Legislative News
This CLIENT UPDATE includes amendments and additions to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in January 2012.
LEGISLATIVE NEWS
In January 2012 there were adopted 208 legislative, including:
•\tLaws of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 21.
•\tDecrees of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 28;
•\tResolutions of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan – 130;
•\tOther regulatory legal acts.
Most of these regulatory legal acts concern the public sector, but among them there are some, which may attract your attention and affect your business in Kazakhstan in a certain way.
We would like to draw your attention to the following regulatory legal acts:
Business: financing, state support, state procurement
1) The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, dated 09 January 2012 No.534-IV «On state support of industrial and innovative activities»
The Law sets legal, economic and organizational bases of stimulation of industrial and innovative activities and defines measures of its state support.
The purpose of the state support of industrial and innovative activities is to increase of competitiveness of national economy, by stimulating the development of priority sectors of the economy, defined by the President of RoK.
2) The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, dated 12 January 2012 No.539-IV «On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of RoK acts for implementation of the mechanism of project financing»
In particular, according to the Law, project financing is provided through a special finance company, status and legal position of which is defined by the Law of RoK «On Securitization».
Special finance company established both for securitization transactions, and for project finance transactions, has limited liability for the obligations. Own funds of special finance company are separate from the rights of the requirement conceded to special finance company on the contract of financing under a concession of the rights of the requirement. The concept of «the dedicated assets» is disclosed, introduced the concept of «the project finance transactions».
The dedicated assets intended to secure performance of obligations to creditors, are excluded from bankruptcy assets of special finance company. This measure is objectively necessary to attract long-term financing of capital-intensive projects within the country, under the existing legal and economic risks.
In order to effectively protect the rights of creditors and grantor for project financing, with the participation of the State, it is proposed to introduce the mechanism of operational changeover of the performer, improperly executing its obligations under the concession agreement, in order to avoid the suspension of project activities.
The Law will allow the state to regulate effectively the relations arising in connection with project financing at level of all regulatory legal acts, the effect of which, to some extent, apply to the specified relations.
The Law will affect the assessment of development opportunities of project financing in Kazakhstan, from interested international organizations, investors, banks, rating agencies and will allow to reduce the risks of financing in national projects. It is intended eventually to reduce the cost of international capital, involved in the domestic market.
3) The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 13 January 2012 No.543-IV «On introducing amendments and addenda in some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues of state procurement»
The Law simplifies and automates activities of customers and organizers of the state procurement, promotes extension of the competition and preventing of abuses in this area, making the system of the state procurement more transparent and open.
The Law introduced the new method of the state procurement, such as electronic auction.
Family and marriage relationships
1) On 26 December 2011 was adopted the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On marriage (matrimony) and family».
The code defines the purposes, objectives, principles and legal bases for regulation of the marriage and family (matrimonial and family) relations, provides protection of the rights and interests of a family, defining its development priority for the state social policy of RoK.
Marriage and family legislation of the RoK:
•\testablishes the rights and obligations, property and personal non-property relationships between family members: spouses, parents and children, and in the cases and within provided marriage and family legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, among other relatives and other persons;
•\tdetermine the conditions and order of marriage (matrimony), termination of marriage (matrimony), and its annulment;
•\tdetermine the form and order of the placement in a family of orphans, children left without parental care;
•\tregulates the procedure for state registration of civil status;
•\tdefines functions of the state authorities which are carrying out state registration of civil status.
The Law comes into force after ten calendar days after its first official publication
Exchange control
1) The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 06 January 2012 No.530-IV «On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues of exchange regulation and exchange control»
The Law is aimed on:
•\timprovement of mechanisms of exchange control, including compliance with the requirements of repatriation, by replacing the procedure of transaction of passport application procedure as a document required for customs clearance, on the procedure of registration of the contract by affixing a stamp print on the contract, indicating the bank account number of the contract;
•\tprocedure of simplification by residents of separate types of exchange transactions and clarify procedures regimes of exchange regulation;
•\talignment the norms of the Law of RoK «On exchange regulation and exchange control» with the Contract on the order of relocation by individuals of cash money and (or) monetary tools through customs boundary of the Customs Union.
