The recently appointed head of Kazakhstan’s $84 billion sovereign wealth fund says the fund has been hamstrung by a lack of strategic vision, excessive bureaucracy, and overstaffing.
Omirzaq Shukeev’s comments -- made in an interview published on February 16 by the Russian daily "Kommersant" -- are being seen as sharp criticism of the Samruk-Qazyna fund’s previous management, which was led by Timur Kulibaev, the wealthy son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
The president sacked Kulibaev last month in the wake of investigations into clashes between striking oil workers and police in the western Kazakh town of Zhanaozen in mid-December that left at least 16 people dead.
Kulibaev supervised the energy sector in Kazakhstan’s west, as the weath fund's assets include the state energy company, the national railways operator, and uranium producer.
Compiled from agency reports