According to Interfax, the Kazakhstani national oil transportation company KazTransOil and the Chinese National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation (CNOGED) have signed a general agreement to work out jointly a feasibility study for the construction of a pipeline to deliver crude oil from Western Kazakhstan to China. The CNOGED is a subsidiary of the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC). The partners intend to complete the FS in October and to present it to the governments of both countries. Following the results of the FS ( which may take 2-3 months) the parties can conclude a final contract next spring to built the pipeline.

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Reuters reported that AktobeMunaiGas shareholders have approved the size of 1997-year dividend on the company's preferred shares in the amount of 5% of the share face value (KZT1,500 or US $19.6). No dividend will be paid on common shares since the company has no net profit for 1997. However, the Chinese National Petroleum Company (which purchased 60.3% of shares in AktobeMunaiGas in 1997) raised KZT5.534bn (US $72m) in subsidies from its financial partner Dang Fang Trading and used a part of these subsidies for payments to the budget.

AktobeMunaiGas, the fourth largest oil company in Kazakhstan, produced 2,630,000 tonnes of oil, 702,000,000 m³ of gas, and 42,000 tonnes of sulphur in 1997. Apart from the CNPC, company's shareholders include employees (10% of preferred shares)and the Kazakhstani Government (20.2% transferred recently to KazakhOil for management and another 5% to be sold to portfolio investors by the end of this year). The remaining shares belong to individual and corporate minority shareholders.

The magazine Central European has presented Kazkommertsbank the award of "The Best Kazakhstani Bank" for 1998. According to Central European spokesman, Mr. Night, the decision was made based on their own analysis and on the opinion of foreign financial organisations operating in Kazakhstan. As a result, they gave preference to Kazkommertsbank since it has agreements on three foreign syndicated loans; it has placed its shares, in the form of ADRs and GDRs, as well as Eurobonds in world markets. Above all, Kazkommertsbank has gained a good reputation among its partners and has a large, according to Kazakhstani standards, capital (Panorama ).

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Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbaev signed a resolution on June 19 whereby amendments will be made to the second stage of privatisation of Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan (HSBK). Thus, the bank's authorised capital will be increased through the third issue of shares worth KZT1,311,900,000 (in excess of US $17m). [Presently, the bank has an authorised capital of KZT 1.7bn (US $22.2m)]. In addition, a 82.4% state share in the bank will be increased by KZT1,010,700,000 (about US $13.2m) through capitalisation of the bank's profit before January 1, 1998. A part of the third issue—10% of the authorised capital totalling KZT 301,200,000 (over US $3.9m)—will be sold to national investors via an open tender. Another 10% of the state share will be sold by this year end with revenues to be channelled to the state budget.

Based on the resolution, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and the HSBK will make relevant changes in the HSBK privatisation programme for 1997-2001.(Interfax).

As Interfax reported, the Director of the Department of Industry of the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Trade, Khairulla Ospanov, held a meeting with heads of mining and ferrous-metal companies of Kazakhstan and Russia to address the situation at Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky Mining and Concentrating Plant (SSMCP).The plant had to stop temporarily the production and processing of iron ore due to the reduced demand for its products (iron ore pellets and concentrates) by Kazakhstani and Russian companies as a result of decreasing world prices for metals. (SSMCP major customers—Ispat Karmet, Kazakhstan, and Magnitogorsk Metallurgic Plant, Russia—have almost halved their shipments from the plants.) The participants of the meeting made a number of proposals, which in their opinion will help to stabilise the performance of mining enterprises. The proposals will be submitted to the Government and suggest, among other measures, the reduction in electric power and railway tariffs, land tax and VAT rates as well as reviewing the mechanism of collecting the VAT, etc.

The national electric grid operator KEGOK is proceeding with its first US $100m Eurobond issue, the newspaper Delovaya Nedelya wrote. According to expectations, the issue will take place this autumn. Coopers & Lybrind has reportedly evaluated KEGOK's assets at a total of US $2.5bn. The lead-managers of the issue are ABN AMRO Bank and Merill Lynch.