BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 21. From March 1, 2024, Kazakhstan will switch to a single time zone, Trend reports.
Now Kazakhstan will have a 5th time zone (UTC+5). As Interfax clarifies, taking into account the decision made on the night of February 29 to March 1 in the cities of Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, as well as in Akmola, Almaty, Zhambyl, Karaganda, Kostanay, Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan, Turkestan, East -In Kazakhstan regions, citizens will have to set the time back one hour (currently these areas live in the 6th time zone).
Currently, there are two time zones in Kazakhstan - UTC+5 and UTC+6.
Previously, Kazakh experts noted that the sixth time zone does not correspond to natural solar time and has a negative impact on the health of citizens. In addition, the establishment of a uniform time will improve the coordination of transport and other communications and will have a positive impact on business.
As the Parliamentary Gazette wrote, in September 2023, the State Duma rejected in the first reading the bill on Russia's transition to summer time. The document proposed returning the annual clock change on the last Sunday of March at two hours an hour forward and on the last Sunday in October at three hours an hour back. The bill received negative feedback from the Government.