ALMATY (TCA) — A technical opening of a new plant for the production of engineering protection systems of the transnational corporation Tokyo Rope Manufacturing has taken place within the framework of the initiative “50 Projects-Drivers of Almaty’s Development”, in the industrial zone of Kazakhstan’s largest city. The enterprise has no analogue in the CIS and was introduced by Japanese investments, the Kazakh Invest National Company for Investment Support and Promotion said.

The governor of the city Bauyrzhan Baibek noted that the launch of a high-tech plant is the realization of the instruction of the President of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev to attract foreign investments and create innovative production facilities in Kazakhstan.

The new enterprise has unique equipment for the production of drill anchors, high-strength metal cables, steel zinc-coated grids for mining and quarrying. The plant’s capacity is more than 17 thousand tons of steel products per year.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tokyo Rope Manufacturing Shigeto Tanaka said that Almaty was the starting point for the spread of advanced Japanese technologies throughout the region.

“After the launch of the first phase of the project in 2016, the products of the Tokyo Rope Almaty plant are already being used in the CIS and the Persian Gulf, including the implementation of a major project in Saudi Arabia. The products of the plant localized in Almaty were also used to strengthen the riverbed of the Esentai River, the highway to the Big Almaty Lake, the Medeu-Shymbulak cable car and the Mun Zhylky Platinum. I am sure that the joint work carried out today will give impetus to the influx of new Japanese investments into Kazakhstan,” Shigeto Tanaka said.

The Japanese company was founded over 130 years ago. It is the world leader in the production of steel ropes. In Tokyo Rope they also specialize in the design, manufacture and installation of protective structures against mudflows, avalanches, landslides, rock falls. The ropes of the Japanese company are used in the construction of 12 of the world’s 20 largest bridges. Each fourth tire produced in Japan uses Tokyo Rope products. Along with this, the company is known for high-quality ropes for high-speed elevators and products for engineering protection.

“In general, more than 40 large domestic and foreign projects in the spheres of construction, pharmaceutical, chemical, food and light industry are being realized in the industrial zone of Almaty today. In the current year, it is planned to introduce 9 new projects, including the plant for the production of cable and wire products of the Russian company KMK Investment, the Kazakh-Chinese enterprise Asia Steel Pipe Corporation for the production of large diameter welded pipes for the transportation of oil, gas, water and oil products,” Almaty’s executive committee’s press service added.

TASHKENT (TCA) — Membership in the World Trade Organization would open up new prospects for Uzbekistan, and the country is intent on moving toward that goal. At a two-day seminar that started in Tashkent on June 21, national officials, agricultural producers and many others study the implications of WTO accession for Uzbekistan, with special attention to possible reforms in the area of trade and domestic support policy.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — A roundtable discussion to mark the completion of the development of recommendations for a large-scale regulatory reform of business practices in Kyrgyzstan, hosted by the Kyrgyz Government’s Council on Regulatory Reform and the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek, took place at the event to mark the launch of the reform on 18 June in Bishkek.

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ASTANA (TCA) — The state power succession is a relevant issue in Kazakhstan, and the most recent developments show that the authorities have crafted a transition scheme. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet:

The speaker of Kazakhstan’s parliament has dropped a political bombshell by stating in an interview that President Nursultan Nazarbayev may not run for re-election in 2020.

“He is a very wise man, he is absolutely reasonable. And I think that in 2020 we shall have presidential elections with other candidates,” Tokayev told BBC’s Hard Talk program in an interview aired on June 20.

Tokayev said he was expressing his own personal views in making the forecast, although it is unlikely such a senior official in Kazakhstan would issue the remarks without sanction from higher up. As speaker of the Senate, Tokayev is in formal terms only second in the hierarchy to Nazarbayev.

The date of Nazarbayev’s departure from the top of Kazakhstan’s political pyramid has for years been object of sustained speculation and this may be the clearest indication to date that a definitive exit strategy has been crafted.

There have been tentative signs in the recent past that a transition of sorts is in the offing.

