From: Vladic Ravich (vravich@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Nov 04 2004 - 11:44:38 EST
KAZAKH PRESIDENT ADDRESSES PARLIAMENT...
President Nursultan Nazarbaev addressed the Mazhilis (lower chamber of
parliament) on 3 November as it reconvened after the 19 September
elections, Khabar TV reported. Nazarbaev said that the national
commission on democracy and civil society will resume its work, which
was suspended for the duration of the election campaign. He urged the
legislature to support steps to speed reforms and reduce corruption,
saying that a 30 percent decrease in the shadow economy will boost
budget revenues by 20 percent. And he noted the need to raise teachers'
salaries and ensure that young people are proficient in Kazakh, Russian,
and English, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. For their part, legislators
elected Oral Mukhamedzhanov, who previously occupied a position in the
presidential administration, as the new speaker of the Mazhilis,
Kazinform reported. DK
...WITH FOCUS ON REDUCING 'OLIGARCHIC' INFLUENCE
President Nazarbaev stated that "about 10 megaholdings control almost 80
percent of Kazakhstan's total GDP," Khabar TV reported. He stressed that
these inefficient and nontransparent oligarchic structures hinder the
development of small and medium-sized businesses. "We should work to
transfer the secondary functions of megaholdings to medium and small
business," he concluded, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. In comments to
journalists later in the day, presidential adviser Ermukhamet Ertsybaev
[Interfax spells him Ertysbaev - which is correct?] said, "What the
president had in mind is that the 10 financial and oligarchic groups in
Kazakhstan that control 80 percent of the economy should in no way
influence decision making in the government and in parliament,"
Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. Ertsybaev said that demonopolization laws
are needed, but that it will take parliament "two to five years" to
enact them. DK
|
