As the rating agency Fitch pointed out devaluation of credits in three Kazakhstani banks, including the country’s leading private bank KazKom, and smaller ones, the Alliance and Caspian banks, the reaction of Kazakh bankers was immediate. They said that the Fitch’s methodology of evaluation of the assets quality is conservative.

The rating agency’s report, actually, reads that the Kazakh banking system’s quality of assets degraded, although the critical bottom level has not been reached yet. Kazkom - recently rebranded from Kazkommertzbank to a more “user-friendly interface” - says the bank is working closely with Western risk management consultants from ABN Group and underscores that Kazkom is very stiff in retail credit sector, thus ensuring stability of the credit portfolio. The Caspian Bank’s CEO blamed the agency for hasty conclusions based on the the first quarter’s data, which is uncertain due to seasonal decline of payment discipline and business activity. The Alliance bank’s leadership sweeped aside Fitch’s concerns by saying that their business model is based on retail crediting and non-standard methods of risk management, which quarantee quality of their assets.

Among other news, the Central Asian branch of a Moscow-based Institute of Economic Strategies released a statement saying that as of March 1, 2008, six leading banks of Kazakhstan — Kazkom, BTA, Halyk, Alliance, ATF and CenterCredit — acknowledged $1,178,9 million in credits as losses. Meanwhile the national regulator of financial sector, Agency of Financial Supervision, proposes introduction of criminal liability of the bank leaders, whose actions led to the institution’s bankruptcy. Some bankers are afraid that vagueness of the formulations and definitions may lead to persecution for the actions that constitute a business risk, rather than crime.

The Kazakh government will seek investors to build or maintain 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of roads at a projected cost of 541 billion tenge ($4.5 billion) in exchange for operating concessions, the Transportation Ministry said.Roads in Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-biggest country by territory, have always been a persistent problem both in Soviet times and afterwards. A number of multi-million road  projects, funded by state budget - like autobans Almaty-Astana - failed with funds lost and stolen. Additional allocations of petromoney from the National Fund is suggested by some public figures, but, perhaps, concessions - with private investors building the roads which will bring them dough (and there fore have to be of a good quality) - is the only way to do it well in this country of opaque schemes that always accompany governamental spendings. 

One of the roads will connect Astana with the regional mining center Karaganda. Two more roads will run from the financial capital Almaty to Kapchagai Lake and Khorgos on the Chinese border. The fourth road is a ring around Almaty - it was earlier given in a concession to KUAT construction company, which reportedly had bad problems with liquidity last year. The state may build a fifth road from Astana to the Borovoye resort.

Annual revenue from the roads may reach 30 billion tenge, with the charge to travel one kilometer ranging from 2.5 tenge for cars to 10 tenge for buses, the ministry said.

The government also plans to upgrade 2,552 kilometers of roads at a cost of 900 billion tenge to create a highway that would allow freight from Chinese manufacturers to be delivered directly to European markets. The first phase of the upgrade will cost 789.3 billion tenge and is scheduled for completion by 2013. A second phase will be done by 2016. Investors from China, South Korea, Israel and Hungary have indicated interest in the upgrade project, the ministry said.

Below is a translated post by  Nurgeldy from the Russian-language blog.

A monument to Charlie Chaplin has appeared in [the northern city of] Kostanai last week. As reported, it is the 12th in the world. The very fact of a sculpture to the cinematographe idol being installed in our city is quite weird for the town’s standards, especially taking into account that the only movie theatre in Kostanai was recently demolished. In any case, now we have Charlie and a bench near charlie. And as Farid writes in the local newspaper, “the bench is good enough to sleep on it — that’s practical, because we have as much vagabonds in town as in NYC in early 1900s”. 

This is a translated post by Arman from the Russian-language blog.  

It has been on the eve of the May Day holidays (which by the way were celebrated much wider under the previous mayor of Almaty; however, that was more likely due to better overall economic situation in the country) when the new mayor of the Kazakh southern capital spoke to the local Nur Otal party’s branch.

The media reports on this occasion were scarce and vague, provoking lots of thoughts, especially on such pressing issue for the city (and the country) as frozen construction sites. Here’s what was written by the news agencies:

Akim of the city Akhmetzhan Esimov offered the way to resolve the problem with the “suspended” constructing objects and unresolved destiny of shareholders.

And this is it. Either the news agencies were too lazy to elaborate on the akim’s thoughts, or it is a secret information. Meanwhile, the problem is beyond the city scale — the whole crisis in Kazakh economy was caused by misbalance in crediting the construction firms and overvalued realty market. All we have to do now is to wait for further details.

Application Deadline: June 1, 2008

 Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, in collaboration with the Open Society Institute Public Health Program’s Health Media Initiative, is now accepting project proposals for the third round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects focused especially on public health issues involving marginalized populations. Ideal applicants are dynamic NGOs or individuals who: (more…)

Below is a translated post by Adam from the Russian language blog.  

Numbers of children of high-ranking officials among Kazakh bankers have grown. Now Nurali Rakhatovich Aliev (Nurbank, son of presidential daughter Dariga and now-outcast former deputy foreign minister Rakhat Aliev), Alidar and Anuar Bulatovichs Utemuratovs (ATF-Bank, sons of the chief of presidential apparatus) are accompanied by Chingiz Temirkhanovich Dosmukhambetov, who bought 10,182% of shares of Lariba-Bank, established in Kazakhstan by Saudi investors in 1990s. The guy is a son of the minister of sport and tourism. His senior partner with 39,818% shares of the same bank is son of the head of the country’s financial police Nurbol Sarybaiuly Sultan.

As we already reported earlier, the long-running dispute between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan over ownership of resorts on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul has been resolved in favor of Kazakhstan. But far not everyone in Kyrgyzstan is happy with the compromise.

Hundreds of people marched in Issyk-Kul region Saturday to protest a government decision approving the handover of four Soviet-era tourist complexes in the area to Kazakhstan, reports AP. Besides, Kyrgyzstan also gives up three other disputed areas along the border with Kazakhstan.

“Land transfers always cause a lot grievances among the population,” said opposition Social Democrat party lawmaker Murat Jurayev, adding that the land transfer could set a dangerous precedent for the small country surrounded by larger Uzbekistan, China and Kazakhstan, with all of the neighbors having certain appetites towards Kyrgyzstan.

The Eurasian Media Forum, a creature of Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of the president and ex-wife of outcast Rakhat Aliyev, has been held in Almaty in April 24-26. Shortly before it, Ms. Nazarbayeva spoke with the Internet users via popular forum “Centr Tiajesti” [Gravity Center] and said that the story behind persecution of her ex-husband is yet to be clarified by the History.

The media forum was held much “lighter” than earlier - less sponsors, shorter duration, smaller cultural program. However, even in spite of traditional criticism from the opposition and its newspapers, the fact remains - the Eurasian Media Forum has already become an authoritative “gravity center” that annually brings together prominent journalists and distinguished politicians in Almaty to brainstorm on the urgent issues of today’s world.

Two years ago (source: ng)