Жарияланымдар

In Kazakhstan’s judicial practice there are growing disputes related to the early termination of legal protection for trademarks that have come into common use for the designation of goods of a certain type by virtue of Article 6.1.1 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan 'On Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods' No. 456-I, dated 26 June 1999  (hereinafter - the 'Trademark Law').

As outlined in our earlier Overview of main developments in pharmaceuticals regulations of Kazakhstan in 2019, as a result of steady dynamic of medicines prices, we observe the same dynamic in continuous changes of legislative framework governing the pricing of medicines.

On 11 May 2020, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the session of State Emergency Commission ordered the suspension of the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings until 1 October 2020.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is a Russia-led economic union of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation that represents, from an energy perspective, one-fifth of the world’s gas reserves and more than 50% of world gas exports.

The enactment of the new rules on issue of accompanying notes was postponed for the third time. Thus, the enactment of the new rules on issue of accompanying notes was postponed from 1 July 2020 to 1 October 2020 in respect of the following goods.

The Kazakh gas market continues to be organized on the basis of central command and control, and quasi-monopolistic principles, with KazMunayGas (KMG) as the state owned and vertically integrated oil and gas company dominating gas production, supply and transportation through its direct and indirect subsidiaries.

The Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan is currently considering a draft law of the Republic of Kazakhstan 'On the Introduction of Amendments to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Regulation of Digital Technologies' (hereinafter - the 'Draft Law'). The Draft Law provides for changes to a number of regulatory legal acts regarding legal support for the implementation and application of digital technologies in Kazakhstan.

At present two drafts of the amendments concerning activity of special economic zones (hereinafter – ‘SEZ’) are under consideration. One of these drafts suggests to expand the list of priority types of activities of SEZ Ontustik, while the other one suggests to create a new SEZ ‘Shymkent City’ on the territory of Shymkent.

Despite the attempts of the government of Kazakhstan to make its Islamic finance market more attractive, Islamic products are still rarely used in Kazakhstan. Currently, according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the share of Islamic banking assets in Kazakhstan represents an insignificant part of the total assets of the banking sector: 0.21% (a year earlier the share was 0.16%). According to the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), the target to achieve by 2025 is 5–7%

In 2020, Kazakhstan faces a hurricane in the form of the impact consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the plunge in the price of oil to a 20-year low, including, among others, decreased economic activities, devaluation of the local currency (tenge), reduced foreign direct investments in risky markets and shrinking state budgets.