seminar examines History of nuclear

Transcription

Wednesday, june 10, 2015
+23 / +11°C
www.astanatimes.com
No 11 (77)
Nazarbayev Announces Astana Int’l Financial Kazakhstan Unveils
Centre, Addresses Economic Challenges at AEF 100 Concrete Steps to
Implement Institutional
Reforms
By Malika Rustem
ASTANA – Kazakhstan is embarking on some of the most ambitious reforms in its independent
history as President Nursultan
Nazarbayev moves to implement
his election campaign platform of
five institutional reforms.
On May 20, three weeks after
Nazarbayev announced in his inaugural speech that a “Plan of the
Nation” would be developed to
radically change the country, two
leading Kazakh daily newspapers
published the government’s concrete approaches to implementing
those reforms.
The approaches, outlined in the
“100 Concrete Steps to Implement
Five Institutional Reforms” document, have been published to not
only give the country a clear sense
of the direction in which the newly
reelected leader wants to take it,
but also to be used as a checklist
by the international community.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan (far left) addresses the plenary session of the Astana Economic Forum on May 22.
By Yelden Sarybay
ASTANA – President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
made a few bold announcements
to the delegates of the Astana Economic Forum (AEF) at the forum’s
main plenary session on May 22,
including the announcement of a
plan to create an Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).
Speaking first among panellists
including top-level economists,
financiers and politicians, Naz-
arbayev commented that the crisis which brought about the need
for the AEF in 2008 is not over,
and while experts now speak of a
gradual recovery, signs of growth
are scattered. “Many countries
still can not get out of stagnation,”
said Nazarbayev. “Other economists believe that the global crisis
of 2008 was systemic, cyclic, and
will end only when the key reason
for it is eliminated: the profound,
accumulated imbalances, first of
all in the currency and trading
markets.”
The President also said that these
hidden, latent roots of the crisis are
moving from the financial sphere
into currency wars and economic
wars in the form of sanctions shaking many countries. “This is what
generates an increase in confrontation between East and West, the
U.S. and NATO against Russia and
China,” said the President.
Nazarbayev also spoke of three
global challenges that are a threat
to future prosperity. First is the
fragmentation of the global order.
“We are witnessing the disintegration of the old checks and balances
throughout the world, the loss of
trust between the leaders of the
great powers and the corrosion of
international law.”
Second are the elemental challenges such as climate change and
pandemics. “Climate change is
happening faster than expected.
Continued on Page A4
Seminar Examines History of Nuclear
Disarmament Efforts in Kazakhstan
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – An international seminar on the oral history of the NunnLugar weapons of mass reduction decommissioning programme
launched in Astana on June 1 with
statements from Russian, American
and Kazakh diplomats and participants in Nunn-Lugar supported operations, then continued in a closed
format over the next three days.
“We are here because Kazakhstan’s decisions and the vision of
President [Nursultan] Nazarbayev
truly set the world on a path toward
peace,” said Laura Holgate, senior director for Weapons of Mass
Destruction Terrorism and Threat
Reduction at the U.S. National Security Council, a keynote speaker
at the plenary session. “Consider
the alternative – the creation of one
and possibly three nuclear powers,
the possibility of armed conflicts in
connection with retrieving the weapons by force, destabilisation in the
region and overall a very different
and more dangerous world. Instead,
we’ve had two decades of peace and
prosperity in the region, and the entire world is better for it.”
The seminar focused on the history
of the Cooperative Threat Reduction
(CTR) programme, better known as
the Nunn-Lugar programme, named
after U.S. Senators Sam Nunn and
Richard Lugar who initiated the
legislation to allow the U.S. to fund
nuclear and other weapons of mass
destruction elimination efforts in the
former Soviet republics.
Titled “Reducing Global Security
Threats: Lessons from Kazakhstan,”
the seminar included panels on specific
weapons-decommissioning
war to the post-cold war era and the
simultaneous strengthening of the
global non-proliferation regime.”
Nuclear Disarmament in
1990s as Prologue to Today’s
Global Stance
Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (c) delivers
keynote remarks at the launch of the international seminar on the Nunn-Lugar
programme on June 1. Minister of Foreign Affairs Erlan Idrissov and Minister
of Energy Vladimir Shkolnik are to his left and right.
projects, including decommissioning particular reactors and securing
nuclear material through Project
Sapphire (which saw nearly 600
kilogrammes of highly enriched uranium securely taken out of Kazakhstan in 1994), as well as on current
nuclear cooperation, particularly
with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The task of the seminar,
explained Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov
in his opening remarks, is to “extract
from the concrete and visible example of cooperation in this sensitive
area important lessons for the formation of future policies based on
the principles of non-proliferation
and aimed at reducing the threat of
conflict with the use of weapons of
mass destruction.”
