The Ministry of National Economy transferred 1.44 billion tenge to NC «QazExpoCongress» JSC for hosting the Astana International Forum (AIF). This is despite the fact that the President had previously cancelled the event due to the floods.
According to the Telegram channel ‘Black Swan, Crayfish and Pike’, this is stated in the report on the execution of the republican budget as of 1 May 2024, published on the ministry's website.
‘Due to the unprecedented flooding in Kazakhstan and the need to save financial resources to eliminate the consequences of large-scale destruction and provide assistance to the country's citizens, I have decided to cancel the Astana International Forum scheduled for 13-14 June this year. I hope the invited participants of the event will understand this decision. The Astana International Forum will resume its work in 2025’, the president wrote on 13 April.
According to the Open Budgets resource, the following amounts are planned to be allocated for the AIF:
- 1.44 billion tenge in 2024;
- 1.95 billion tenge in 2025;
- 2.34 billion tenge in 2026;
- 2.81 billion tenge in 2027.
It is reported that NC «QazExpoCongress» JSC was formerly NC «Astana EXPO-2017» JSC. Over the years, it was headed by Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, Akhmetzhan Yesimov, Yerbol Shormanov, and Talğat Yermegiyaev. Incidentally, Yermegiyaev was found guilty of bribery in 2016 and sentenced to 14 years in a strict-regime penal colony.
In 2020, Allen Chaizhunusov, one of the founders of the ‘Cycling Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan’ NGO, was appointed head of the JSC.