Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for Lot 1-Legal assistance in the field of energy and Lot 4- Legal assistance in the field of mobility and transport. The duration of the framework contract is 4 years. We will mainly cover legal conformity checking for countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. 

In April 2018, our firm in consortium with GOPA Infra GmbH, TRT Trasporti E Territorio srl and IRU Projects ASBL has been shortlisted in the EU Technical Assistance tender: Europeaid/139029/DH/SER/MD “Support to reform of the transport sector in the republic of Moldova” budget EUR 1,000,000.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for Lot 1-Legal assistance in the field of energy and Lot 4- Legal assistance in the field of mobility and transport. The duration of the framework contract is 4 years. We will mainly cover legal conformity checking for countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. 

In April 2018, our firm in consortium with GOPA Infra GmbH, TRT Trasporti E Territorio srl and IRU Projects ASBL has been shortlisted in the EU Technical Assistance tender: Europeaid/139029/DH/SER/MD “Support to reform of the transport sector in the republic of Moldova” budget EUR 1,000,000.

On December 14, 2016, Giorgi Turdzeladze, head of the Georgian branch of KLC Consulting was a guest of the Radio Show "Liberty Morning" in Tbilisi, Georgia. The company cooperates with private companies as well as state agencies on the issues regarding improvement of the legislative framework and effective implementation of changes. Special attention is paid to the approximation and harmonization of the domestic legislation with the European Acquis. Mr. Turdzeladze talked about the legislative amendments that Georgia needs to proceed with, the necessary mechanisms for proper implementation of the legislative changes as per the obligations of Georgia according to the provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Georgia, signed on June 2014, in force since July 1, 2016.

More details of the interview in Georgian you can find on the following link:

http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html 

In Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan,  on 27-28 December 2017, KLC Consulting has successfully delivered a 2-days seminar on safety management system in accordance with the requirements of the International Code for the Management of Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention.

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for Lot 1-Legal assistance in the field of energy and Lot 4- Legal assistance in the field of mobility and transport. The duration of the framework contract is 4 years. We will mainly cover legal conformity checking for countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. 

In April 2018, our firm in consortium with GOPA Infra GmbH, TRT Trasporti E Territorio srl and IRU Projects ASBL has been shortlisted in the EU Technical Assistance tender: Europeaid/139029/DH/SER/MD “Support to reform of the transport sector in the republic of Moldova” budget EUR 1,000,000.

On December 14, 2016, Giorgi Turdzeladze, head of the Georgian branch of KLC Consulting was a guest of the Radio Show "Liberty Morning" in Tbilisi, Georgia. The company cooperates with private companies as well as state agencies on the issues regarding improvement of the legislative framework and effective implementation of changes. Special attention is paid to the approximation and harmonization of the domestic legislation with the European Acquis. Mr. Turdzeladze talked about the legislative amendments that Georgia needs to proceed with, the necessary mechanisms for proper implementation of the legislative changes as per the obligations of Georgia according to the provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Georgia, signed on June 2014, in force since July 1, 2016.

More details of the interview in Georgian you can find on the following link:

http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html 

In Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan,  on 27-28 December 2017, KLC Consulting has successfully delivered a 2-days seminar on safety management system in accordance with the requirements of the International Code for the Management of Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention.

KLC Consulting wishes all consultants, associates, partners and clients a joyful winter holidays and a New Year full of success and prosperity!

This year, KLC Consulting has decided to move to another central location of Sofia and has donated its office desks, computers, chairs and office facilities to the Municipality of Petrich for the kids and people in need. This is our modest contribution to bringing joy and smiles to the families in need and to the feeling that Santa Claus is everywhere!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Today, on the 14th of December, the director of KLC Consulting's Branch in Tbilisi was the guest at Radio Liberty's morning broadcast, where the perspectives and implementation of EU-Georgia Association agreement, along with legal approximation and implementation of European and International agreements have been discussed.

The interview (in Georgian language) can be viewed at the followng URL: http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for Lot 1-Legal assistance in the field of energy and Lot 4- Legal assistance in the field of mobility and transport. The duration of the framework contract is 4 years. We will mainly cover legal conformity checking for countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. 

