Publications

GRATA International contributed to LexisNexis Mergers & Acquisitions Law Guide 2018. The publication is featured under the Special Focus - One Belt One Road China Investment section.

On 13 December 2017, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the first reading the draft Federal Law aimed at the legalisation of remote retail trade in medicines. The right to conduct remote retail trade (including trade via the Internet) in the OTC medicines for medical and veterinary use shall be granted to pharmacy organisations and veterinary pharmacy organisations, respectively.

Since 1991, Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy and oil producer, has had to rely on the deteriorating infrastructure it inherited from the Soviet Union. As a result, nearly every piece of public infrastructure (e.g., roads, hospitals, power plants, kindergartens, sewerage) in Kazakhstan requires a different degree of upgrading or expansion. It is expected that proper PPPs and project finance deals will finally take off in Kazakhstan in the near future, firstly because proper legislation on PPPs has been put in place in 2015 and, secondly, after decades of neglect, the government of Kazakhstan has finally not only declared, but seems to confirm its readiness to improve the investment climate and to attract private investments through PPPs (including into the housing and utilities sector) and decided to invest at least part of the wealth from commodity exports in long-postponed infrastructure projects.

As of 1 January 2018, the Instruction No. 181-I of August 16, 2017 of Bank of Russia establishing the procedure for the submission by Russian residents and non-residents to authorised banks of supporting documents and information on the performance of currency transactions, as well as unified forms of accounting and reporting on currency transactions, the procedure and timing of their submission becomes effective. In particular, the requirement to submit a transaction passport by Russian residents with an authorised bank is cancelled, instead, the procedure for registering foreign trade contracts with banks with unique numbers being assigned to them is established.

The Federation Council approved on 22 November 2017 the draft Federal Law amending the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" and the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media" for the purposes of the regulation of foreign media in Russia.

Over the past 25 years Kazakhstan has developed its own financial sector, which is considered to be the most advanced in Central Asia. With the evolution of financial sector and the complexities of key players involved, the need for regulation of dealing with data arose.