A5
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017
BUSINESS
NEWS IN BRIEF
BUSINESS
MyBusiness:
business without borders app
to aid entrepreneurs doing business
By Dmitry Lee
ASTANA – The “MyBusiness:
business without borders” app, de-
veloped and created by Chevron,
the British Council and the Atame-
ken National Chamber of Entre-
preneurs, is a hoped-for way to
protect the rights of entrepreneurs
in the country.
“The mobile application ‘My-
Business: business without bor-
ders’ is a unique software product
created for the business commu-
nity of the countries of the Eura-
sian continent to support, develop
and expand transparent conditions
for its successful quantitative and
qualitative growth,” said Yerlan
Stambekov, chair of the Almaty
Chamber of Entrepreneurs region-
al council during the app presen-
tation in Almaty in mid-Decem-
ber. “We express our gratitude to
Chevron and the British Council
for their assistance in developing
the section on social entrepreneur-
ship for this application.”
The app includes various gov-
ernment databases, registrars, pro-
cedures for registering business in
Kazakhstan, the list of banks and
legal database for entrepreneurs
interested in doing business in
this part of the world in English,
Kazakh, Mandarin and Russian. It
also features tips from experienced
businesspeople who have been
doing business in the country, fre-
quently asked questions and suc-
cess stories.
The community of foreign en-
trepreneurs in Kazakhstan is also
interested in participating in the
project and has offered its busi-
ness-related information to be up-
loaded into the database.
“The interest to doing business
in Kazakhstan is growing. Eight
countries have reciprocated, among
them China, Russia, Belarus and
Armenia. The foreign investors
and businesspeople have expressed
a desire to post information about
themselves in the application and
to tell how they conduct business in
their countries,” noted Stambekov.
He added approximately 60 en-
trepreneurs successfully used the
app in 2016 to secure legal aid in
resolving paperwork. More than
20,000 people are currently using
the app with their own personal
pages and the chance to display
their business and services.
The presentation was held as
part of closing a phase of the I-
SEED (Innovations – Social En-
trepreneurship and Education)
project, implemented by the Brit-
ish Council and Chevron since
2013. The project’s goal is to sup-
port socially pro-active youth in
Kazakhstan and create conditions
for a sustainable solution of social
problems through promoting so-
cial entrepreneurship.
The nearly 300 people who took
part in the project last year had the
chance to learn more about project
management, fund raising, project
presentation to potential investors
and business planning. They inde-
pendently implemented 18 social
projects and developed 12 social
entrepreneurship projects, with the
two best receiving $2,000 in fund-
ing from Chevron. The company is
one of the leading private oil com-
panies in Kazakhstan with signifi-
cant shares in two large oil projects
– Tengiz and Karachaganak.
The British Council, which
works in the fields of cultural rela-
tions and educational opportunities,
contributes to creating a friendly at-
mosphere for building cooperation
and strengthening mutual under-
standing between the United King-
dom and other countries.
13 enterprises worth 9.4 billion tenge
launched in South Kazakhstan in 2017
By Meruyert Abugaliyeva
ASTANA – Thirteen enterprises
were established in the South Ka-
zakhstan region last year under
the National Programme of Ac-
celerated Industrial and Innovative
Development for 2015-2019. The
programme aims to boost econom-
ic diversification and improve the
competitiveness of the manufac-
turing industry.
The new enterprises started
manufacturing various goods and
created new jobs in the first 11
months of the year. Rakhat-Shy-
mkent constructed an 850-million
tenge (US$2.6 million) shop to
produce wafer rolls, generating 28
positions. The annual production
capacity is 1,700 tonnes.
Borte Milka launched a dairy
products facility in the Ordabasy
district. The 900-million tenge
(US$2.7 million) plant has an an-
nual production capacity of 4,320
tonnes. Baza-Service opened a
canning shop in the Saryagash
district for fruit and vegetable stor-
age. The plant, with a price tag of
500 million tenge (US$1.5 mil-
lion), is capable of manufacturing
40,000 cans per year.
