ASTANA: Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov has announced that Kazakhstan and the World Bank have successfully completed 48 projects, amounting to over $8 billion, in their cooperation spanning more than three decades. The meeting was also attended by Tatiana Proskuryakova, the World Bank’s Regional Director for Central Asia. Currently, six projects are under execution. The
“I’ve had one, two, three, four… five jobs in the last few months,” says Joy Zhang, a 23-year-old graduate. She counts them on her fingers as she walks through a line of stalls at a local food market in Chengdu, a city in south-west China’s Sichuan province. “The fact is there are lots of jobs,
Daily-wage labourer Asif Maseeh wakes up each day wondering how he will feed his family of seven. “We just pray to God that we’ll find a way to eat tomorrow,” Mr Maseeh told the BBC. The 45-year-old is among an estimated 700,000 workers who have lost their jobs in recent years, following the closure of
China is trialing visa-free travel for citizens from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia for a year, its foreign ministry said. From December to 30 November 2024, ordinary passport holders from these countries can do business or travel in China without a visa for up to 15 days. This is to help “promote
Turkey’s central bank has raised its main interest rate to 40% as part of a concerted campaign to tackle soaring inflation in the country. The rise, from the previous rate of 35%, was much greater than expected. But Turkey’s central bank suggested rates were approaching the level required to start lowering inflation. Inflation – which
Top prosecutors from Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states huddled recently in the Chinese city of Xian to discuss ways to make authoritarian legal systems more efficient. Participants signed a memorandum confirming a mutual desire to expand cooperation and information sharing. Prosecutor generals from all Central Asian countries, except Turkmenistan, attended the gathering, along with representatives
In the scorching morning heat Thai Sade brushes the avocado trees he will soon artificially pollinate. Based on a moshav, or collective farm, in central Israel, Mr Sade is the founder of tech firm BloomX. He says that the company has found a way to mechanically pollinate crops in a similar way to bees. “We
Shoppers bought less fuel and food in October as they were hit by rising living costs and poor weather, according to official figures. The volume of products sold last month fell by 0.3% to the lowest level since February 2021 when large parts of the UK were in Covid lockdowns. Retail sales had widely been
One of Australia’s major port operators is back online after a cyber-attack crippled its facilities. Operations at DP World Australia container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth were disrupted from Friday to Monday morning. The firm manages around 40% of goods entering and leaving the country. The outage has not affected the supply of
