site.btaBTA Signs Cooperation Memorandum with Kazakhstan’s Kazinform News Agency

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) has signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Kazakhstan President's TV and Radio Complex (TRC). Thus, BTA and Kazakhstan's international news agency Kazinform, which is part of TRC, will start exchanging news. 

The memorandum aims to create a basis for developing and strengthening cooperation in the media sphere. Mutual assistance and support between BTA and TRC include news exchange, where each media outlet will provide one of its main daily news items for publication and distribution by the other. The memorandum also provides for cooperation on joint content production, training and internship of staff.

According to information from BTA's Reference Department, Kazinform provides official information on the activities of the presidential administration in the Central Asian country, its parliament, government, regional authorities, and national financial and industrial structures. The news is available in Kazakh, Russian, English, Chinese, and Uzbek. The agency's head office is located in the Kazakh capital Astana. The agency is represented in 17 regions of the country, with its own news correspondents.

BTA has signed similar cooperation agreements with 43 national news agencies from four continents (Europe, Asia, America and Africa), including all of Bulgaria's neighbouring countries and 22 European agencies that are members of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA). BTA has such agreements with the national news agencies of Austria, Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vietnam, Ghana, Greece, Israel, India, Iran, Spain, Italy, Yemen, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, Kosovo, Côte d'Ivoire, Latvia, Liberia, Lebanon, Moldova, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, the Republic of North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkiye, Ukraine, the Philippines, Croatia and Montenegro.

According to Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) data, from the beginning of 2024 until September 13, a total of 282 Kazakh citizens, two of whom are of Bulgarian ethnic origin, were employed in Bulgaria as seasonal workers. Kazakhstan ranked seventh in the number of employment permits granted in Bulgaria for the same period this year. The Kazakh citizens were mostly employed in sectors such as hotel and restaurant services, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries, the NEA reported.

The Bulgarian community in Kazakhstan has a history of over 120 years, with its roots in Bessarabia. The Bulgarian community in the country has the status of a national minority. According to official data, 4,500 Bulgarians resided in Kazakhstan as of 2019.

In 1994, a Bulgarian Cultural Centre was established in Almaty. There are also cultural centres of ethnic Bulgarians in Atyrau city, Aktobe and Pavlodar regions. A branch of the Cultural Centre was registered in Aktobe in 1997, which was re-registered in 2011 as the Ethno-cultural Association Vyara of Aktobe.

Since the 2000-2001 academic year, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education has been granting enrollment positions in higher education institutions in Bulgaria to ethnic Bulgarians from Kazakhstan.