I think many will agree that we have some confusion in our country in the field of Kazakh terminology and the translation of certain foreign words into the Kazakh language. This also applies to official government bodies. At present, when registering legal entities, there is no system of authenticity for writing company names in two languages. For example, when registering “Ынтымақтастық“ (eng. “Unity”) LLC, in its charter the name in Russian can be indicated as “Ынтымактастык”, or it may be written as follows: “Интимактастик” or even “Сотрудничество” (eng. “Cooperation”) or “Интеграция” (eng. “Integration”). Moreover, many companies which plan to work abroad register their names in English as well. Then the name of the abovementioned LLC may be “Intimaktastik”, may be “Intymacktastyck” or even “Cooperation”. The choice of this or that variant of spelling the name of legal entities is always the owners’ of companies, including writing this name in other languages. One could leave it on their conscience, but such unsystematicity conceals a hidden problem within itself. The fact is that in the modern era of computer technology all information is stored in electronic databases. This means that the difference in writing even in one letter will be perceived by the computer, like another record about another legal entity. It is not difficult to imagine what chaos this will create in all state databases. Currently, the only thing that helps tax authorities is that each legal entity is assigned to the BIN. But in those directories where the BIN is not specified, it is not difficult to get confused in the names of the companies.
I see a way out of this situation in developing clear rules for assigning names to legal entities when they are registered. In short, the essence of them is as follows:
● a legal entity can have only one official name in one of the world’s languages;
● for the correct and identical spelling of its name in other languages, it should not be translated into another language, but should be written in a transcription as close as possible to the sound in the original language of the title;
● while writing the name of a legal entity in Kazakh, Russian and English is mandatory, in other languages – at the discretion of the owners of the legal entity.
How will these rules work in practice?
For example, the Justice Department receives an application for the registration of a limited liability partnership “Жібек Жолы“ (eng. “SilkWay”). The registering body should require that the charter contain the following words: “The name of the company in Kazakh: ЖШС “Жібек Жолы” (eng. LLC “Silk Way”), in Russian: ТОО “Жибек Жолы” (eng. LLC “Silk Way”), in English: LLC “Zhibek Zholy”. If an application is submitted for the registration of the «Шелковый путь» (eng. “Silk Road”) Limited Partnership, then its charter should state: “The name of the company in Kazakh: ЖШС «Шолковый пут» (eng. LLC “Silk Way”), in Russian: ТОО “Шелковый путь” (eng. LLC “Silk Way”), in English: LLC “Shyelkovy Put “. In the third case, an application for the registration of a limited liability company “Silk Way” may be received. In this case, its charter should state: “The name of the company in Kazakh: ЖШС “Силк уэй” (eng. LLC “Silk Way”, in Russian: ТОО “Силк уэй”(eng. LLC “Silk Way”, in English: LLC “Silk Way “.
At the same time, writing the names in all three languages, as well as transforming transcriptions from one language to another, must be literate and scientifically based; this work should be carried out by the Ministry of Justice in conjunction with the State Terminology Commission. Each name, registered for the first time in the justice bodies, should fall into a single end-to-end database and from that moment on in all the justice departments of the country it must be used in this type of writing, up to each letter.
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