Several of the speakers at the
session highlighted the decision to
abandon nuclear weapons as a turning point in Kazakhstan’s history.
Chairman of the Senate Kassym-
Jomart Tokayev, himself a long-time
foreign minister of Kazakhstan and
a former Deputy Secretary General
of the United Nations, said in his
keynote remarks at the seminar that
“Rejection of the nuclear legacy became the only correct strategic decision because it ensured the country a
worthy place in the world community, created the preconditions for
successful economic reforms with
the assistance of more than $190 billion of investment and, ultimately,
ensured its safety. He also added that
the decision gave Kazakhstan “the
moral and political right to demand
decisive action from other countries
to achieve universal nuclear disarmament.”
“This is the vision that motivated
the essential judgement – that Kazakhstan’s security was better protected by rejecting nuclear weapons,” commented Holgate. “This
courageous decision set the stage for
the peaceful transition from the cold
Inside
editorial & opinion
NATION
Economy & Business
Report Says Kazakhstan’s Anti-Human
Trafficking Efforts Should Redouble A2
World Bank Updated Forecast Predicts
2016-2017 Kazakh Economic Growth
Recovery A4
PM Massimov Leads Presentation
of Almaty’s 2022 Bid B1
According to Tokayev, among
Kazakhstan’s contributions to making the world safer from nuclear
weapons and nuclear weapons material are its closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, accession
to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),
the rejection of what was then the
fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the
world, the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT), the creation of the Central
Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone
(CANWFZ) and the UN General
Assembly resolution adopted at
the initiative of Kazakhstan proclaiming Aug, 29, which was the
closure date of the Semipalatinsk
test site, as the International Day
against Nuclear Tests. Kazakhstan
also convened the Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, worked to
strengthen integration processes in
the Eurasian space and has promoted dialogue between civilisations
and religions. “The main role in the
initiation of this policy and its implementation belongs to President
Nursultan Nazarbayev,” Tokayev
said who went on to present Kazakhstan’s principled positions towards some of the key nuclear disarmament issues of today.
Foreign Investment Council Focuses on Agro
Sector Investment, Development A5
Growing International Religious Tensions
Reinforce Need for Astana Religious Congress A6
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Vital
to Achieving a Green Economy, Says Energy
Minister A6
US$ 1 = 185.96 KZT 1 Euro = 206.87 KZT
“We have now published the 100
steps for the world to see,” Nazarbayev said in his remarks at the
plenary session of the Astana Economic Forum on May 22. “Now
the world will be able to track our
progress or lack thereof on all of
them.”
“One hundred concrete steps are
a response to global and local challenges and, at the same time, it is a
plan for the nation to join the top
30 most-developed countries in
the new historical conditions. One
hundred concrete steps will give
Kazakhstan a margin of safety
that will help the country through
a difficult period, implement the
Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy and
strengthen Kazakh statehood. The
plan lays out radical changes in society and the state, the main goal
of which is treatment of systemic
diseases, not just smoothing their
exterior symptoms,” outlines the
preamble to the document.
New Projects
Reflect Progress in
EBRD-Kazakh Ties
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – The European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed four more
deals to cooperate on projects in
public services and transport on
June 3, during EBRD President Sir
Suma Chakrabarti’s trip to the Kazakh capital. These are all projects
that involve reform, Chakrabarti
commented, and really symbolise
the nature of EBRD and Kazakhstan’s cooperation.
“These projects are good in
their own right,” the EBRD president said in an interview with this
newspaper June 4, “but they’re
quite symbolic of, I think, reform
and change and modernisation, in
mindset as well as in reality on the
ground.”
The four new projects encompass two 10 million euro loans to
modernise water systems in Shymkent and Aktobe, a 70 million euro
loan to the first commercial-scale
solar plant in Kazakhstan and a
42.5 million euro loan to upgrade
the infrastructure of Astana’s airport as well as the country’s air
sector tariff system. Put together,
these will bring the EBRD’s investment in Kazakhstan this year
to some $420 million. Chakrabarti
said he’d like to see investment in
Kazakhstan reach $1 billion this
year. “I think the target’s in sight,”
he commented.
