Kazakh president brings back top reformer

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has reshuffled governors in northern Kazakhstan, bringing key pro-market reformer Galymzhan Zhakiyanov back into the fold.

In a series of decrees read out on Kazakh TV on Saturday night, he promoted Zhanybek Karibzhanov from the governorship of Akmola Region to the deputy premiership, replacing him with the outgoing governor of North Kazakhstan Region, Vladimir Gartman.

Akmola is the home region of the new capital city, Akmola.

Nazarbayev brought Zhakiyanov, the head of the strategic resources agency until 4th November, back into government by appointing him governor of Pavlodar Region, one of Kazakhstan's industrial centres.

He moved Daniyal Akhmetov from the governorship of Pavlodar to fill the post in North Kazakhstan Region.

In a separate report on the reshuffle, Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency said that Karibzhanov would be in charge of relations with CIS countries in his new capacity as deputy prime minister.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.