Covid19 Rules for Foreign Travellers Arriving to Kazakhstan:

• Passengers arriving to Kazakhstan from foreign countries should have a negative PCR test certificate (no more than 3 days should pass from the day the result is issued till the moment of crossing the border of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
• In the absence of a negative PCR test certificate, passengers, including citizens of Kazakhstan and persons holding residence permits in the Republic of Kazakhstan, will not be allowed on board from the airport of departure.
• Persons who have received a full course of vaccination against COVID-19 in the Republic of Kazakhstan upon providing a documentary confirmation, do not need to present a negative PCR test certificate. 
• Children under 5 years old do not need to take the test.

BKS Education Group Webinar

'Universities Contributing to Societal Development'

Wednesday 27th October 2021

10:00 - 11:00 BST

It has been recognised that higher education can support global, national, and local development, leading to the outcomes enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals and going beyond those outcomes. This talk will report on national manifestations of the developmental role of universities in post-Soviet countries, with a focus on Kazakhstan. 

The talk will argue that limited academic freedom and institutional autonomy impede the full realisation of the potential of higher education. The assumptions underpinning academics’ views on how higher education can support development are discussed in the light of an innovative framework of essentialist and anti-essentialist approaches. 

Juxtaposing the national with the global development missions of universities, the talk raises questions on the possibility of delinking higher education from the immediate human capital and modernisation needs of the nation-state and becoming concerned with the global; on promoting freedom to cultivate intellectual curiosity through education and research, and stimulating a more holistic imaginary of the developmental purposes of higher.

Discussion between the speakers will be followed by a live Q&A session where you will have an opportunity to communicate directly with the speakers. 

There will also be available a simultaneous language interpretation to the Russian language.

Recent BKS Webinars:

News About Kazakhstan / UK:

Kazakhstan:

On 5 October, Prime Minister Askar Mamin met with Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge. Alstom invested GBP 85 million in Kazakhstan. The company will train 700 Kazakh engineers and work on digitalisation of railways in the country (click here).

On 5 October, Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar held an online meeting with 15 Korean companies. Lotte Confectionery, Medical Partners Korea, Dongil Construction, Samsung Electronics, Daewoo Bus Company, Mark Point, POSCO, SK E&C, KHIDI and Trade and Investment Agency KOTRA took part in the meeting (click here). 

On 7 October, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Prime Minister Askar Mamin. The Prime Minister reported that 7.7 million people have been vaccinated with the first dose and 6.7 million people have been vaccinated with the second dose.He reported that Kazakhstan would receive 4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the fourth quarter of 2021. The following vaccines will be available in Kazakhstan until the end of the year: QazVaс, Sputnik V, Sinopharm, Hayat-Vax, SinoVac и Pfizer (click here). 

On 8 October, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev held an online meeting with Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa. ADB invested GBP 4.5 billion in Kazakhstan over the past 27 years (click here). 

On 11 October, Prime Minister Askar Mamin met with Executive Vice President (Upstream) James Johnson. Kazakhstan and Chevron signed a memorandum of understanding for establishing a GBP 200 million Direct Investment Fund (click here).

According to official statistics, as of 11 October, 907,140 people have been infected with Covid-19 in Kazakhstan, 848,891 people recovered and 11,584 died.  

United Kingdom:

The UK's fastest-growing region, West Midlands will create an extra 52,000 digital tech jobs and consequently grow by £2.7 billion (click here).

The UK is preparing for the 14 days trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (click here). 

Oil and gas: OPRED communications (click here).

The CO2 industry has come to an agreement to ensure UK businesses have access to a sustainable supply of CO2 (click here).

According to the official statistics, as of 11 October, 8,193,769 people have been infected with COVID19 in the UK, 6,686,695 people recovered and 137,163 died.  

BKS Welcomes the Following New Members:

Trafalgar Square Capital

Trafalgar Square Capital are traders in crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products from various refineries and producers around the world. We supply to Sovereign nations such as India and China, as well as large multinational companies.

We are always looking to diversify our risk by increasing the quality and the quantity of our suppliers to our clients, as well as seeking to explore new markets for our commodities. 

Dr Anshul Gupta

News/Updates From Our Members

Oilfield Production Consultants (OPC)

OPC can recently completed a Carbon Capture and Storage Commercialisation Study. A leading independent oil and gas operator requested OPC to investigate assess gas reservoirs for the application of Carbon Capture and Storage. OPC performed modelling of the client’s assets to understand the practical CO2 storage capacity and appraised the geomechanics of the reservoir. 

OPC performed an assessment of the facilities to develop an understanding of the capital and operating expenditure of storing CO2 and provided commentary on the economics of Carbon Capture and Storage. This enabled us to outline to the client the cost of injecting and storing one tonne of CO2 under a number of scenarios. Adding to this, OPC provided commentary describing the commercial and regulatory environment of Carbon Capture and Storage to put costs into context. 

Reach out to the OPC team in Kazkahstan or London to discuss Carbon Capture and Storage as well as other Energy Transition and Oil and Gas related projects and studies.

London@opc.co.uk     astana@opc.kz

We would be glad to receive any feedback. Any suggestions and contributions with news of Kazakhstan and British-Kazakh relations are welcome.

Yours sincerely,

BKS Team