The Law is to be entered into force after ten calendar days after its first official publication, except for the paragraph 6 pp 3), paragraph 4 pp 5) and paragraph 2 pp 13) p. 2 of Article 1, which was entered into force on 01 January, 2012
The Law on gas:
1) Kazakhstan has adopted a long-awaited Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 09 January 2012 No.532-IV «On gas and gas supply.”
The Law defines legal, economic and organizational basis for the regulation of social relations in the sphere of gas and gas supply in the RoK, and is aimed at creating conditions for the domestic needs of the RoK in the gas, as well as for efficient, reliable and safe operation of gas supply systems. The law extends on the relations in the gas and gas supply sphere.
Provisions of the Law do not apply on the relations arising in case of implementation of liquefied oil gas in bulbs with capacity less than one kilogram.
The purposes of state regulation in the sphere of gas and gas supply are support of energetic and ecological safety, improving of economic and social situation of the population of RoK.
Intellectual property
1) The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 12 January 2012 No.537-IV «On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on issues of intellectual property»
The Law amends and supplements governing intellectual property rights.
In particular, according to the changes, it is provided responsibility for illegal use of objects of copyright and (or) allied rights by the organization, creation of Internet resources for further access to an exchange, storage, relocation of copies of works and (or) objects of the allied rights in an electronic digital format.
The changes made to the Civil code, are directed on a legislative regulation of priority of registration of different means of an individualization of the goods, operations and services. Besides, in case of non-use of trademark without a valid reason continuously within three years its registration can be canceled on request of any interested person. Amendments to other legislation acts are directed on elimination of internal contradictions, legislative strengthening of the status of the patent attorneys, as well as reducing the term of consideration of applications for objects of an industrial property.
Made changes and additions to the Law «On Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin» are aimed at improving the rules governing the priority of registration of geographical indications and trademarks, and further harmonization of legislation with the norms of international law.
Operations with oil products
1) The resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 27 October 2011 No.1210 «On approval of rules for the accreditation of wholesale suppliers of oil products»
Wholesale implementation of oil products is permitted by wholesale suppliers of oil products only in the presence of the certificate on the accreditation, issued by authorized body in the field of production of oil products, except for:
•\tmanufacturers of oil products;
•\twholesale suppliers of the oil products, implementing oil products, produced as a result of processing independently extracted and (or) imported crude oil and (or) gas condensate.
This Resolution shall enter into force on 01 February 2012.
2) The Resolution of Government the Republic of Kazakhstan No.137 dated 01 January 2012 «On Approval of the Rules to monitor the production and implementation of oil products»
Rules are developed according to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 20 July 2011 «About state regulation of production and turnover of certain types of oil products» and establish the procedure of monitoring of production and implementation of oil products.
Monitoring of production and turnover of oil products is carried out by an authorized body in the field of production of oil products and includes:
•\tmonitoring the produced volume of oil products in the Republic of Kazakhstan by their types;
•\tmonitoring of implementation of oil products in the Republic of Kazakhstan, including export and import of oil products;
•\tmonitoring of wholesale and retail prices of the oil products produced in the Republic of Kazakhstan;
•\tmonitoring of needs of regions, the cities of republican value and the capital in oil products
Information on monitoring of production and implementation of oil products is created by authorized body in the field of production of oil products on the basis of information provided by manufacturers, producers of low-power, wholesale suppliers of oil products, local executive bodies, and the authorized body on customs issues.
Information contained in this Client Update is of general nature and cannot be used as legal advice or recommendation. Please seek for a specific advice in relation to any questions. Please note that Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are emerging economies and their legislation and legal systems are in constant development. Should you have any questions or would like to discuss subjects addressed in this Client Update please contact us.
