 billion out of the $300 billion raised over 27 years of independence.

The Governor of the Astana International Financial Center Kairat Kelimbetov devoted his presentation to opportunities opening up for investors, taking into account the work of the AIFC. Thus, the AIFC provides its members with a special tax regime up to 50 years, guarantees an independent system of dispute resolution based on English common law. The official presentation took place in July 2018.

“The launch of the Astana International Financial Centre this year is also transforming Astana into a regional financial centre that will promote your business further to the new horizons,” Kelimbetov said to the forum participants.

The Vice Minister for Investments and Development Arystan Kabikenov spoke about the country’s investment climate. In 2017, together with the World Bank, Kazakhstan developed and adopted the National Investment Strategy which identified top priority sectors for attracting investments. Mining and metallurgy are amongst the most important sectors of the economy, forming more than 21% of exports. Overall, Kazakhstan ranks the world’s 6th for natural resources, and 10th for total volume of minerals (excluding oil and gas). There is also a great potential in the fields of exploration and development of copper, gold, phosphates, and rare earth metals production, including lithium and vanadium. Investments into geological exploration and the development of new technologies for processing raw materials are of special interest, Kabikenov said.

“This year we have adopted a new subsoil use code based on the ‘first come, first served’ principle. It also facilitates free access to geological information and will shorten the time for granting subsoil use rights for solid minerals from 18 months to just 10 days,” Kabikenov said.

The Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest Saparbek Tuyakbaev informed the participants that the company identified and prepared 70 niche projects in priority sectors of the economy — agriculture, chemistry and petrochemistry, mining and metallurgy, mechanical engineering and metallurgical engineering, tourism, and energy.

“From establishing links with local companies to supporting project maintenance and coordination, we provide a wide range of services to facilitate investment, acting as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all investment queries and needs. Kazakh Invest serves as a single point of contact, representing the Government during discussions of proposals and conditions for investment projects in Kazakhstan,” Tuyakbaev said.

The company has a wide range of representatives throughout the world who in close cooperation with the Embassies ensure information and timely responses. This makes it easier for investors to learn potential for business growth and market expansion in the region.

“The interests of the UK are not limited to the mining industry of Kazakhstan, the privatization program and the development of Astana as a Eurasian financial hub. We also want to participate in the diversification of your economy,” the British Trade Envoy Baroness Emma Nicholson stressed speaking at the plenary session.

The outcome of the forum was the conclusion of a number of agreements with British companies in the fields of transport and logistics, metallurgy, energy, agriculture, engineering, and in the field of developing the healthcare system infrastructure.

The UK is among the top 10 trading partners in terms of turnover, as well as among the six largest investors in Kazakhstan, which accounts for almost 5% of the total volume of attracted foreign investment.

Trade between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom in 2017 increased by 1.5% and amounted to $1.28 billion. More than 800 legal entities, branches and representative offices with British participation are registered in Kazakhstan.

ASHGABAT (TCA) — The Avaza national tourist zone on Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea coast hosted the International conference HEAVY CASPIAN: TURKMENISTAN. The transport and logistics forum was organized by the Heavy World company, one of the world leaders in the field of heavy and oversized cargo transportation, together with the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan and the Turkmen Logistics Association (TLA), the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported on October 2.

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ASHGABAT (TCA) — On October 1, when Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was addressing the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York, activists of the Cotton Campaign human rights movement held a rally outside the United Nations headquarters protesting the state-sponsored forced and child labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton fields, independent foreign-based news website Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported.

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ASTANA (TCA) — The potential for trade and economic cooperation between Kazakhstan and Greece remains high and includes the potential for significant growth in transport, agriculture, tourism and finance. This was said during the fourth meeting of the Kazakh-Greek Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) on economic and technological cooperation held in Athens late in September, the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

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ALMATY, Kazakhstan (TCA) — In Kazakhstan, like in other post-Soviet Central Asian countries, the pension issue is very relevant, and often painful, for many citizens. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by Almaz Kumenov, originally published by Eurasianet:

Authorities in Kazakhstan are set once again to tinker with how pension funds are managed. And if social media and news website comment boards are any indication, people are livid.

Since 2013, pension contributions have been held in an entity called the Single Accumulated Savings Fund, or ENPF in its Russian initials. The fund comprises 10 million accounts worth a total of 9 trillion tenge ($25 billion) and is managed by the National Bank. Now, the government is talking of reverting to the pre-2013 arrangement, wherein the money is managed by private-sector operators.

The reform is outlined in the National Bank’s strategic plan for 2017-21. The vision as outlined is for contribution-payers to choose investment funds for themselves and decide how best their money should be invested.

“As an investor, you must pick the investment manager. If you are unhappy with their work, you have the right to take your money elsewhere,” deputy National Bank chairman Dina Galiyeva said in televised remarks.

