10 most important events for Kazakhstan in 2018
Chairmanship in the UN Security Council
In January 2018, Kazakhstan assumed the office of the UN Security Council presiding country. As many as 30 meetings (consultation, briefings and debates) were held during the chairmanship period. Thus, a briefing on ‘Non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons: Confidence-building measures' was held January 18 under the chairmanship of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Besides, ministerial debates on building regional partnership in Afghanistan and Central Asia took place. Numerous events were held regarding the situation in the Middle East and Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Columbia, Darfur (Sudan), West Africa and Sahel, Libya, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan as well as on the activity of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia as well as the UNSC members' trips to Washington for a meeting with the U.S. leadership.
First gold at Paralympics
Skier Alexander Kolyadin became the first Kazakhstani to win a gold medal at the Winter Paralympic Games in PyeongChang. Kolyadin showed the best result in men's 1.5km sprint classic standing event.
President's 7-20-25 Initiative
Taking the floor at the joint meeting of the Parliament chambers, Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev initiated a new mortgage programme "7-20-25". The program will enable each working Kazakhstani resident to get a mortgage lending in tenge under the following conditions: no more than 7% interest, no more than 20% of initial contribution. The period of loan will be 25 years. Over 3,000 applications have already been approved. Besides, 50 thousand housing certificates worth 1mln tenge will be issued for the civil servants for reducing the amount of initial contributions.
Establishment of Turkestan region
In June, the city of Shymkent (the administrative center of the South Kazakhstan region) with the population of over 1mln people was granted the status of the city of republican subordination. South Kazakhstan region was renamed as Turkestan region and city of Turkestan became its administrative center. The President stressed that the newly established Turkestan region possesses all required opportunities for high quality performance of administrative functions and pointed out historical importance of the decision taken.
AIFC Presentation
An official presentation of the Astana International Financial Centre took place in July 2018 with the participation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. 55 companies have already registered with the AIFC. By 2020, their number is expected to reach 500. The AIFC cooperates with the world's largest financial structures - the World Bank, IMF, EBRD, ADB, Asian Bank for Infrastructure Investments, a new Bank of the SCO Countries Development. The President launched also the first trading session on the Astana International Exchange Nov. 14, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of national currency Tenge.
Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Astana
The nationwide celebrations of the 20th jubilee of the Kazakh capital included numerous events in all the regions which began long before July 6 and continued till the year end. The Action Plan on celebration of Astana's 20th Anniversary covered more than 100 unique projects which were implemented both in Astana and in the regions.
GGG's defeat
Kazakhstani boxer Gennady Golovkin suffered the first defeat in his professional career against Mexican Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez. That was their second bout. The first ended in a draw, and the second fight held in Las Vegas lasted for 12 rounds. By a decision of judges, Alvarez won on points. The Mexican fighter gained the status of the WBA/WBC/IBO world champion in middleweight. Despite this, Golovkin remains the favorite and pride of Kazakhstani people.
Cancellation of 3 Kazakh banks' licenses
In 2018, the National Bank revoked licenses of three Kazakh banks: Qazaq Banki, Eximbank and Bank of Astana for systematic violation of requirements. The cancellation of the licenses does now bear any risks for other financial organizations. Nevertheless, these banks are not permitted to join the system of mandatory guarantee of deposits.
President's Article "Seven Facets of the Great Steppe"
In November 2018, the Head of State published an article titled as "Seven Facets of the Great Steppe". In his article, the President puts forward some initiatives. Thus, he offered to launch a separate programme for gathering archival data (Archive 25) to restore the images of outstanding people of the Great Steppe. The President suggests also organizing the World Congress of Turkologists in Astana in 2019 and to open the Museum of Ancient Culture and Technologies of the Great Steppe. He also initiated to compile an anthology of the steppe folklore. The President believes that a special cycle of documentary films, TV series and full-length motion films must be produced in order to prove continuity of cultural history of Kazakhstan.
Daneliya Tuleshova's Junior Eurovision 2018 debut
Kazakhstan made its Junior Eurovision debut with 12-year-old Daneliya Tuleshova who gathered 171 points and ranked the 6th with the song Ozine Sen (Believe in Yourself). It should be noted that online audience voting counted for 50% of the participants' final scores, while the other 50% came from the national juries which included 3 adults (music professionals) and 2 children. So, as per juries' voting, Daneliya was placed the 8th with 68 points. In online audience voting she ranked the 3rd with 103 points.