Oil chief succeeds Kazakh premier<\/p>\n
ALMATY (Reuter): Kazakhstan's parliament appointed the
\nresource-rich country's oil chief as prime minister yesterday and
\nhe said there would be no change in policy -- despite President
\nNursultan Nazarbayev's criticism of the outgoing team.<\/p>\n
Nurlan Balgimbayev, head of the state-run Kazakhoil company,
\nbecame prime minister soon after Nazarbayev had accepted the
\nresignation of reformist Akezhan Kazhegeldin's government and
\ndescribed its record as bleak and inconsistent.<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev aides told Reuters that Nazarbayev, who enjoys
\nsweeping executive powers, would hold a news conference later
\nyesterday.<\/p>\n
Other appointments could be announced then after he told
\nparliament the government should ideally be \"compact and
\nprofessional\" and consist of just 18 people.<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev told Interfax: \"The government's policies will not
\nchange and 100 percent continuity will be maintained.\"<\/p>\n
The new head of the ex-Soviet republic's cabinet was appointed
\nless than an hour after the presidential press service leaked
\nnews that Nazarbayev had accepted the resignation of
\nKazhegeldin's government.<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev told Interfax the offer was a complete surprise.<\/p>\n
Nazarbayev's proposal to a joint session of both houses of
\nparliament to appoint Balgimbayev prime minister was backed by 39
\ndeputies out of the 40 present.<\/p>\n
The move came shortly after the president delivered a keynote
\naddress outlining Kazakhstan's priorities and strategies up to
\n2030.<\/p>\n
\"I should pay tribute to the current government which worked
\nenergetically in difficult conditions. But at the same time the
\nstrategy of the president in the economy has not been implemented
\nin full,\" Nazarbayev said before his main speech.<\/p>\n
\"Reforms have been insufficient and in some aspects have not
\nyielded expected results.\"<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev, 49, is an oil engineer by education and made a
\ncareer out of working on large Kazakh oil fields.<\/p>\n
He was among those who offered Nazarbayev a plan to make
\nKazakhstan the world's sixth oil power, boosting crude output to
\n170 million tons by 2010 from this year's expected 27 million
\ntons.<\/p>\n
One of Nazarbayev's sons-in-law was Balgimbayev's deputy in
\nKazakhoil.<\/p>\n
Blood and clan ties are very important in the Central Asian
\nstate of 16.7 million people.<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev's predecessor Kazhegeldin, 45 and a successful
\nbusinessman before his appointment as prime minister, had been in
\ncharge of the reformist government since October 1994.<\/p>\n
Kazhegeldin has been seen by foreigners as a guarantor of
\nmarket reforms and their multi-billion dollar investments in the
\nresource-rich former Soviet republic.<\/p>\n
His government has managed to stamp out inflation, stabilize
\nthe national currency, win investors' trust and further
\nliberalize the unwieldy economy inherited from Soviet times.<\/p>\n
But the president said in his address those achievements were
\n\"bleak\" against the background of \"weak and inconsistent\" reforms
\nin the social, agricultural and industrial sectors.<\/p>\n
Recently, Kazhegeldin has been under fire from influential
\nbusiness and political forces opposed to his reforms.<\/p>\n
Kazhegeldin's rapid-fire sell-offs of huge but loss-making oil
\ncompanies to foreigners are said to have met staunch resistance
\nfrom their Soviet-era directors.<\/p>\n
When the oil privatization was in full swing, Kazhegeldin told
\nReuters in May this resistance had been broken.<\/p>\n
Balgimbayev, who never publicly opposed oil sell-offs to
\nstrategic investors, has said government stakes in Kazakh oil
\ncompanies should not be offered to portfolio investors for at
\nleast another year to give them time to appreciate.<\/p>\n
Kazhegeldin's government was planning to sell large stakes in
\noil, metals and communications to portfolio investors on the
\nrecently started stock exchange by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 22 Kazhegeldin left for treatment abroad.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview from a clinic in Switzerland on Sept.
\n28 he said his position was in doubt but denied rumors he could
\nseek refuge abroad.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/oil-chief-succeeds-kazakh-premier-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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