By Dr Shahid Qureshi: –
The government of Kazakhstan seems to be sincere in fight against corruption and stop the bleeding of resources. On 12 October 2019, Chinese and Kazakh senior officials have agreed to partner in the area of anti-corruption in capital Nur Sultan. The Kazakh capital is full of banks and also has launched AIFC (Astana International Financial Centre) running its activities under British laws and closely working with Bloomberg.
I had opportunity to meet some officials from the presidential anti-corruption department in October 2018 in Astana, who gave some information about the effort to digitalise the services to control the corruption.
I met with the Governor of AIFC in Almaty on May 24, 2019, I brought to his attention that on the one hand you are launching AIFC as investment hub in the region and beyond but on the other hand large number (59) of Kazakh citizen in view of your population have taken money out of country. They have paid each paid $2.5 million to get Gold British Business Investment visas. He said: ‘the authorities will aware with that’. This activity contradicts the whole idea of AIFC. Below is the British Home Office report and break down.
I believe without disbanding the so-called tax free safe heavens and making banks transparent in US, Europe and Switzerland, stealing of national wealth of poor developing countries, money laundering and corruption cannot be controlled. Swiss banks charge 2% for keeping the money in the bank and later lend at 4% to other banks, so earning 6% for just keeping money with no question asked.
The agreement was reached during a visit to Kazakhstan by Yang Xiaodu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, from Thursday to Saturday on 12 October 2019.
Yang, who is also deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and head of the National Supervisory Commission, met with Bauyrzhan Baibek, first deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan Party.
He also held talks with Alik Shpekbayev, chairman of the Anti-corruption Agency of Kazakhstan. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation between China’s National Supervisory Commission and the Kazakh anti-corruption agency.
Yang said political mutual trust between China and Kazakhstan has reached an unprecedented high under the efforts of the two countries’ leaders. Developing a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership is an inevitable choice of the long-standing bilateral ties and the common wish of the two peoples.
The Nur Otan Party, he said, is an important partner of the CPC. The two parties are comprehensively implementing the important consensuses reached by Chinese and Kazakh leaders and pushing for cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Kazakh officials spoke highly of China’s great achievements over the past seven decades. Developing the Kazakhstan-China permanent comprehensive strategic partnership is in the interest of both countries, they said.
Kazakhstan is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in various areas, including the Belt and Road construction and anti-corruption. The Nur Otan Party is willing to increase interactions with the CPC and exchange experience on governing the party and the country, the Kazakh officials said.
Finally corruption is weapon against the state which can lead to breakups.
(Dr Shahid Qureshi is senior analyst with BBC and chief editor of The London Post. He writes on security, terrorism and foreign policy. He also appears as analyst on Al-Jazeera, Press TV, MBC, Kazak TV (Kazakhstan), LBC Radio London. He was also international election observer for Azerbaijan April 2018, Kazakhstan 2015, 2016, 2019 and Pakistan 2002. He has written a famous book “War on Terror and Siege of Pakistan” published in 2009. At Government College Lahore he wrote his MA thesis on ‘Political Thought of Imam Khomeini’ and visited Tehran University. He is PhD in ‘Political Psychology’ and studied Law at a British University. He also speaks at Cambridge University. He is a visiting Professor at Hebe University in China.)
