President Nazarbayev speeding up People’s IPO

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has urged the Government to submit the draft legislation on the People’s IPO for the Parliament’s consideration and tasked the Parliament with passing the legislation within reasonably shortest time, Novosti Kazakhstan reports. “It is vital to put in place a legal framework for the People’s IPO (…) This is a real opportunity to raise wellbeing of common citizens. At the same time it is an opportunity to strengthen bridge of confidence between the business and people at large”, President Nursultan Nazarbayev stated at the joint sitting of the two Parliament chambers September 1, opening the new session. Head of State emphasized that “it is an unprecedented measure for Kazakhstan (…) [the initiative] requires a wide-scaled campaign to raise financial awareness of population”. Speaking at the Nur Otan party congress on February 11 President Nazarbayev instructed the Government to launch Initial Public Offerings (IPO) for common people before the end of 2011. The program is known as People’s IPO. According to President Nazarbayev, the IPO for the general public will enable citizens to purchase shares of the largest Kazakh companies, giving them a new tool for investments and savings. August 4 Tengrinews.kz quoted Minister Kairat Kelimbetov as saying that the major slogan of the Kazakhstan’s economy policy for the nearest 5 years is large-scaled privatization. “(…) Privatization will be run in two stages”, according to Mr. Kelimbetov. At the first stage, that is in 2012-2015, Kazakhstan will launch the so-called People’s IPOs of national companies. Afterwards, some national holdings will be floated to attract strategic global investors".