On 15 October the Kazakh Government submitted to Parliament the draft state budget for 1999. According to an Interfax source, budget revenues are projected at KZT 283.678bn (USD 3.502bn) and expenditures at KZT 344.750bn (USD 4.256bn). The budget deficit will total KZT 58.5bn (USD 0.754bn) or 3% of the GDP. Inflation is expected to be 8.3% and the Tenge/Dollar rate will be 92.6/USD. It is suggested that the lower house of Parliament will start considering the budget on 19 October. (Interfax)

President Nazarbaev issued a decree establishing a Ministry of State Revenues last week. The new ministry will take on the functions of the tax and customs committees and the tax police which were formerly part of the Finance Ministry. The ministry is intended to form and pursue fiscal and customs policies and will ensure tax and other payments to the state budget. It will also exert control over the production and trade of alcohol and fight economic violations. President Nazarbaev appointed the Chairman of the Tax Committee, Bisengali Tajiyakov, to be acting Minister of State Revenues. (Reuters)

The Kazakh State Investment Committee has reportedly approved 10 investment projects. The direct investment in the projects will total USD 27m by 2000. According to the Committee, the projects were proposed by both local and foreign (French, Lithuanian, Turkish) companies and range from the construction of a runway at the Almaty airport to building small power stations on rivers in the east and south of Kazakhstan to producing toothpaste in Almaty by Urker Cosmetic. (Interfax)

The Russian President Boris Yeltsin made a short visit to Kazakhstan on 12 October. After signing bilateral documents with his counterpart, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev said that "all economic and financial issues were resolved". The presidents signed a treaty on economic co-operation for 1998-2007, a protocol on delimiting the Kazakhstan-Russia border and an agreement on financial issues of common interest. They discussed the division of the Caspian Sea and the development of oil projects there, but only agreed that these issues should be resolved as soon as possible. Seven agreements were signed at a governmental level. (Interfax )