QazExpoCongress Forced to Shut Down Subsidiary

The corporate fund Trade and Exhibition Center Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of QazExpoCongress NC JSC, is being liquidated due to inefficiencies and overlapping functions, Orda.kz reports.

The fund managed Kazakhstani pavilions at international venues such as VDNKh in Moscow and EXPO-2020 in Dubai.

However, an audit revealed that its duties overlapped with those of another organization under the same name, QazExpoCongress, and both entities were underutilized.

As a result, authorities decided to shut down the Trade and Exhibition Center Kazakhstan.

The insufficient workload of both non-profit organizations, along with the duplication of certain functions, raised concerns about the necessity of their continued parallel operation. Therefore, the Ministry of Trade and Integration and QazExpoCongress NC JSC have been instructed to reorganize these structures,  the department reported.

Since June last year, the Supreme Audit Chamber, led by Alikhan Smailov, has been conducting in-depth inspections of quasi-public sector companies, focusing on asset management audits and local budget expenditures.

Initially founded in 2013, the state company was known as Astana EXPO-2017 National Company JSC before being rebranded as QazExpoCongress in 2019.

Following the rebranding, 100% of its shares were transferred to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Trade and Integration.

The company was the single operator for organizing state and quasi-public international trade and economic events.

Talgat Yermegiyayev, who served as its head for two and a half years, was convicted of large-scale state fund embezzlement. 23 senior officials were sentenced alongside him, with the total stolen amount reaching 10.2 billion tenge.

Original Author: Zarina Fayzulina