In April 2018, our firm in consortium with GOPA Infra GmbH, TRT Trasporti E Territorio srl and IRU Projects ASBL has been shortlisted in the EU Technical Assistance tender: Europeaid/139029/DH/SER/MD “Support to reform of the transport sector in the republic of Moldova” budget EUR 1,000,000.

On December 14, 2016, Giorgi Turdzeladze, head of the Georgian branch of KLC Consulting was a guest of the Radio Show "Liberty Morning" in Tbilisi, Georgia. The company cooperates with private companies as well as state agencies on the issues regarding improvement of the legislative framework and effective implementation of changes. Special attention is paid to the approximation and harmonization of the domestic legislation with the European Acquis. Mr. Turdzeladze talked about the legislative amendments that Georgia needs to proceed with, the necessary mechanisms for proper implementation of the legislative changes as per the obligations of Georgia according to the provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Georgia, signed on June 2014, in force since July 1, 2016.

More details of the interview in Georgian you can find on the following link:

http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html 

In Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan,  on 27-28 December 2017, KLC Consulting has successfully delivered a 2-days seminar on safety management system in accordance with the requirements of the International Code for the Management of Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention.

KLC Consulting wishes all consultants, associates, partners and clients a joyful winter holidays and a New Year full of success and prosperity!

This year, KLC Consulting has decided to move to another central location of Sofia and has donated its office desks, computers, chairs and office facilities to the Municipality of Petrich for the kids and people in need. This is our modest contribution to bringing joy and smiles to the families in need and to the feeling that Santa Claus is everywhere!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Today, on the 14th of December, the director of KLC Consulting's Branch in Tbilisi was the guest at Radio Liberty's morning broadcast, where the perspectives and implementation of EU-Georgia Association agreement, along with legal approximation and implementation of European and International agreements have been discussed.

The interview (in Georgian language) can be viewed at the followng URL: http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html

KLC Consulting has established a branch office in Tbilisi, Georgia. This presence in the center of the Caucasus region will bring about better proximity with the thriving markets of the area and will contribute to a broader regional reach of the Company. Hence, public institutions and private organizations are now able to harness KLC’s accumulated international experience and expertise in local and regional contexts. A team of specialized consultants will support the operations of the Company out of the Georgian branch office. For more information, please contact Mr. Giorgi Turdzeladze at giorgi_turdzeladze@klcconsulting.eu, contact number +995 579 70 13 13

The overall objective of the project is conduct a feasibility study and elaboration of a techno-economic justification (Feasibility Study) for the implementation of an intellectual monitoring system of oil pipelines and associated facilities using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in accordance with standard ÑÏ ÐÊ 1.02-21-2007, regulatory and legal acts in force in Kazakhstan.

The Feasibility study included market analysis of UAVs, Technical/technological analysis, financial and economic analysis, environmental and social analysis, risk analysis, legal and institutional analysis and proposal of an optimum solution to implement an intellectual monitoring system of oil pipelines and associated facilities of KTO using UAV.

KLC Consulting undertook the following services:
•    Financial and economic analysis (CBA) taking into account the existing oil price as well as the existing security system expenditure
•    Legal and institutional analysis in aviation sector including the flight of UAVs in Kazakhstan
•    Legal review of the legislation of Kazakhstan, requirements for licensing and permitting
•    Project management schemes for the whole project life cycle, with definition of legal basis, information on all participants of the project and their functions, as well as management structure including the assessment of financial expenditure indicating alternative options
•    Schemes of interaction with the security organization of the client and legal structures of Kazakhstan for rapid response to situations occurring on oil pipelines and associated facilities of the client
•    Analysis of the current situation in the oil transportation industry drafting of executive summary, initial report, final report
•    Market analysis of the UAVs and payloads
•    SWOT analysis
•    Risk assessment (Quantitative and qualitative analysis in the field of security of oil pipelines) as well as quantitative and qualitative impact of the Project on minimization of existing risks
•    Preparation of presentations to the client in English and Russian languages

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for Lot 1-Legal assistance in the field of energy and Lot 4- Legal assistance in the field of mobility and transport. The duration of the framework contract is 4 years. We will mainly cover legal conformity checking for countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. 