Asia Agro built a plant in the
Otyrar district to grow and pro-
cess up to 5,000 tonnes of corn
to provide feed for poultry farms.
Akmergen, well-known for its
new project of using natural reeds
in production, opened a 622.3-mil-
lion tenge (US$1.9 million) plant
employing 30 workers.
The Rakhmankulov furniture
factory in Shymkent can manu-
facture 4,000 units under the
Bella Zhikhazy brand. The cost
of the project is 506 million tenge
(US$1.52 million) and the entre-
preneur received 300 million tenge
(US$903,000) under the Business
Road Map 2020 programme. The
plant uses modern technology and
created 50 openings.
Syrly Sozak, which processes
polymer waste and produces low
pressure pipes, was established in
the Suzak district industrial zone.
The factory, supplying products to
uranium enterprises, employs 31
people.
In the Kazygurt district, the
Otyrabat-Kurylys plant start-
ed producing aerated concrete
blocks. The 120-million tenge
(US$361,000) enterprise created
12 jobs. Corporation City Story
opened a plant capable of produc-
ing 750,000 tonnes of asphalt per
year. The project cost 280 million
tenge (US$843,000).
Ruberoid company Bumprom
launched a 100-million tenge
(US$301,000) plant to produce
cardboard paper, drywall and ce-
ment bags. The factory is capa-
ble of producing 4,000 tonnes of
product per year. The Dezfumen
project, which started functioning
last year, cost 150 million tenge
(US$455,000).
In Shymkent, RET produces
bricks with ceramic coating. The
cost of the enterprise, capable
of producing 20 million bricks
per year, is 103 million tenge
(US$310,000).
Chimpharm, owned by Polish
firm Polpharma, launched a 4.3-bil-
lion tenge (US$13 million) shop to
manufacture solid medicinal pro-
duction forms. The plant’s annual
capacity is 200 million tablets.
The entrepreneurship support
programme provides help for 135
projects in South Kazakhstan with
a total cost of 1.2 trillion tenge
(US$3.6 billion) and has created
17,500 jobs.
Club of Rome report paints dire
picture of future of fossil fuels
Staff Report
ASTANA – The end of the
fossil fuel era is inevitable, and
will likely arrive sooner than
previously predicted. The cost of
clean energy, like solar and wind
energy, decreases every year,
and its production is increasing.
Growth in demand for oil will
stop by 2020, and if Stanford re-
searcher Tony Seba is right, the
transition to renewable sources
could happen by 2030, Hvylya.
net reports.
These were some of the con-
clusions presented in the Club of
Rome’s “Come On! Capitalism,
myopia, population and the plan-
et’s destruction” jubilee report.
Its authors noted that huge de-
posits of oil and gas will remain
in the ground. The lost profits are
estimated in the range of $6 to
$20 trillion. The oil and gas sec-
tors are becoming a huge bubble
that could completely depreciate
over several years. Some analysts
and banking structures are already
warning customers about the unac-
ceptable risks of investing in such
enterprises.
The club’s experts say that sur-
prising changes are taking place
in China, the largest consumer of
resources. The Communist Party
proclaimed a policy of building
an ecological civilisation, which
has been fixed in the constitution
and is already reflected in the pro-
jects of the country’s 13th (2016-
2020) five-year plan. China is be-
coming the leader in the field of
alternative energy: in four years
the production of solar energy
has increased by 20 times, and by
2050 the country intends to get 80
percent of its energy from renew-
able sources.
The Club of Rome is an analyti-
cal centre, an international public
organisation, created by the Ital-
ian industrialist Aurelio Peccei,
who became its first president, and
Organisation for Economic Coop-
eration and Development (OECD)
General Director Alexander King
on April 6-7, 1968. They brought
representatives of the world’s po-
litical, financial, cultural and scien-
tific elite to their new project, and
the organisation has made a sig-
nificant contribution to the study
of prospects for the biosphere de-
velopment and the propagation of
the idea of bringing humanity into
harmony with nature.
