KZBlog

Today, speaking at a meeting with the local governors (akimats) on the Industrial Innovation Strategy 2014, President Nursultan Nazarbayev introduced a number of large changes to the Ministries [RUS] of Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Tourism, Information and Communication will be split into two Ministries, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Information and Communication. The latter will absorb the Agency for Information and Communication. Askar Zhumagaliyev, who was head of KazakhTelecom, will be the Minister of Information and Communication.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will become the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies and focus on non-oil sectors such as “electric power, mining, nuclear and manufacturing industries,” according to the President. Aset Issekeshev, currently Minister of Industry and Trade, has been named Minister–and Deputy Prime Minister as well.

A Ministry of Oil and Gas will be created. It is unclear at the moment what will happen to the Ministry of Energy, which has dealt with issues of oil and gas as well as electricity and nuclear power. Presumably it will be dissolved as Sauat Mynbayev, currently Minister of Energy, will be the head of the new Ministry.

The Ministry of the Economy and Budget Planning will become the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, while the Ministry of Finance will take on the responsibilities for budget planning. Zhanar Aitzhanova, Vice Minister of Industry and Trade, has been appointed Minister of Economic Development and Trade and the current Minister of the Economy, Bakhyt Sultanov, has been dismissed.

As of yet, the reasons for these changes are unclear–unfortunately I am not at the meeting and have to take what I can get on official news sources. I will certainly try to keep up with these changes and what they mean. All in all, it looks like the government is trying to promote development of industries outside the oil sector. This has been a long term goal of the President’s and it is quite wise as the economy is vulnerable to changes in oil prices, something outside Astana’s control. The recent financial crisis shows that the banking sector has not been as robust as it could have been and that decent oil prices aren’t enough to keep business running as usual in a crisis. Whether reorganizing the ministries to basically create a Ministry of Not Oil will indeed help, with the Minister sitting directly under the Prime Minister’s control, or whether the government should allow things to happen more organically in a free market situation can only be solved by time.