UNDP Seeks
Stronger Kazakh
Partnership
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – The UN Development Programme is pursuing a
stronger partnership with Kazakhstan, believing that the country
can be a strong player in southsouth cooperation and an important proponent of the organisation’s Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), UNDP Administrator Helen Clark told The Astana
Times on May 24.
“What I’ve raised here is our interest in striking a strategic partnership agreement with Kazakhstan,
formally, which would put a kind
of formal umbrella over the work
we’ve been doing to support the
legislation on KazAID [the working name of Kazakhstan’s new official development aid agency] and
now the strategic thinking about
how KazAID might develop,” said
Clark, who had come to Kazakhstan to attend the Astana Economic
Forum on May 21-22 as well as to
visit some of the UNDPs ongoing
projects across the country.
The UNDP has operated projects
in Kazakhstan for years now, but
with the country reaching upper
middle-income status, the nature
of the partnership is ready for a
change. “Traditionally, the UNDP
had developed country partners
which funded it, and it had developing country partners that it
was funded to work in,” Clark
explained. “Now, the world is no
longer that simple. Once a country
gets up to middle-income status,
high middle-income status in the
case of Kazakhstan, it doesn’t need
your money. It needs your ideas
and innovation.
opinions
Dialogue FOR PEACE
Maskin: Diversification as Mechanism to
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Feltman: The Time for Courage and Vision
for Middle East Peace Is Now A7
TOKAYEV: Religious Dialogue Is Needed for
Peace and Development C1
1 Rouble = 3.31 KZT
ACHARYA: Congress of Leaders of World
and Traditional Religions: New Horizons C4
A2
NATION
Report Says Kazakhstan’s Anti-Human
Trafficking Efforts Should Redouble
By Malika Orazgaliyeva
ASTANA – Kazakhstan, a country that is a source, a destination
and a transit country for trafficking
in persons, has done a lot to combat
this problem, yet it should do much
more to more effectively overcome
it. This was the gist of a special
report of the Human Rights Commission under Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev that was
presented May 19 at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
Published in Kazakh, Russian
and English with the technical assistance of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
in Kazakhstan, the report received
positive review from the head of
state as well as national and international experts.
Welcoming remarks were given by Kazakh Secretary of State
Gulshara Abdykalikova, Foreign
Minister Erlan Idrissov, Human
Rights Commission chair Kuanysh
Sultanov, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Marat Demeuov,
Minister of Healthcare and Social
Development Tamara Dyussenova,
IOM Central Asia Coordinator Dejan Keserovich, deputy head of the
European Union (EU) delegation in
Kazakhstan Kamen Velichkov and
Ambassadors to Kazakhstan Carolyn Browne (United Kingdom),
George Krol (United States) and
Ole Johan Bjornoy (Norway).
In her speech, Abdykalikova noted the uniqueness of the commission’s report and drew attention to
the recommendations aimed at improving the interaction mechanisms
of law enforcement bodies with
nongovernmental organisations in
the fight against human trafficking,
as well as the provision of social
services to trafficking victims.
“The report of the commission
contains full analyses of the situation with regard to human rights
protection in the area of combating
trafficking in persons and it is a very
(L-R) Human Rights Commission chair Kuanysh Sultanov, Kazakh Secretary of
State Gulshara Abdykalikova and Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov.
important document for all the state
agencies’ and NGOs’ activities.
Today’s topic is very relevant and
important from the internal point of
view, as well as international cooperation, because all of us know that
human trafficking is a modern type
of slavery,” said Idrissov.
“Human trafficking is occupying the third place after drugs and
weapons trafficking. In order to
eliminate this evil, we need to hold
active and fruitful international cooperation,” he added.
Browne started her speech by addressing participants in the Kazakh
language and thanked the commission for the invitation.
“The United Kingdom is one of
the largest financial contributors to
all activity by the European Union.
… We warmly welcome the fact
that the Kazakhstan government
continues working with us. I hope
that the finding presented in the
report today will help Kazakhstan
to combat human trafficking,” she
said.
During the presentation, reports
were made by members and experts of the commission, including
Tastemir Abishev, Vitaly Voronov,
Nurila Shakhanova, Raissa Yurchenko and Zulfiya Baisakova.