Early in 2017, Nazarbayev, who turns 78 on July 6, issued a televised declaration nebulously outlining his desire to formally dilute the powers of the president and shift toward a more parliamentary form of government.

“The basic essence is that the president will give some of his powers to parliament and the government,” he said in a January 25, 2017, address televised on all national channels. “The proposed reform is a serious redistribution of power and a democratization of the political system as a whole.”

As outlined by Nazarbayev, those reforms will give the executive more powers over running the economy, while the head of state retains control over defense and foreign policy. The head of the Constitutional Council, Kairat Mami, met with Nazarbayev earlier this week to debrief him on the progress being made toward overhauling the constitution, but few details were provided by the president’s office on the substance of the conversation.

In the broader picture, the planned transition toward a highly consensual model of parliamentarianism indicates that Nazarbayev intends to be Kazakhstan’s first and last all-powerful head of state.

Parliament is at present overwhelmingly dominated by Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party. A pair of officially sanctioned ersatz opposition parties have been allowed to occupy 14 out of the legislature’s 107 seats in the directly elected lower house of parliament.

Genuinely confrontational political parties have been either sidelined into irrelevance through harassment and by being ignored by media almost entirely under the thumb of the government or banned altogether. Sensing the prospect of change at the top, some opposition activists are seeking to mobilize in order to seize the initiative in a post-Nazarbayev era, although it is unclear they possess the organizational nous or the public appeal to capitalize on the moment.

Strong legal guarantees have also been put in place for Nazarbayev in anticipation of his departure from office.

In 2010, he was proclaimed Leader of the Nation, a bespoke status endowing him with lifetime powers and immunity from prosecution. Meanwhile, it was made a criminal offense punishable by up to a year in prison to make remarks insulting Nazarbayev. And journalists publishing insulting remarks about Nazarbayev could face a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

To begin with, he made a show of disdaining the Leader of the Nation honorific, which was supposedly the autonomous initiative of lawmakers, and demanded in a performance of modesty that people stop delivering eulogies to him. But when it came time to vetoing the proposal, he disdained the opportunity.

This is all to say that even if Nazarbayev does decide to step down, he will still retain immense influence over running the country.

TASHKENT (TCA) — The Export-Import Bank of China and Uzbekistan’s Turonbank are cooperating in construction and modernization of hydroelectric power plants in Uzbekistan, the Jahon information agency reports.

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ASHGABAT (TCA) — In the framework of the High Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028 which started in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on June 20, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov held a meeting with President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.

The Turkmen leader underlined the importance of the forum in consolidating the peoples in the world as well as developing the bilateral and multilateral relations between the countries.

The leaders of the two states exchanged their views on a wide spectrum of the Turkmen-Tajik cooperation, discussing the opportunities of its diversification. They underlined the interest in enhancing cooperation in the transport sphere and the implementation of the Asian railway corridor.

According to President Berdymuhamedov, the railway that revives the Great Silk Road is to serve the interests of the two friendly states and peoples as well as the goals of development of the regional and international cooperation.

The leaders also underlined the importance of the International Seaport in the city of Turkmenbashi that was recently put into operation in Turkmenistan. The seaport will not only expand the transit and transport potential of Turkmenistan, but will also open up new opportunities for the landlocked countries in the region.

Speaking during the water conference in Dushanbe, President Berdymuhamedov said that the development of the states in Central Asia region directly depends on the access to water resources and their efficient management.

“Therefore, equal rights, respect, responsibility should stand as the fundamental, determining criteria for the relations between the countries in Central Asia on water use,” Berdymuhamedov said.

“Turkmenistan has always stated that water issues in our region should be resolved: first of all, based on the generally recognized norms of international law; secondly, taking into account the interests of each of the Central Asian states; thirdly, with the active participation of international organizations, primarily the UN.

“This is our principled position, and, relying on it, we will continue working on the establishment of effective negotiating mechanisms between the Central Asian countries with the aim to develop the coordinated solutions,” the Turkmen leader said.