Although the government intends to relinquish its obligation to underwrite the security of privately managed pension funds, Galiyeva has said that fund managers will be required to meet stringent capital rules. This is to ensure account-holders can be compensated in the event of wayward investments.

Anecdotal evidence to date indicates many are just eager to withdraw what sums they have accumulated in their pension funds as soon as possible, so that they can use the cash for pressing needs, such as paying for medical operations or putting down deposits in a government-backed mortgage program.

But the rules state that pension savings can only be handed over in the event of a relocation to another country. Or in the event of the interested party’s death, the funds can be transferred to designated heirs.

Petr Svoik, an economist and member of the ENPF public consultation committee, is a fervent critic of the plans, which he describes as the result of lobbying from the private sector.

“High-ranking private entities want to take this pension money abroad. It is more than 8 trillion tenge ($25 billion) – that’s a juicy slice,” he said.

But Svoik also believes that the government is eager to shed what has proven an onerous and unrewarding responsibility. The National Bank “can barely deal with its role,” Svoik said.

“There are not enough investment instruments inside the country. That is why pension funds are mainly invested in state bonds – this is a burden on the budget and does not deliver much yield,” he said.

The current system has been battered by a string of embarrassing episodes.

Last year, it emerged that the ENPF had sunk more than 70 billion tenge (around $225 million) into the shaky Baku-based International Bank of Azerbaijan. The ENPF acquired bonds issued by the lender in late 2014, only months after an international ratings agency downgraded the papers to Ba3, a high-risk speculative category classified as “junk bonds.”

That was only the tip of the iceberg. As economist Rahim Oshakbayev explained at the time of that affair, a detailed analysis of the ENPF’s investments had revealed that around 23 percent of the fund’s investment portfolio consisted of risky assets.

The limited liability of private fund investors is making the new system even more vague that it was under the old system.

And the existing format has not exactly been the model of transparency. In January 2017, the National Security Committee, or KNB, arrested the head of the ENPF over suspected corruption. Investigators say around $15 million worth of funds were invested in mining companies Buzgul Aurum and AlatauMunaiAtlyn only to subsequently go astray. ENPF chairman Ruslan Yerdenayev and his deputy, Dabyr Medetbekov were in April sentenced to 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively.

Murat Temirkhanov, a board member at the Halyk Finance investment bank – a likely top contender for lucrative pension management business – has said in an interview with business newspaper Kursiv that he believes there is something absurd about the current arrangement. In particular, he pointed to the fact that by managing the ENPF, the National Bank is in effect both involved in and regulating the financial market.

Kazakhstan’s retirees are in desperate need of more robust provisions for later life. Pension payments vary, but by way of illustration, a former teacher in Almaty who retired last year after 39 years on the job told Eurasianet that she receives 109,000 tenge ($300) monthly from the state. That is enough to cover the cost of food and utility payments for a three-room apartment built in Soviet times, she said.

The amount accumulated in pension funds so far are paltry. Svoik said that average pension pots today stand at no more than around $2,000.

“When you go and take your well-earned rest, your pension savings will most likely last you only a few months,” he said.

Inflation has ravaged even those modest amounts. Over the past five years, inflation in Kazakhstan has come in at more than 40 percent. And the tenge has experienced a string of a cataclysmic devaluations, sending it tumbling from 120 tenge to the dollar in early 2009 to 360 tenge today.

Saule, a 36-year-old Almaty resident and marketing researcher, has nine years work experience and has managed to build up a pension pot worth $3,400. At the moment though, her employer officially pays her only the legally permitted minimum salary of $100 – one-tenth of which goes into her pension pot. In reality though, she takes home $600. Most of the salary is paid under the table.

“It is a common practice for small businesses to save money by refraining from paying toward their employees’ social contributions. And employees prefer to just get cash in hand, rather than put it in their pension fund,” Saule said, on condition that her surname not be published, as receiving a salary off the books is against the law.

Saule said she is prepared to settle for this, since it ensures she has a job, but it is hardly a recipe for long-term peace of mind.

“I don’t know how I am going to live in old age on this kind of money. I am putting my hope in my children,” she said.

Still, the idea of expecting savers to know how best to invest their own money raises eyebrows among people like Akzhunis Brasilova, a consultant with the Almaty-based School for Financial Literacy.

“One third of the population, the older generation, as a rule pin their hopes on support from the government, as it was in Soviet days. The rest understand that you need to rely on yourself, and yet they do nothing about it,” she said.

Brasilova said that a recent survey found that 60 percent of respondents had taken at least one line of credit and that they usually spend their entire monthly salary.

“This is a big problem. In Kazakhstan, you cannot live beyond the present. If you do not save money for your own pension, your old age will be anything but restful,” she said.

ASHGABAT (TCA) — While on a working visit to the United States for the participation in the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly last week, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attended a Turkmenistan–USA business forum, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.

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