The report provides comparative analysis of national legislation
and law enforcement practice in
the field of protection of rights of
human trafficking victims in accordance with international treaties
ratified by Kazakhstan, evaluation
of activities of the state bodies and
concrete steps to further improve
the mechanisms for the protection
of socio-economic, labour and cultural rights of vulnerable groups in
accordance with the constitution
and international standards.
Experts praised the provisions of
the special report and marked the
beginning of practical implementation of the recommendations by the
Kazakh government and parliament.
The report noted that in recent
years, Kazakhstan has made significant progress in combating trafficking in persons (TIP), a development
acknowledged by the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) office of the special
representative and coordinator for
combating trafficking in human beings, which was based on the findings of two visits to Kazakhstan in
2013 and 2014.
According to the document, the
introduction of amendments and
additions to national legislation on
countering TIP and domestic violence was particularly beneficial,
enabling much more severe sentencing for related offences and
increasing the preventive impact of
corresponding laws.
According to the report, it must
be acknowledged, however, that
the current Kazakh legislation is
mainly aimed at combating TIP
and, to a lesser extent, social protection of victims of human trafficking and the protection of their
interests. This often leads to their
re-victimisation and further social
dis-adaptation and depravation.
It is the view of the Human
Rights Commission that it is necessary to place the protection of the
rights of victims of human trafficking in the forefront of activities
of public authorities, make fuller
use of civil society institutions in
protecting the rights of victims of
abuse and pay special attention to
increasing public legal awareness,
including among victims of human
trafficking.
The report says national mechanisms for the protection of rights of
victims of human trafficking and
ensuring that they have access to
special social services need significant adjustment, ensuring that the
specific needs of more vulnerable
groups, such as migrant workers
and children, are also addressed.
The commission believes that the
implementation of its special recommendations should be aimed at
achieving the following outcomes:
• Prevention of irregular migration and TIP;
• Integration of international human rights standards into national
legislation and law enforcement
practices in the area of the protection of rights of victims of human
trafficking;
• Improvement of national mechanisms protecting the rights of victims of abuse, including victims of
human trafficking;
• Effective protection of civil,
social, labour and cultural rights of
victims of abuse;
• Implementation of special programmes aimed at fulfilling the
rights of victims of human trafficking;
• Creation of a national mechanism for referral of victims of
Country Unveils 100 Concrete Steps
to Implement Institutional Reforms
Continued from Page A1
The concrete steps, which are
shorter and more precise measures, are grouped under the following five institutional reforms:
formation of a professional state
apparatus; the rule of law; industrialisation and economic growth;
identity and unity; formation of accountable government.
According to the document, the
first reform suggests formation of
a modern, professional and independent public service that ensures
high-quality implementation of
economic programmes and delivery of public services.
A few steps under this reform
are concentrated on new ways
to recruit talented candidates for
public office, including from the
private sector. One of them allows
for appointing foreign citizens to
positions within the government, a
practice better known in the postSoviet realm in countries such as
Georgia and Ukraine. Two more
measures stipulate elaboration of
a new code on civil service and a
re-examination of public servants
aimed at cleansing the corps of the
less competent. The timeline and
terms of such a massive effort are
yet to be defined.
The announced steps also foresee the introduction of a revamped
system of remuneration for civil
servants that will rely on performance- and region-based criteria.
The latter could be relevant for
those working in the oil-producing
regions of Atyrau and Mangystau,
as well as in Almaty and Astana
where life is notably costlier than,
for instance, in Shymkent or Petropavlovsk.
The second reform involves the
transition from the five-level justice system (first, appeal, cassation, supervising and re-supervis-
ing) to a three-level (first, appeal
and cassation) system. The aim is
to strengthen foreign and domestic investors’ trust in Kazakhstan’s
court system. The measures include toughening qualification criteria for the recruitment of judges
by introducing a new requirement
for a candidate to serve at least five
years within the court system and
a one-year trial period for newlyappointed judges, improving the
public image of police in order to
increase the level of citizens’ trust
and cut corruption. In general, implementing this reform seeks to
ensure property rights by improving conditions for entrepreneurial
activity and protecting contractual
obligations.
One of the steps under this reform requires expansion of court
proceedings that must be decided
by a jury, while introducing into
laws a category of criminal cases
where consideration by jury will
be mandatory.