In April 2018, our firm in consortium with GOPA Infra GmbH, TRT Trasporti E Territorio srl and IRU Projects ASBL has been shortlisted in the EU Technical Assistance tender: Europeaid/139029/DH/SER/MD “Support to reform of the transport sector in the republic of Moldova” budget EUR 1,000,000.

On December 14, 2016, Giorgi Turdzeladze, head of the Georgian branch of KLC Consulting was a guest of the Radio Show "Liberty Morning" in Tbilisi, Georgia. The company cooperates with private companies as well as state agencies on the issues regarding improvement of the legislative framework and effective implementation of changes. Special attention is paid to the approximation and harmonization of the domestic legislation with the European Acquis. Mr. Turdzeladze talked about the legislative amendments that Georgia needs to proceed with, the necessary mechanisms for proper implementation of the legislative changes as per the obligations of Georgia according to the provisions of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Georgia, signed on June 2014, in force since July 1, 2016.

More details of the interview in Georgian you can find on the following link:

http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html 

In Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan,  on 27-28 December 2017, KLC Consulting has successfully delivered a 2-days seminar on safety management system in accordance with the requirements of the International Code for the Management of Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention.

KLC Consulting wishes all consultants, associates, partners and clients a joyful winter holidays and a New Year full of success and prosperity!

This year, KLC Consulting has decided to move to another central location of Sofia and has donated its office desks, computers, chairs and office facilities to the Municipality of Petrich for the kids and people in need. This is our modest contribution to bringing joy and smiles to the families in need and to the feeling that Santa Claus is everywhere!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Today, on the 14th of December, the director of KLC Consulting's Branch in Tbilisi was the guest at Radio Liberty's morning broadcast, where the perspectives and implementation of EU-Georgia Association agreement, along with legal approximation and implementation of European and International agreements have been discussed.

The interview (in Georgian language) can be viewed at the followng URL: http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/giorgi-turdzeladze-tavisuplebis-dilashi/28175479.html

KLC Consulting has established a branch office in Tbilisi, Georgia. This presence in the center of the Caucasus region will bring about better proximity with the thriving markets of the area and will contribute to a broader regional reach of the Company. Hence, public institutions and private organizations are now able to harness KLC’s accumulated international experience and expertise in local and regional contexts. A team of specialized consultants will support the operations of the Company out of the Georgian branch office. For more information, please contact Mr. Giorgi Turdzeladze at giorgi_turdzeladze@klcconsulting.eu, contact number +995 579 70 13 13

The overall objective of the project is conduct a feasibility study and elaboration of a techno-economic justification (Feasibility Study) for the implementation of an intellectual monitoring system of oil pipelines and associated facilities using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in accordance with standard ÑÏ ÐÊ 1.02-21-2007, regulatory and legal acts in force in Kazakhstan.

The Feasibility study included market analysis of UAVs, Technical/technological analysis, financial and economic analysis, environmental and social analysis, risk analysis, legal and institutional analysis and proposal of an optimum solution to implement an intellectual monitoring system of oil pipelines and associated facilities of KTO using UAV.

KLC Consulting undertook the following services:
•    Financial and economic analysis (CBA) taking into account the existing oil price as well as the existing security system expenditure
•    Legal and institutional analysis in aviation sector including the flight of UAVs in Kazakhstan
•    Legal review of the legislation of Kazakhstan, requirements for licensing and permitting
•    Project management schemes for the whole project life cycle, with definition of legal basis, information on all participants of the project and their functions, as well as management structure including the assessment of financial expenditure indicating alternative options
•    Schemes of interaction with the security organization of the client and legal structures of Kazakhstan for rapid response to situations occurring on oil pipelines and associated facilities of the client
•    Analysis of the current situation in the oil transportation industry drafting of executive summary, initial report, final report
•    Market analysis of the UAVs and payloads
•    SWOT analysis
•    Risk assessment (Quantitative and qualitative analysis in the field of security of oil pipelines) as well as quantitative and qualitative impact of the Project on minimization of existing risks
•    Preparation of presentations to the client in English and Russian languages

KLC Consulting in consortium with WYG International and GOPA Consultants have successfully completed the project “Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure of Albania”, funded by the European Union.

