The IMF called for structural reforms, including making oil export sales more transparent and encouraging competition in the trade sector. The fund noted recent trade policy measures may be harmful to economic efficiency, regional integration, the investment climate, and sustained long-term growth. It s getting hard to tell the players without a program. In today, out tomorrow.
Cabinet posts are shuffled, deputy premiers come and go too fast to list.
A meeting of more than 500 followers in the city of Aktobe was broken up by police on the grounds that it was unsanctioned, according to Interfax-Kazakhstan News Agency , and the leader of the group was arrested and fined. Washington is increasingly frustrated with Nazarbayev s refusal to make an explicit commitment and stop flirting with competing pipeline plans through China and Iran, reports Khabar television. In Kazakhstan, independence means the government is independent of the people, unresponsive and unaccountable, a leading opposition figure declared in marking the country s Independence Day, according to published reports . Amirzhan Qosanov, vice chair of the Republican People Party's Executive Committee, told a meeting sponsored by the Soros-Kazakhstan Foundation that one man controls both the parliament and judiciary. His views were echoed by Seydakhmet Quttyqadam, leader of Orleu Movement, who said the absences of real independence, liberty and democracy have impeded Kazakhstan s growth.