Kazinform marks its 90th anniversary
and KazTASS and since 1937 it had been functioning as KazTAG as the branch of the Telegraph Agency of Soviet Union.
As Kazakhstan gained its independence, KazTAG was subject only to the Government of Kazakhstan. Then on the ground of the existing Agency, a 'Kazakh Information Agency' was established on November 20,1997. By the Resolution of the Government on November 8, 2002 on the same ground of the Agency the 'Kazakh Information Agency' National Company JSC was established.
That is a brief history of Kazinform - one of the leading agencies on the post-Soviet space and Central Asia region.
The 20th century was the time of reorganization of everything and Kazakhstan was not the exception. Kazakhstan turned from the backward areas of the Russian Empire to the developed agricultural and industrial country and KazTAG played its role enlightening all the changes and reorganizations the country underwent. During Soviet Union period KazTAG was mostly involved in translating important political documents into Kazakh language contributing a lot to political-education of society and to development of Kazakh political-journalistic language. As one Kazakh famous journalist Mamadyar Zhakyp said, KazTAG was the headquarters of political news which was true. Most of the Kazakhstan's mass media in their coverage of any event used KazTAG materials.
The role of Kazinform has not become somehow less vital at the time of today successfully overcoming obstacles in its way and now it is on its way to a new stage of post-crisis industrial-innovation development. Being state Agency Kazinform provides the reader with most accurate information about the work of state bodies, amendments to the Law, new appointments in higher echelons of the Government, President's Decrees and Resolutions of the Government confirming its status as solid information ground of the state. Besides, the Agency takes part in forming the positive image of the country at an international level, popularizing Kazakhstan in the world including political and business communities and media structures of foreign countries.
Kazinform has the largest number of correspondents among information agencies in Kazakhstan. Kazinform has its correspondents in most cities of the country. There are special correspondents of Kazinform working in strategically important cities for the country such as Moscow, Beijing, Bishkek, Tashkent, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, etc.
The first web-site www.nkkazinform.kz started functioning on January 22, 2002 . At the time of today Kazinform is one of the leading news agencies among 527 news web-sites of the post-Soviet space.
Kazinform web-site provides its readers with news in Kazakh, Russian and English languages and it is read in more than 100 countries of the world.
Besides, Kazinform has special features on its web-site such as news in Latin and Arabic transcription for representatives of Kazakh diasporas in China, Turkey who do not know Cyrillic alphabet but want to be able to receive the information from the national information agency. Through this Kazinform contributes to the spiritual unification of the nation.
English newswire is a true source of information for many foreign missions , foreign companies, banks and corporations, etc working in Kazakhstan. There are many users of the English language pages of the site in Hungary, Brussels, France, Turkey, Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Israel, Austria and others.
The work of Kazinform is highly appraised by the heads of the country. After the elections of 2005 Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the head office of the agency in Astana and emphasized the vital role of state mass media in an interview with the staff of the agency.
Such a high level of work of the agency is conditioned by high demands on the personnel. Among ex-presidents of the agency were such eminent people as Zhumagali Ismagulov - Doctor of Philosophy, Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences of Kazakhstan, Professor, founder of interstate broadcasting company 'Mir', Academician of the Academy of International Journalism, Gadilbek Shalahmetov - deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan of the third convocation and many others contributed to the common success.
People working in Kazinform are committed to constant improvement of their professionalism, widening geography of information provision caring about its quality as well. They want to represent the image of the country proudly at the international mass media arena.