By empty (2/5/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Jack Straw, who arrived in Kazakhstan on 5 February, told a news conference after his meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev in Astana that Britain will help Kazakhstan develop its small- and medium-sized-business sector so the country\'s economy will not be centered exclusively on the raw-materials sector. Straw noted that British firms have already invested heavily in the Kazakh oil-and-gas sector. As part of his 5 February program in Astana, Straw opened a representative office of the British Embassy and the British Council, and announced that the embassy itself will move from Almaty to Astana in the near future.

By empty (2/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on 4 February on the construction of new settlements to house some 4,000 families of displaced persons from Armenian-occupied districts of Azerbaijan adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh who have been living in tent camps and railroad cars for the past decade. The settlements will be provided with water mains, electricity, schools, and medical facilities and will be financed from the State Oil Fund. (Turan).

By empty (2/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Maksim Peshkov told a press conference in Dushanbe on 4 February that some recent articles in the independent Tajik publications \"Asia Plus\" and \"Ruz-i nav\" about Russian-Tajik relations have distorted facts and demonstrated ignorance of the real situation. Peshkov said he is bothered by reports on Tajik labor migrants in Russia and on the strategic relationship between the two countries, but he was particularly annoyed by an assertion that Tajikistan\'s debt to Russia is $300 million, rather than the $400 million that Peshkov says is the correct figure. The Tajik media has sometimes been critical of the treatment of Tajik job seekers in the Russian Federation.