Senate amends visual information bill

The Senate returned a bill on visual information and religious activities to the Mazhilis of the Kazakh Parliament. The MPs introduced four amendments after two readings. While presenting the changes, Kazakh Minister of Education and Science Askhat Aimagambetov noted that the main purpose of the new document on the language matter is to write textual data and visual information in accordance with the spelling rules. It is important that they match the original texts and are written without mistakes while maintaining authenticity.

“One of the main amendments to the draft is the special rules for the presentation of traditional, historically established Kazakh names of administrative and territorial units, constituent parts of settlements and other physical and geographical objects in the state language. It should be noted that the names of the settlements will not change. For example, Michurino will not change, it will remain Michurino. Moreover, Monastyrskaya Street is now written in Kazakh as Monastyr Street, but with the adoption of the bill, it will remain in its original version,” said Askhat Aimagambetov, Kazakh Minister of Education and Science.

Aimagambetov also noted that in the Kazakh-speaking villages of the country, as well as in sparsely populated areas, the sign ‘Bypass’ is written in several languages. According to the amendments, such road signs in small settlements must be written only in the state language. This rule also applies to ads, menus, and other visual sources of information.

“It can be said that these changes will free entrepreneurs from forced bilingual advertising, if they are not required by the current legislation. We also believe that the amendments to the bill will help expand the scope of the state language and prevent errors related to visual information,” said Aimagambetov.

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Edited by Saule Mukhamejanova