Another step stipulates the creation of a municipal or local police
force, which will work under the
control of and in close cooperation
with local executive authorities
and local communities. A widespread practice in the world, it has
a brief history in Kazakhstan. In
1992, an institution of local police
was introduced but was scrapped
after less than a year in favour of a
more centralised model.
Within the third reform, the government is eager to attract strategic investors to the country’s agricultural sector, whichis lagging
behind the industrial and services
branches of economy. Beyond
that, one of the measures stipulates
that the tax and customs systems
will be integrated. This will open
doors to an importer to transport
commodities into Kazakhstan before selling them.
The third reform also talks about
the extension of the current practice of civil servants making declarations of incomes to declaring
expenses as well, starting from
January 2017. The following stage
could be extended to all citizens,
however, no timetable for such an
expansion has been defined.
One of the measures talks about
strengthening the institution of a
“business ombudsman,” a kind of
prosecutor on behalf of entrepreneurs. Implementation of those
tasks will boost economic growth
and diversify industry.
A few steps concentrate on establishing a “multi-modal Eurasian transcontinental transport
corridor” that would facilitate
quicker delivery of goods between
Asia and Europe via Kazakhstan.
Among similar measures, construction of a new airport to service the growing needs of Almaty
is also mentioned.
Two more steps envisage establishing the Astana International
Financial Centre (AIFC). The
process of establishing the AIFC
may require introducing amendments into the nation’s constitution, including provisions to create
a separate judicial system in the
AIFC based largely on the English
law and the use of English as “an
official language” of the centre,
along with Kazakh and Russian.
The design of the centre, similar
to one used in Dubai, would turn
Astana into a major “financial hub
for the [Commonwealth of Independent States] CIS countries and
West Asia.” The centre would focus particularly on “servicing capital markets and Islamic finances”
with a goal to becoming one of the
20 leading financial centres of the
world.
The AIFC will use the facilities
constructed for EXPO 2017 fol-
lowing the exhibition, Nazarbayev
announced at the Astana Economic Forum.
On a social side, one of the steps
requires the “introduction of mandatory medical insurance” with a
“solidary responsibility of state,
employers and employees.” Details of this step have not been announced.
The main aspect of the fourth
reform concerning issues of identity and unity, is shaping a “Nation
of Common Future” by nurturing
a viable middle class as the backbone of a successful nation, which
is achieved by sustaining the genuine rule of law and modern and
valid political, economic and civil
institutions in the society. According to the publication, the ideology
of Mangilik El (The Eternal Nation) should serve as a system of
common civic values.
Measures to boost domestic
tourism and establish encyclopaedia-type information resources and
databases systematising presentation of Kazakhstan’s natural and
human resources are prominent in
the description of the steps under
this reform.
The fifth reform involves “creation of an accountable government.” From now on, the heads
of public bodies will report annually to the general public on the
achievements of their agencies.
This will include a concept of
“open government” (elaboration
of a new law on unhindered access to public information with an
exclusion for classified materials),
budget and consolidated financial
statements, the results of an external financial audit, evaluation of
the effectiveness of public policy,
public assessment of the results
of the quality of public services,
online statistical reports from the
state agencies and reports on the
human trafficking among law
enforcement agencies, NGOs,
healthcare establishments and social services;
• Provision on a range of special
social services to victims of abuse,
including victims of human trafficking and domestic violence;
• Successful reintegration and resocialisation of victims of abuse,
including victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, in
appropriate crisis rehabilitation
centres;
• Transparency of the activities
of relevant government agencies
and NGOs dealing with victims of
abuse, including victims of human
trafficking and domestic violence;
• High awareness levels among
the public, including victims of human trafficking, in respect of universally-recognised human rights
standards and their significance for
every person and society as whole
(awareness-raising in the area of
human rights);
• Improved legal awareness
among law enforcement officers
and the public;
• Decreased risks of social tension and social stigma of certain
groups and potential social conflict
with stronger national security.
“By fulfilling the recommendations of the special report, Kazakhstan will be able to achieve new
goals in building a state which is
governed by the rule of law and in
strengthening government and civil
mechanisms for the protection of
rights of victims of abuse, including victims of human trafficking
and domestic violence at the international standards level,” the commission said.
