Fielding questions from viewers on state-controlled television channels on November 13 Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that on November 27 the leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan would gather in Minsk to sign final agreements on a Customs Union.
Russia wants to turn a newly minted Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan into its major vehicle for post-Soviet economic integration in Central Eurasia.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev told global oil and metals majors working in Kazakhstan on Friday he would force them to help diversify the economy as the government pledged $67 billion to modernise industries.
Companies from Kazakhstan plan to move part of their fundraising away from London, according to the country's central bank governor, because UK investors failed to stand by the central Asian state during the financial crisis.
Kazakhstan's Kazmunaigas and Uzbekistan's Uzbekneftegas appear in the Top 50 for the first time.
Less than a month left until Kazakhstan's entrance into Customs Union with Russia and Belarus, but there are more questions than answers on present moment. Objectively, a big economical alliance would help our home economy. However, the tradition to turn inside out every good beginning gives a clue that different things might happen.
Kazakhstan will celebrate the New Year by fulfilling a cherished ambition: on January 1 it assumes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But an OSCE Ministerial Council meeting, held in Athens December 1-2, offered a stark reminder that doubts remain over Kazakhstan's suitability for the job, due to its controversial record on political and democratic freedoms.
