Soros Foundation Mission Continues

The Soros Foundation is leading the efforts to create a coalition of non-governmental organizations dedicated to monitoring oil export revenues in Kazakhstan. This organization will ensure that revenues are used for the benefit of society at large and are not squandered through corruption and mismanagement.

The new group, operating under the umbrella of the pro-transparency foundation set up by billionaire George Soros, would be "a voice of the civil society," Anton Artemyev, program coordinator for Soros' newly established local operation, Kazakhstan Revenue Watch, told an oil and gas conference in London this week.

Kazakhstan demonstrates the classic symptoms -- including greater poverty and high levels of corruption -- that often blight countries blessed with abundant natural resources, he said.

In Mangistau province, a center of oil production, the income of nearly half of the population is below the subsistence level, he said.