The gathering at the Foreign
Ministry was attended by heads
of central state bodies, representatives of the legislative, executive
and judicial branches of government, law enforcement agencies
of Kazakhstan, legal scholars,
lawyers, notaries and heads of
international organisations and
diplomatic missions accredited in
Kazakhstan, as well as representatives of educational institutions,
science, culture, healthcare, business and the media.
execution of the national and local
budgets.
Further development of an egovernment concept, that has seen
a highly successful implementation in Kazakhstan, is included in
the proposal as reflected in the last
of the 100 steps, on establishing a
State Corporation of Government
for Citizens that is to become a
single provider of public services.
The arrangement would be modelled on Canada Service and Austrialia’s Centrelink.
In order to implement all of the
above-mentioned reforms, the National Modernisation Commission
under the President has been created. The head of the commission is
Prime Minister Karim Massimov.
It consists of five working groups,
members of which include local
and foreign experts. The commission will have its own International Advisory Council, with the
inclusion of international experts
responsible not only for providing
recommendations but also “performing an independent systematised monitoring of results in implementation of the reforms.”
International participants in the
May 21-22 Astana Economic Forum have commented on the newly
published 100 steps document.
According to the Kazinform
news agency, Chairman of Russia’s Sberbank German Gref said
he experienced something of a
“culture shock” after reading it and
that Russia should take on board
Kazakhstan’s Plan of the Nation
and create a mutual plan with
Astana called “100 steps together.”
The head of Sberbank called the
document “comprehensive and
logically well developed.”
“I can quite professionally assess this document. For many
years, I was engaged in this topic.
I can say that this document is
one of the best I have ever seen.
If at least 50 out of 100 steps are
completed, and I hope that most of
them are implemented, it is obvious that Kazakhstan will turn into
a fundamentally different country,” Gref said.
NATIONAL
news in brief
Kazakhstan plans to open four
new nuclear diagnostic centres in
Semey, Almaty, Karaganda and
Aktobe, it was announced during
the first Central Asian Forum for
Nuclear Medicine in Astana on
May 12. At the moment, the country’s only such centre is located in
Astana. Experts at the forum said
the investment in nuclear medicine
would almost halve the country’s
healthcare costs, as radiology detects tumours and their prevalence
more accurately than other methods. “This is a tremendously important issue; we are talking about
the timely detection of tumours,
cancer, cardiovascular and neurological diseases,” said Chief Physician of the Astana Cancer Centre
Mukhtar Tuleutayev.
Israel and Kazakhstan have
opened a joint irrigation demonstration centre in Ushkonyr, Almaty region, the Israeli Embassy
in Astana announced on May 25.
The Israel-Kazakhstan Irrigation
Demonstration Centre will focus
on demonstrating and transferring
innovative irrigation technologies
adapted to the local agricultural
conditions. The project is being
implemented by Israel’s Agency
for International Development
Cooperation and its Centre for
International Agricultural Development (MASHAV-CINADCO)
in cooperation with the Israeli
Embassy in Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Agriculture, and
KazAgroInnovation. Deputy Head
of MASHAV Ilan Fluss and Ambassador of Israel to Kazakhstan
Eliyahu Tasman and staff of Israel’s embassy in Astana took part
in the centre’s opening ceremony
on May 19.
The Baikonur Space Centre in
Kazakhstan marked its 60th anniversary on June 1 with celebrations
starting with a ceremony at the
Baikonur Cultural Centre and an
evening concert. The space centre
was built during the 1950s as a test
range for Soviet missiles, and went
on to become the site of a number
of space-race firsts, including the
launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, and the first
manned space mission, by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Russia
has leased the Baikonur spaceport
from Kazakhstan since 1994.
Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s national airline, commenced direct
services from Astana to Seoul’s
Incheon International Airport on
June 2. A 223-seat Boeing 767
aircraft will fly between the two
capital cities once a week, adding
to the existing direct Almaty-Seoul
route. Air Astana has also launched
a twice-a-week service to Tbilisi,
Georgia. With the new flights, Air
Astana brings its network to 64
routes connecting 39 international
and domestic destinations.
The Day of Kazakhstan’s State
Symbols was celebrated on June
4. The state symbols were established in 1992, the year after Kazakhstan’s independence and are
intended to represent Kazakhstan’s
landscape, cultural and spiritual
heritage, and the influences it has
felt as a crossroads of Western and
Eastern civilisations.