The closing conference of the technical assistance held in Tirana on 26th April, 2016,  hosted the representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the  Delegation of the EU to Albania, who expressed their satisfaction for the completed  activities on the legal approximation focusing on issue of dangerous goods’ transport, road safety, maritime safety, security and environmental protection, and the set-up of the railway sector frameworks in line with the priorities set up in the Stabilization and Association Agreement between European Union and Albania. The Project team has successfully provided capacity building to the implementing agencies on topics of maritime, rail and road.

The overall objective of the project was to improve the transport sector through assistance to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (previous Ministry of Transport and Communications) in developing and implementing a Strategy and Action Plan for Transport Integration into the Trans-European transport network.
KLC Law Firm acted as a subcontractor of Corporate Solutions Consulting Limited by providing Institutional and Regulatory experts Mr. Dimitrios Kouvaras and Ms. Ana Maria Tutea, as well as Transport Economist Mr. Giorgi Turdzeladze.
KLC Law Firm undertook the following services:
•    Assessment of current structure of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (MoI), including the functions and responsibilities of its departments and subordinates;
•    Assessment of the procedure of drafting and adopting of regulatory acts of different level;
•    Assessment of the system of transport sector governance, including the subordination of MoI, cross-cutting issues with other authorities, and responsibilities of other Ministries in field of transport sector, as well as assessment of the Ministry’s capacity to implement Transport Strategy and fully achieve to SBS indicators;
•    Provision of recommendations for an appropriate regulatory framework and necessary legal changes that the transport sector of Ukraine should incorporate in order to achieve better management, efficiency and sustainability;
•    Assistance to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on the projects’ prioritization tasks;
•    Analysis of the selected transport projects according to the elaborated and approved methodologies.
 

Wishing you Healthy and Joyful New Year!

The international consortium of Savvy Business – Astana-Kitap (in cooperation with sub-contractors National and Kapodistrian university of Athens and Excellence Training Center LLP) has been awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Kazakhstan the project “Consulting Services for Developing Textbook Evaluation Requirements and Capacity-Building of Experts under the World Bank’s Loan No. 8709-KZ, Programme: Education Modernization Project.

The project’s objectives are strengthening national system for textbook review and approval to assure textbook quality; improvement of the system of textbook quality examination by establishing requirements (standards) for textbooks and increasing capacity of textbooks evaluation experts in Kazakhstan.

The project duration is 14 months.

Today, on 18 June 2020, within the framework of the World Bank “SME competitiveness Project”, the online Conference was organized by Euroconsultants S.A. main contractor for the project (Savvy Business sLTD and Applied Economics Research Center as sub-contractors) in order to present the results of the National Baseline Survey and the SME Development Concept as main deliverables of the contract KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by more than 680 participants, among them representatives of the World Bank, the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Industry and Export Center QazIndustry, Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC, the national chamber of entrepreneurs "Atameken” and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The key issues discussed were: analysis of data national baseline survey, analysis of the current state of SMEs development, international SME development experience review, forecasts and scenarios for the development of the economy of Kazakhstan and SME sector until 2050, directions for improving the policy of SME development and mechanisms for implementing the Concept of SME development in the RK, stages of implementation of the Concept for the development of SMEs in the RK.

This is the final activity of the project which is successfully completed after 14 months implementation.

Savvy Business’s Manager Ana Maria Tutea attended the very interesting virtual event on “Post-pandemic impact on the world’s gas markets".  The online discussion was moderated by Ms. Valérie Ducrot, Managing Director, WEC - Global Gas Centre. The discussion was carried out by Mr. René Bautz, President of WEC - Global Gas Centre, Mr. Panagiotis Mitrou, Global Gas Segment Manager, Lloyd’s and Dr. Kostas Andriosopoulos, BoD of GGC; Vice President, DEPA.

