SSMEP INITIATES STEPS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF ORE PRODUCTION

KAZAKHSTAN TO CLOSE SECRET FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNT IN APRIL

The Kazakhstani government will transfer the remaining monetary reserves from a recently unveiled secret foreign bank account opened in 1996 to the National Fund later this month, National Bank Chairman Grigoriy Marchenko told Reuters. 

As the NewsWire previously reported, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov last week revealed that Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev had established the secret foreign fund in 1996 using the USD 1 B in proceeds from the sale of a 20% interest in the Tengizchevroil oil production venture. Tasmagambetov said that the secret fund twice saved the country from financial ruin, and he emphasized that neither the president nor his family benefited personally from the foreign account.

GOVERNMENT LOOKING TO RETAKE CONTROL OF POWER SECTOR?

The Kazakhstani government is hatching a plan to re-impose state management over the power generation sector, Reuters reported citing remarks by Kazakhstani Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov. 

Speaking to reporters in Ust-Kamenogorsk on April 5, Tasmagambetov singled out American energy giant AES Corp., one of the few remaining foreign investors in Kazakhstan's power generation sector, for particular criticism. AES manages the Ekibastuz GRES-2 power plant as well as a number of power generation and distribution enterprises in East Kazakhstan oblast. "We obviously will consider both the terms of our contract as well as our general relationship with this company," Tasmagambetov stated.

The prime minister noted that AES is currently involved in a legal dispute over tariff issues with the East Kazakhstan oblast anti-monopoly department. Tasmagambetov declared that the time has come for the government to reclaim authority over the power generation sector. Over the past six year, a large number of power companies have been sold or handed over in concession agreements to both domestic and foreign investors, but that experiment in private management has apparently not yielded the desired results for the government. 

US EMBASSY EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER ABLYAZOV ARREST

The US Embassy in Kazakhstan this week issued a statement expressing the United States' "astonishment and concern" with the recent arrest of ex-minister of energy and Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan opposition group leader Mukhtar Ablyazov as well as ensuing events in Almaty. 

As the NewsWire previously reported, Ablyazov was arrested on March 27 by the Kazakhstani Financial Police Agency, which is currently wrapping up an investigation into Ablyazov's activities as head of state power grid operator KEGOC and as minister of energy, industry and trade. Subsequently, Kazakhstani law enforcement officials issued an arrest warrant for another DCK leader, ex-Pavlodar oblast akim Galymzhan Zhakiyanov. 

In addition, a television station with links to Ablyazov, TAN TV, was the victim of hooliganism that interfered with the normal broadcast of the station. Commenting on the arrest of Ablyazov, the US Embassy said it could not speculate on the "fairness" of the charges leveled against Ablyazov, but called for his release from pre-trial custody given the fact that he has not yet been convicted of a crime. Moreover, the embassy expressed "serious concerns" about the possible arrest of Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, who in the day after Ablyazov's arrest had called for public protests. 

The arrest or threatened arrest of opposition leaders and the attack by unknown perpetrators on an independent television station all speak to possible "attempts to intimidate" the political opposition and independent media. The US Embassy asked the Kazakhstani government to investigate the events of the past week and to take measures to promote democratic development, protect the independent media and to ensure the rule of law in the republic.
2 April 2002

QUIETLY, KAZAKHSTAN TRIMS FOREIGN LABOR QUOTA

PRESIDENT TO SIGN DECREE CREATING AKTAU SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE

Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbaev is expected to issue a decree creating a special economic zone around the Aktau Seaport (Mangystau oblast) in the next several days, Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov disclosed during a speech before parliament in Astana on March 25.

According to Masimov "the government is also considering the possibility of investing in the construction of a grain elevator in Aktau Special Economic Zone." Masimov told parliamentarians that a special economic zone at the Aktau port, Kazakhstan's main Caspian Sea shipping outlet, coupled with the construction of a new railway linking Kostanay and Aktobe oblasts to the port, would facilitate Kazakhstani grain exports to Iran and elsewhere, Kazakhstan Today reported.