From chemists to construction, special economic zones become fiefdom of Nazarbaev clan

A journalistic investigation aims to shed light on the country's 14 SEZs. Inside, the companies, exempt from taxes and with numerous privileges, are largely traceable to the family or 'friends' of the former president. Over 75 billion euros have been invested in their development. The road to overcoming the ancient Central Asian satrapies is still a long one.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - An investigation by Azattyk sought to shed light on the situation of the 14 "Special Economic Zones" (SEC) of Kazakhstan, in which resident companies are relieved from paying a long list of taxes and enjoy numerous privileges . The last official verification of the Sez, which have existed for over 20 years, was carried out in 2021, and had highlighted many violations; the companies analyzed in these areas were over 300, many of which are linked to the most powerful families in the country, starting with that of ex-president Nursultan Nazarbaev.

The companies of the Sez should stimulate the growth of production and the economy, multiply jobs, attract investments and use of new technologies, helping economic development and improving the quality of life of all inhabitants. Their activity is regulated by the specific law "On special and industrial zones", and they began to be identified in 2001, until the current number of 14 was reached. According to data from the Ministry of Industry in Astana, they are registered in these areas have over 900 companies, of which 325 have explicit industrial projects, and another 364 are "under construction".

The State has so far allocated over 370 billion tenge, around 75 billion euros, to the development of these infrastructures, mostly taken from the National Fund "for future generations" and made up of the profits accumulated from the sale of mineral resources abroad. On the website of the Kazakh Center for Industry and Export QazIndustry, the companies resident in the Sez are largely referred to Nazarbaev's brother-in-law, the husband of his second daughter, Timur Kulybaev, and belong to the Kipros and Joint Technologies consortia.

In the Žambil region the local section is called “Taraz Chemical Park” and mainly the limited liability company operates there. Qazsugar Co, which is building a vast project around the sugar production factory. This is a branch of Kulybaev's Kipros, supported by the ex-president of Almaty Airport, Dauren Erdebaj, after Nazarbaev's brother-in-law had sold 85% of the airport's shares to a Turkish holding company in 2020.

Sugar production, according to Taraz's plan, should come after the chemical industry, resins and plastics, minerals and chemical equipment, while all the Sez funds (91 billion tenge) are intended for sugar from 2021, with a plan of 8 thousand tons per day. The financing was supposed to be provided by the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which however refused to give money to the ex-president's relatives in May 2022, in the wake of the de-Nazarbaevization decided by President Kasym-Žomart Tokaev. The project, however, did not stall, finding new investors not explicitly stated in the development plans, perhaps attributable to China.

Kulybaev also acts as a protagonist in other Secs of the country, such as that of Pavlodar, where he has the right to hire foreign personnel without being subject to permits and quotas in the petroleum coke fusion factory, a procedure aimed at the production of aluminium. Radušan Sagdieva, daughter of the president of the last Kazakh Soviet of the USSR, Maktaj Sagdiev, Nazarbaev's adventure companion in the transition to the new Kazakhstan, acts together with her "great brother-in-law". Here too, considerable funds are at stake, around 23 billion tenge, and the company has been active since 2015.

The activities of Kulybaev and the entire Nazarbaev clan do not stop there. In other Secs there are representatives of other families close to presidential power in the last thirty years, such as in that of "Astana New City" in the capital, a building project that has not paid a cent in land taxes for 10 years. It is entrusted to Mukhamed Izbastyn, nephew of the current president Tokaev, together with Dmitrij Dedov, son of Evgenij, named in Soviet times "the greatest energy man in Russia". Nazarbaev's youngest daughter, Alija, also dominates the ecological recycling business scene in the Astana region with her Green Future Management Ltd; the path to overcoming the ancient Central Asian satrapies is still very long.