The prominent speakers provided an insights of possible changes for the global and European gas and LNG markets in Europe in 2020 as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Some notes that we may need to consider in the coming months is that the prices on LNG will become lower, there will be a possible decrease of demand in Europe for gas, gas prices will keep low until the next winter, the covid-19 crisis cannot really accelerate the use of LNG for ships as IMO regulations may be needed. In general, the governments and the market will need to first give a special attention to the fight against the covid-19 and investments in gas and LNG may be postponed until next year. A positive aspect of the covid-19 is that climate change and green economy will remain a priority.

Distance Learning (synchronous) NLP Crash Course (24h) has been successfully completed!
An amazing 2 weeks journey of Savvy Business' Team trained by distinguished PMI and NLP Trainer, Dr. George Diakonikolaou!

We wish to all out partners, clients, colleagues, associates and experts a peaceful Easter, full of joy and faith for better days to come! #stayhome, #staysafe

On April 9, 2020, EUROCONSULTANTS SA (main contractor) together with AERC and Savvy Business as subcontractors has successfully organized the final consultative workshop of the Project with Reference No. KZ/SMEC/QCBS-10 KZ via an online platform. The workshop agenda was to discuss the results of the 4th Stage 4 of the project implementation, namely the Concept of small and medium enterprise aimed at increasing the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 50% by 2050.

20 participants  attended and workshop, among which representatives from  Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Project Implementation Unit of the SME Competitiveness Project,  National Chamber of Entrepreneurs “Atameken”, DAMU" Entrepreneurship Development Fund" JSC and  World Bank. From Savvy team’s Michalis Karamanis and Ana Maria Tutea attended. 

The concept will be published on https://smeproject.kz/ru.

The project ends May 2020.

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is becoming now the most popular personal development and business growth tool globally. 

Savvy Business gives to its people the opportunity to attend the online course on “NLP Crash Course” (24 hours) offered by Dr. George Diakonikolaou, NLP Training and PMP Trainer. Among the topics of the course, we list some indicatively: origins and history of NLP, practical applications of NLP, NLP Model of Communication, Responsibility of Change, 5 Principles of Success, Goal Setting, the Neurological Model, Values and Beliefs. Exercises and practical cases are part of the course too.

NLP as a global standard of excellence can be applied to Business, Coaching and Therapy, Sport, Education and Personal Development. 

After the training test, each participant receives an attendance certificate and can become Associate Member of the American Board of NLP.

This course is a first phase of the NLP Practitioner Certification@ Training.

Our Principal and Legal Advisor, Thomas Lamnidis, was invited to be a speaker at Astana Economic Forum 2019 Global Challenges in the session dedicated to "THE AGE OF CONNECTIVITY: PRIVATE SECTOR DIMENSION". An extract of his speech can be followed at LinkedIn.

During this session , it was discusised the role of Central Asia’s infrastructural capabilities and economic corridors that could serve as a priority and a key source of growth. Being in the center of global corridors between China, Europe and Russia, Central Asia is a single economic and trade route. At the same time, within Central Asia, countries have a low level of trade relations. During the session, it was stated that nowadays, connectivity plays a key role in the region’s development; therefore, the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy should carry a number of investments, infrastructure and trade opportunities for business.

The process of pre-qualified assessment of training providers in the framework of the Skills and Jobs Project in Kazakhstan is well underway. To date, the implementing consortium has assessed 557 training providers throughout the country, using an extensive pre-defined methodology. The process of assessment goes on. For more information, follow the link to read the interview on the subject: https://tengrinews.kz/conference/309/

 Wonderful holidays and a Happy New Year from Savvy Business' team!

Savvy Business sLTD, under the Framework Service Contract MOVE/ENER/SRD/498-2016 Lot 1, will be assisting Milieu Ltd in the implementation of the specific contract “Conformity assessment of the transposition of Directives 2014/45/EU (on periodic roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers), 2014/46/EU (on the registration documents for vehicles) and 2014/47/EU (on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Union)”.

