The Kazakh government now can review and break up the contracts in extractive sectors. From now on, according to the new bill unanimously adopted bill by the Kazakh parliament, it will be legitimately a one-way road, not requiring negotiations as such. The state can change the contract conditions if the foreign investor’s actions “significantly influence economic interests of Kazakhstan” and “create threat to the national security”. This law expands its regilations on the existing deals, and the state does not need any court procedures in order to annul the contract. Obviously, it will further hamper the country’s stand in the WEF’s Global Competetiveness Index. In the last World Bank’s “Doing Business” report, Kazakhstan has already fallen.

Another portion of bad news arrived from the Transparency International’s new Corruption perceptions index — Kazakhstan dipped down from 113 to 155 place.