Kazakhstan to adopt single time zone starting march 1

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.