Central Asian Countries and the United States Discuss Cooperation on Critical Minerals

The bulk of these transactions involved private individuals," the minister said.

The goal is not to punish them, but to ask for explanations as to how this situation arose. We found a large number of private individuals involved in taxi services, as well as many couriers. They come in and explain that they were indeed working as taxi drivers and were unaware that such regulatory requirements had been introduced," Takiyev said.

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Work is currently underway to register the project with the state authorities. These processes are undergoing the necessary approvals. The next stage will involve addressing issues related to the processing and development of the deposit," the vice minister was quoted as saying by Kazinform News Agency.

The country's resource base includes more than 9,500 mineral deposits, over 100 of which contain rare and rare earth metals. We invite American companies to actively participate in their exploration and development," Nagaspayev was quoted as saying by Kazinform News Agency.

Since 2018, investment in geological exploration has tripled, exceeding $1 billion. Leading global companies, including Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, First Quantum, Ivanhoe, Teck, Fortescue and Cove Capital, have entered the Kazakh market," Nagaspayev said.

We do not see any fundamental or market-driven factors that would lead to a sharp increase in the dollar’s exchange rate, either this summer or in the autumn. We openly acknowledge that there is a seasonal effect during the summer due to the holiday season. Seasonality can also be observed in vegetable and meat prices, and even in utility tariffs. The same applies to the dollar exchange rate," Suleimenov said.

We believe the same trend will be observed this year. There will be no sharp increase," Suleimenov stressed.

Our gasoline and diesel fuel reserves are sufficient for 36 days. This allows us to confidently state that there are currently no concerns regarding shortages. For the past three years, we have been preparing for such demand spikes, understanding that seasonal consumption of petroleum products in Kazakhstan increases. Therefore, we consistently prepare for the summer season and the holiday period," the minister said.

You can see media reports about frequent strikes on oil refining facilities. I know that our Russian colleagues are taking steps to restore these facilities and are strengthening air defence measures. We remain in constant contact with our Russian counterparts, and the situation is under their control. However, interruptions cannot be completely ruled out, and if they occur, we will work together to address these issues," the energy minister said.

We will have enough fuel," the minister assured.

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The amount of inefficiently used funds exceeded the 2024 level by 1.7 times. At the same time, a high level of budget execution did not guarantee the achievement of planned results. At the central government level, an average of 5% of budget programme indicators were not achieved, while in the regions the figure reached 33%," Smailov said.

State auditors calculated that despite GDP exceeding forecasts by KZT 9 trillion and reaching KZT 159.9 trillion, the budget still received KZT 335 billion less than expected. Among the key reasons were deficiencies in planning and excessive optimism in tax forecasts. In particular, revenue forecasting methodologies were not always followed during the planning stage. Instead, inflated assumptions and additional revenue sources not предусмотрed by the methodology were often used," the SAC chairman noted.

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Consumer lending has slowed its growth, while lending to businesses continues to expand at around 18%," Suleimenov told reporters on the sidelines of a government meeting.

We then adopted a number of tax measures. Consumer loans are now subject to a 25% corporate income tax rate for banks, while business loans continue to be taxed at 20%. As a result, banks now have greater incentives to lend to businesses rather than households. These measures are already demonstrating their effectiveness," the National Bank governor said.