Wolfenson, ex-head of WB, was offered to become the councilor on development of the financial center of Almaty

/INTERFAX-KAZAKHSTAN, Astana, September 14, 06/ - Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, offered James Wolfenson, ex- head of the World Bank (WB), to become the councilor on development of the regional financial center (RFCA), which is being set up in Almaty (Alma- Ata), informed Arken Arystanov, the chairman of the state agency on regulation of activities of RFCA. "Yesterday the meeting of the president (N. Nazarbayev - IF-K) with Mr. Wolfenson took place, on which he was officially offered to act as the councilor on development of the financial center in Almaty," informed A. Arystanov on Thursday on a press conference in Astana. Besides, he noted, J. Wolfenson in the course of the meeting with the management of the state agency the same day "asked to present him the strategy, recommendations of the company Boston Consulting Group and our sight: what we want to achieve", establishing the regional financial center in Almaty. "We continue negotiating in Singapore during the meeting of IMF and the World Bank, on which we plan to conduct presentation of RFCA for institutional and other investors," added A. Arystanov. As it was reported, in June of this year the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law about the regional financial center of Almaty and the attendant legislation "About insertion of changes and additions in some legislative acts on matters of establishment of RFCA". The primary goal of indicated laws is the determination of the legal regime of activity of participants of RCFA. According to the document, a plenipotentiary state body is being set up for regulating activity of RFCA. Besides, a specialized financial court of the center is approved by the law about RCFA with an aim to consider disputes, effluent from civil, labor, administrative and other legal relations as the court of first instance. At that the law sets that the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan is the court of appellate and supervision instances for the specialized court of RCFA. Work on study of establishment opportunities of the regional financial center in Almaty started in 2003. Company Boston Consulting Group acted as the consultant of Kazakhstan government on project of establishment of the regional financial center in Almaty. RFCA will be set up in the form of special zone with a particular legal regime. At that, in contrast to existing special economic zones at present time in the republic RFCA will not have its well-defined territory. Territorial principle will be kept by the requirement for participants of RFCA about availability of an office on the territory of Almaty. Foreign citizens and people without citizenship, coming to the territory of Kazakhstan for fulfillment of activities in RFCA, will be getting the entrance visa at their arrival to the international airport of Almaty. At that, prolongation of period of validity of visas, and also change of categories of visas on one's application can be accomplished by the executing agency of RFCA without departure of this person outside of Kazakhstan. Participants of RFCA will get the opportunity to maintain procedures and conclude deals only in English, normative decisions of the executing agency also will be translated to English. It is planned that primary groups of players in RFCA, except broker-dealer organizations, will consist of issuers, investors and market makers. It is assumed that the Kazakhstan companies of big and small size, companies of medium size from Russia, Ukraine and Central-Asian region, Kazakhstan banks, brokers of RFCA on index funds and other securities, and also other foreign issuers will enter the list of potential issuers. According to expectations, Kazakhstan pension funds, unit funds, insurance organization, Kazakhstan banks and companies, Russian and other regional banks, other big and medium private investors, foreign investors, Islam investors will be the investors of RFCA. At the same time, partial reimbursement of expenditures for audit, depending on emission volumes, discounts for listing right up to zero level of listing value in the first year of work of RFCA, relief from collection for registration in RFCA are offered as the economic incentives for creation of attractive conditions for issuers. Tax control of participants of RFCA will be conducted only on the basis of tax accounts, approved by an audit report. More than KZT1.5 bn. (current 126.14/$1) is provided for establishment of the regional financial center in Almaty in the republic budget in 2006. With a view of successful founding of RFCA a special state agency of the republic was formed, which directly submits to the head of the state. Almaty, with the population of about 1.5 m. people, is the biggest city of Kazakhstan, until December 1997 it was the capital of the state. At present time central offices of practically all big commercial banks of the republic, the National bank, Kazakhstan stock exchange, other financial institutions of the country are located in this city. [2006-09-14]