News Roundup - November 7, 2007

Reuters: Kazakh minister renews threat to halt Kashagan

Kazakhstan’s environment minister on Tuesday renewed his threat to suspend the giant Kashagan oilfield if a consortium of Western oil majors developing it does not comply with ecological requirements by Nov. 22…

Reuters: Kazakh bank TuranAlem says deposits up in October

TuranAlem , Kazakhstan’s second-largest bank, said on Tuesday that modest growth in client deposits in October showed that the domestic funding situation was improving. “We believe that this small increase is the first sign of an improvement of our deposit base,” Sadyr Shaguzhayev, head of TuranAlem’s capital markets department, told a conference call with investors…

Gazeta.KZ: Energy Ministry and Tax Committee develop changes to subsurface usage model contracts

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Tax Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan by now develop changes into model contract for subsurface users and rules of tax expertise execution fur subsurface usage…

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Kazakhstan, OSCE to continue election cooperation

A visiting OSCE official has signaled the organization’s readiness to continue cooperating with Kazakhstan on democracy and rights issues, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported…

Interfax: $30 Bln to be invested in Kazakh transport sector - minister

Eighty investment projects worth $30
billion are to be implemented in Kazakhstan under the country’s
transport strategy until 2015, Deputy Transport and Communications
Minister Zhenis Kasymbek has announced…

Eurasia Daily Monitor: NATO treads warily in Kazakhstan, as Russia watches

Kazakhstan’s military cooperation with the NATO Alliance appears to be progressing steadily, despite the problems emerging between NATO and Russia. On October 31 Robert Simmons, NATO representative for Central Asia and South Caucasus, met Kazakhstan’s Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov in Astana…

BusinessWeek: Air cargo row shows EU-Russia tensions

German-Russian relations have come under pressure following a dispute over cargo overflight rights, in a situation seen as reminiscent of recent bilateral trade spats between Moscow and other EU capitals…