Kazakh privatisation programme: Kazakhstan’s Government should up the tempo of its efforts to place concession contracts with private-sector concerns willing to invest in the country’s healthcare, education, water management and other sectors traditionally run by the public sector, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said today. “I am calling on foreign investors to participate in the privatization of at least 700 companies in Kazakhstan and I am also urging them to start purchasing more locally produced goods and services”, he told the Foreign Investors’ Council (FIC). He has also commissioned the council to attract foreign investors to help in the management of Kazakhstan’s colleges and universities. AK Zhaik