LIAISON GROUP FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS ALSO SET UP.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has also decreed the creation of a special interministerial working group, mandated to examine “specific” complaints, requests and proposals by foreign investors and to respond with “corrective” actions. The presidential decree cited the “need to improve the investment climate in Kazakhstan against the background of the international financial crisis”–a formula reflecting concern lest that crisis add to the internal impediments to Western investment in Kazakhstan.

The working group is made up of senior officials of economic ministries and agencies and the Justice Ministry; it is chaired by Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev, who is also a deputy prime minister. The designation of Tokaev for this post appears designed to maximize the working group’s international profile and its ability to goad or overrule individual ministries (Habar, May 16).

AMNESTY CONDITIONALLY GRANTED TO TAJIK OPPOSITION FIGHTERS.