tam/bas news

9 August 2006

New BAS office in Aktobe – Press conference in Astana with EBRD Japan Office

The Japan-funded Kazakhstan BAS Programme held a press event in Astana on July 19 to announce the opening of its fourth regional office, in the western city of Aktobe, which allows the Programme to now cover all geographical areas of the country. Japan's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Tetsuo Ito, opened the event, and emphasised the relevance of Japanese economic development assistance in Kazakhstan.

Alternate Japanese EBRD Executive Director Hiroyuki Kubota and TAM/BAS Team Deputy Director John McPhee also spoke. Presentations on BAS in Central Asia, and Kazakhstan and the new office in western Kazakhstan were in particular given by Regional Programme Director for Central Asia Gabriel Al-Salem, National Programme Director Zhanibek Suleimenov and Aktobe Regional Project Officer Aigul Yessengalieva. In addition to journalists, representatives of Astana BAS clients and consultants also attended.

The event was held in Astana, Kazakhstan's new capital city, as the opening of the Aktobe office has nationwide significance for BAS Kazakhstan. Effective implementation of the BAS Programme requires BAS teams to seek out enterprises that would otherwise have limited or no access to business consulting services. In Kazakhstan, one of the ten largest countries in the world, this means reaching out to remote regions, where consultants are few and the more abundant Almaty-based consultants are reluctant to go.

The Aktobe office in the west is the fourth regional office established by Kazakhstan BAS - following eastern Ust-Kamenogorsk, southern Shymkent (near Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent and the BAS office there, allowing for cross-border cooperation) and northern Kostanai - and more than 80 per cent of the Programme's projects are now with enterprises located outside of the business capital Almaty.

The 'standing room only' gathering of attendees was made up of about half journalists and half enterprise and consulting firm representatives, allowing the event to result not only in visibility for the Programme and the Japanese donor, but also in lively networking among companies, consultants and the BAS Programme.

At the end of the event, three former BAS clients from the Astana region were recognised for outstanding achievements following BAS projects: a bakery for the largest increase in turnover, a grain elevator firm for most successful ISO-9001 implementation and a juice and dairy processing company for most successful introduction of a new, BAS-supported product brand.