Kazakhstan: foreign executive rules clarified

    CEOs of subsidiaries and representative offices of foreign businesses must be appointed by the governing bodies of those businesses and must have power of attorney to represent or act on their behalf, according to provisions of Law No. 49VI-ZRK, published March 1 and effective March 10, which amended Section 3, Article 43 of the civil code. Amendments to Section 5, Article 43 of the code also included in Law No. 49VI-ZRK make clear that subsidiaries and representative offices cannot be regarded as independent legal entities.
    Law No. 49VI-ZRK also amended Law No. 22VI-ZRK on mandatory personal injury insurance to allow employers to conclude workplace personal injury/employer liability insurance contracts electronically using their digital signatures. Electronic submissions must include full annual payroll data.
    Law No. 49VI-ZRK follows the April 2016 adoption of a new labor law (No. 482V-ZRK) regulating the employment of foreign workers in Kazakhstan and covering (among other things) foreign workforce quotas, mandatory work permit requirements and corporate hiring of foreign employees. Law No. 482V-ZRK went into effect Jan. 1, 2017.
    Reported by Sergei Blagov for Bloomberg.