Savvy will carry out in-depth legal analysis of the conformity of national transposition and implementing measures with specific provisions of the Directives for Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. 

 On 29 November 2018, Savvy Business sLTD’s team attended the forum “The Future of the Labor Market: New Opportunities", organized by the Ministry of labor and social protection of the Population of Kazakhstan with the aim to discuss employment and social development prospects in Kazakhstan in the context of dynamic changes in the global labor market in connection with 4^th Industrial Revolution.

Among the Government representatives, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Minister of Labour Madina Abylkassymova, Vice Minister Nariman Mukushev took part in the work of the forum along with the representatives of international organizations and IFI’s, as well as large transnational and local companies.

For the successful implementation of the contract No KZSJ-2.2/CS-02-QCBS “Provision of consulting services on compiling inventory, assessment and prequalification selection of training service providers” in the framework of the World Bank “Skills & Jobs” project, Mr. Michalis Karamanis received Award of Excellence for active contribution to project implementation.

During the last two years, we have noticed a considerable progress of the implementation of RES projects in Kazakhstan which now became a priority of the government’s energy policy, especially after November 2016, when Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement.

Today, the share of RES in the total energy market of Kazakhstan is 1% but the target is to reach 3% by 2020 through the implementation of projects (total capacity 2000 MW- including 960 MW of wind farms, 750 MW of solar power and 290 MW of hydroelectric power) for which contracts for the purchase of electricity from RES have been already concluded with the investors.

Since 2009 until today, the total amount of investments in the RES sector amounts to about 58.5 billion tenge (approx. 140 M euro) based on the data of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

According to the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Mr. Kanat Bozumbaev, currently, there are 65 operating RES facilities in the country, including 12 wind farms, 19 solar, 33 hydroelectric power stations and 1 biogas plant. During the first half of 2018, they generated 629.5 million kW/h of electricity.

All RES projects in Kazakhstan are financed by investors in exchange for a guaranteed purchase of electricity from RES for 15 years at fixed tariffs or auction prices, exemption from payment for transporting RES electricity or investment preferences in accordance with the Business Code.

The bottleneck was the mechanism for the determination of fixed tariffs and marginal auction prices. Another main concern for investors was the issue of "long" money in the national currency, since the facilities are operating on the domestic market, and they will not receive foreign exchange earnings.

Now the government changed the current formula for indexation of auction prices, taking into account changes in the tenge's exchange rate to convertible currencies by 70%, and to the consumer price index by 30% from the second year of production. Such a scheme eliminates the currency risks of investors. This will allow investors to attract cheaper loan financing in foreign currency and the bidding will lead to a decrease in marginal auction prices.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan, which is a local bank, provides loans for the construction of solar, wind power stations and small hydro power plants.

As of today, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is the sole international project finance provider for renewable projects in the Kazakhstan. Based on a memorandum signed with the government, EBRD provides loans up to 200 million euros for the implementation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of attracting private investments of other international financial institutions for a total of up to 480 million euros.

Last week, according to EBRD’s source, on 18 October 2018, the EBRD signed a loan and the project support agreements for a new solar plant with up to 28 MW capacity in Kyzylorda region, southern Kazakhstan. The solar park project will be constructed and operated by Nomad Solar LLP, a special purpose company incorporated in Kazakhstan and owned by the French company Total Eren SA and the United Arab Emirates company Access Infra Central Asia Ltd.

From September 2018, KLC Consulting has been re-branded into Savvy Business. Our new address is at 16A Gen. Parensov street, 1142, Sofia, Bulgaria. You may contact us at office@savvybusiness.eu or pr@savvybusiness.eu 

 Starting from July 2018, we will cooperate with Milieu Ltd - Law & Policy Consulting, Brussels, Belgium as subcontractor within the Framework contract No MOVE/ENER/SRD/2016-498 “Legal economic and technical assistance in the fields of energy and mobility and transport” for