One of the club’s main tasks is
attracting the world’s attention to
global problems through its re-
ports. The club determines the
topic of the report and guarantees
the financing of scientific research,
but in no way interferes with the
course of the work, nor its results
and conclusions; the authors of the
reports, including those who are
members of the club, enjoy com-
plete freedom and independence.
Having received a report, the club
reviews and approves it, usually
during its annual conference, often
in the presence of the general pub-
lic – representatives of the public,
scientific figures, politicians, and
the press – and then disseminates
the results of the study, publish-
ing reports and discussing them
in front of different audiences in
countries around the world.
A project to expand production
at the Aktogai Ore Mining and
Processing Plant with an invest-
ment of $1.2 billion has been ap-
proved, while the volume of pro-
cessing of sulphide ore is planned
to double starting in 2021, ac-
cording to inform.kz. KAZMiner-
als confirmed the planned steps.
The volume of investments will
be supported by a steady flow of
money from the Bozshakol and
Aktogai mines, and the construc-
tion of another division will dou-
ble the capacity of sulphide ore
processing from 25 to 50 tonnes
per year. According to Chairman
of the Board Oleg Novachuk, “the
expansion project is an opportu-
nity to provide a significant return
on investment from the asset by
duplicating the existing sulphide
factory. The copper forecast re-
mains positive, and this devel-
opment will help us continue to
grow in a market where demand
is increasing.”
The Aktobe regional adminis-
tration has signed a memorandum
of cooperation with producers of
construction materials, accord-
ing to the press service of the
region’s governor. According to
the agreement, the producers will
provide the market of the region
with products before supplying
markets elsewhere. Seven brick
and gas concrete block produc-
ers will provide for the internal
needs of the region. “Last year
was a record year in terms of con-
struction. In summer, during the
peak season, there was a short-
age of bricks. We had to deliver
not only from neighbouring re-
gions, but also from Russia. This
year, according to the order of
regional Akim (Governor) Berdy-
bek Saparbayev, we want to meet
the demand for bricks and other
building materials at the expense
of local production as much as
possible,” said Deputy Governor
Serik Tulenbergenov. In addi-
tion, in the second half of 2018,
the opening of a new brick plant
is expected in the Aktobe region,
the capacity of which will be 120
million bricks per year.
The Atyrau Oil Refinery is the
first in Kazakhstan to export ben-
zene – a raw material for petro-
chemicals, reported inform.kz.
“In 2017, 8,951 tonnes of benzene
were produced, or 104 percent of
the planned amount. Since the
beginning of the production of
benzene up to the present time,
14,381 tonnes of products have
been produced and shipped. All
of our product is exported to the
Russian Federation. Its quality
complies with the international
standard,” reads a press release
from the refinery. Benzene is
widely used in industry; it is the
raw material for the production
of medicines, various plastics and
synthetic rubber.
KazMunayGas transferred 50
percent of the subsoil use rights
for the Isatay oil field to Eni Isa-
tay B.V. According to the website
of the Kazakh Stock Exchange,
the deal to transfer 50 percent of
the subsoil use rights within the
contract for combined exploration
and production of hydrocarbons
at Isatay was completed in De-
cember 2017. Eni is the biggest
Italian oil and gas company. Its
main regions of operation are Af-
rica, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Two farms in the village of
Makhambet in Atyrau region
plan to produce 20 tonnes of
goose meat, reported inform.kz.
“Thanks to subsidies, residents
of the Makhambet district are
developing poultry farming. The
first farm was aimed at produc-
ing quail eggs, which are sold in
Atyrau. Not so long ago, a farm
opened for goose breeding. It is
designed to grow 5,000 birds a
year. A similar farm is already
under construction. In total, after
reaching the planned volumes, up
to 20 tonnes of goose meat per
year will be produced in the dis-
trict,” said Zheksenbai Pazulov,
head of the business and tourism
department of the district. Anoth-
er poultry farm is already in op-
eration in the district; it produces
up to 100 million chicken eggs
per year.
Photo cr
edit: kapital.kz.