Republic of Kazakhstan

Politics and economy

Kazakhstan is a parliamentary-type presidential republic. The supreme legislative body is the parliament.

Kazakhstan is a fast-growing agro-industrial state. It is ranked eighth in the world in reserves of iron ore and is one of the world’s leading producers of refined copper. Its main industries are mining, non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy, chemical, coal, food, light industries and engineering. Its main agricultural product is grain. In this regard, Kazakhstan is ranked third among the CIS countries after Russia and Ukraine.

The banking system is represented by the National Bank of Kazakhstan and 38 commercial banks, which are second-level lending institutions. The Development Bank of Kazakhstan has a special status. The country’s national currency is the tenge.

National AML/CFT regime

The Law On Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Criminal Proceeds and Terrorism Financing entered into force on March 9, 2010.

The country’s financial intelligence unit is the Financial Monitoring Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, established by Government Decree № 387 of 24 April 2008. The committee collects and processes data on transactions involving money and/or other assets subject to financial monitoring. It analyzes the information it receives in the sphere of combating the legalization (laundering) of criminal proceeds and terrorist financing. It coordinates the activities of state bodies in this field and sends the information within its competence to law enforcement agencies so that they can decide if sufficient grounds exist to warrant action. It is an administrative-type financial intelligence unit.

The Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Committee is Musiraly Utebayev.

MUSIRALY UTEBAYEV

Was born on January 1, 1950.

He has a degree in economics. He completed his postgraduate work at the Research Institute for Designing Data Centers and Economic Information Systems of the USSR Central Statistics Directorate and the Russian Federation Government’s Academy of the National Economy. He is a Doctor of Economics and has authored more than 50 monographs.

He has served as Chairman of the National Agency for Foreign Investment; Advisor to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Chairman of the Audit Committee for the control of the national budget; and deputy and chairman of the Committee on Finance and Budget of the Senate.

Since 2008 he has served as Chairman of the Committee for Financial Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Cooperation with the EAG

Since the establishment of the Eurasian group, the Republic of Kazakhstan has been actively involved in its work. Kazakhstan became a member of the EAG on 6 October 2004 at the founding conference in Moscow.

The 12th plenary meeting of the EAG and the Consultative Forum with the private sector were held in June 2010 in Almaty.
The EAG’s mutual evaluation of the Republic of Kazakhstan is underway and will continue into 2011.