ASTANA. May 25, 2006. KAZINFORM /Aigul Sultanova/ - These days Kazinform has launched a new project Our Important Guests. It will include exclusive interviews of state agencies’ chiefs and outstanding public figures who will talk about reforms, course of realization of the President’s Message to the people of Kazakhstan, state programs and other different interesting and important events of the country.
Our first guest is the Minister of Environment Protection of Kazakhstan Nurlan Iskakov.

Mr. Iskakov, we welcome you here in our office. It is known that you intend to change specification of the Ministry’s work. Why? What have you already done in this direction? And what are the plans of activity?

First of all, I would like to thank you for invitation.

It is instructive to recall that main task of the Ministry is improvement of environment quality and achievement of favorable level of ecologically stable social development.

Appropriate legislative base should become a foundation for solution of this problem. Positive results of the Department’s activity in this direction are really seen.

But the great task distinguished by the Head of the State on Kazakhstan’s entry into the 50 most competitive countries of the world makes us to reconsider priorities and find new organizational forms and practical measures for achievement of this purpose.

Structure of the central administration of the Ministry has been changed. By means of stuff redistribution there appeared new administrations - on ecological problems, on environmental economics and rationing, on legal policy and ecological monitoring division.

The Ministry approached a new level of the dialog with natural resources’ users. That is signing of Memos on mutual confidence and cooperation. 11 documents have been already concluded with large natural resources’ users. We work at an issue on creation of a working group on environmental protection in the Council of Foreign Investors under Kazakhstan’s President.

Following principles of strategic planning we have composed activity schedule of the Ministry for the current year. Transparency, proper control of timely and full realization of the network will allow making allowances into some instruments and approaches. There was arranged register of ecological problems at the republican and local levels that reflect the most topical questions. In the cities of Almaty and Ust Kamenogorsk it is air pollution, in the western regions – hydrocarbon production and others. Special regional programs that will present a basis for the future budget calls are currently being developed.

For development of new and more qualitative relations between state bodies and society it is important to continue interaction with ecological non-governmental organizations (NGO). Declarations on mutual cooperation have been endorsed with 15 NGOs.

According to the world principle the more natural resources’ user pollutes environment, the more he is to pay. But in Kazakhstan this rule is infringed. Payments are included into tariffs for production of the user. As a result the payments are realized by the consumer. So in association with the Agency on Regulation of Natural Monopolies we study possibility to exclude payments from tariffs and collect them from the net income of the natural resources’ user. Moreover it will positively impact regulation and inflation processes.

As for publicity promoting transparency of the Ministry’s work we introduce a new form of public reforms of the chiefs of our regional divisions to the population.
Much attention is paid to scientific developments in the field of environmental protection. Current year it will be finished creation of three-volume national Ecological Atlas of Kazakhstan.

We take different measures including research at military proving grounds and Baikonur cosmodrome, studying problem of interconnection of environment with population’s health, inspection of radiological environment in North and East Kazakhstan.

The Head of the State defined the task of adoption of Ecological Code in 2006. What are main purposes and tasks of it? How fast is it being developed?

In the Message to the people as of March 1, 2006 the President noted that by 2010 there should be created general ecological standards of stable social development. For this purpose this year we have adopted the Ecological Code directed to harmonization of ecological legislation with international acts, transit to the new standards and improvement of state control system. So it is a significant responsibility for the Ministry to fulfill this task.

In the course of development of the draft Code there were used about 20 recommendations and directive documents of different international organizations, 14 Conventions, 30 Directives of European Union and laws of other states and more than 200 regulatory legal acts of Kazakhstan’s legislation.

Draft Code provides introduction of essential changes into Kazakhstani system of environmental protection.

The most essential innovations are the following: principles of stable development are conformed by law, ecological licenses will be given for 3-5 years instead of annual ones, number of licenses’ types will be reduced by one and etc.

Basic priority of state ecological expertise system will be licensure providing all main requirements to the natural resources’ user.

Besides, ecological regulation will use flexible environmental quality objectives and technical and ecological norms. There was held scientific, legal and state ecological expertise on the draft Code.

What are main violations of natural resources’ users? In what way the Ministry deal with violators? Is it possible to use penalties and payments of natural resources’ users for ecological needs?

Mainly violations present non-observance of technical decisions (projects), infringement of license and contract conditions in the sphere of environment and breach of conditions of environmental management.

Reveal and adoption of measures on violations is realized by control and preventive work with the natural resources’ users.

Essence of such activity consists of complex approach to the problem including control on the side of environmental protection bodies. All penalties, financial means on indemnification and normative payments are directed to regional budgets.

It is known that besides Ecological Code the Ministry is preparing draft laws supporting Kazakhstan’s entry into the World Trade Organization. Can you tell about them?

We worked out draft law On amendments to some legislative acts on issues of technical regulation that enter amendments to Kazakhstan’s laws On environmental protection and On protection of atmospheric air.

Necessity to develop this document was caused by reformation of acting system of technical regulation and forthcoming Kazakhstan’s entry into WTO.

General developer and coordinator of this draft law is the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Contemporarily the Department also develops draft law On Kazakhstan’s joining to Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

After joining this Convention the country will accept obligations on elimination of sources of POPs and rehabilitation of polluted areas. Purpose of the document is protection of human health and environment from POPs. Kazakhstan will get access to international financial, information and technological resources.

It is important to mention that actually one of the most serious global problems is global climate change. Issue on ratification of Kyoto Protocol by Kazakhstan was considered at the sitting of Commission on Stabilization of Environment Quality. The Ministry plans to take part in the conference in the capital of Kenya with announcement of Kazakhstan’s position on Kyoto Protocol.

Thank you for the interview.