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev met with American business magnate and CEO of
Wynn Resorts Ltd Stephen Wynn
in Astana on May 25 to discuss the
development of tourism and hotel
industry in Kazakhstan, the President’s press service reported. Nazarbayev and Wynn also discussed
possible cooperation on joint
projects. Wynn Resorts operates
high-end hotels and casinos in the
United States and Macau.
Air Astana will be the title sponsor of the first BKS Air Astana
Marathon, to be held September 13, according to the Sports
Features website. The marathon,
which is being organised by the
British-Kazakh Society (BKS)
will meander through the Kazakh
capital, Astana. There will also be
5-kilometre and 10-kilometre races on the marathon day. BKS has
been organising running events in
London and the Kazakh cities of
Astana and Almaty since 2009. A3
eurasia&world
external
news in brief
A diplomatic mission of Kazakhstan has opened in Serbia, the press
service of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Kazakhstan has announced. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Alexey
Volkov participated in the opening
of the mission during his working
visit to Serbia from June 3–5. The
key event of the visit was the official opening of the permanent Embassy of Kazakhstan in Belgrade
and the official inauguration of
Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in
Serbia Milanka Karic. In Belgrade
Volkov met with Serbian President
Tomislav Nikolic and other senior
officials of the country for consultations on bilateral cooperation and
international issues.
The International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) low-enriched uranium fuel bank being established
in Kazakhstan will be supplied with
nuclear fuel beginning in 2017.
The logistics, including a transport
agreement to bring the material
through Russia, are currently being
negotiated, said Deputy Chairman
of the Committee on Atomic and
Energy Supervision of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan Timur
Zhantikin on June 1 in Astana. The
Board of Governors of IAEA will
meet in Vienna the week of June 8
and will consider the draft transit
agreement and the draft agreement
with the government of Kazakhstan. If approved, the process of
ratification and finalisation will take
approximately two years, he said.
Kazakhstan proposed itself as the
site of an international fuel bank in
2009. The bank is expected to be
established at Kazakhstan’s Ulba
Metallurgical Plant (UMP) in UstKamenogorsk.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on June 3 released
new predictions for lower global
growth this year due to weak investment, Big News Network reports. The OECD Economic Outlook report anticipates 3.1 percent
global growth this year and 3.8
percent in 2016, down from earlier forecasts of 3.6 percent and
3.9 percent. The change resulted
from unexpected weakness in the
first quarter of 2015, the OECD
said. In the region, China’s growth
was scaled down from 6.8 percent
in the previous forecast to 6.7 percent on June 3. Russia is expected
to reach low but positive growth
by 2016.
The Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) discussed trade and
customs cooperation at its most
recent meeting and approved the
modification of some EEC Board
decisions on the structure and formats of electronic copies of customs documents. The changes will
help with the electronic declaration
of goods, an EEC press release explained. In addition, the adopted
changes will complete the structural elements of the newly adopted
classifiers of road vehicle brands
and types of vehicles of international transportation. The Eurasian
Economic Commission (EEC) is a
permanent supranational regulatory
body of the Eurasian Economic
Union. Currently, the EEC includes
representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. The
Commission’s decisions are obligatory for execution on the territory of
the EEU member states.
Kazakh Prime Minister Karim
Massimov and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong are leading the respective delegations of Almaty and
Beijing to the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) Candidate City
Briefing starting on June 9, the Inside the Games website reports. The
briefing is a key step in the race for
the Olympic Games and will give
the cities in competition a chance
to present themselves to voting IOC
members and International Federations ahead of the decisive IOC
Session at the end of next month in
Kuala Lumpur. Each city will have
45 minutes to present their plans
at the Olympic Museum here, followed by 45 minutes of questions.
Individual follow up meetings with
IOC members will take place the
next day. Beijing and Almaty have
sent delegations of several hundred
people. Kazakhstan’s delegation includes Almaty Mayor Akhmetzhan
Yessimov, Culture and Sports Minister Arystanbek Mukhamediuly,
and National Olympic Committee
of Kazakhstan President Temirkhan
Dosmukhambetov and Secretary
General Timur Dossymbetov.
SCO Considers Expansion during Moscow Meeting
By Altair Nurbekov
MOSCOW – Kazakh Foreign
Minister Erlan Idrissov participated in the June 3 regular meeting in
Moscow of the Council of Foreign
Ministers (CFM) of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The focus of the meeting was to
prepare for the upcoming council
of the heads of SCO member states
that will take place July 9-10 in
Ufa, Russia.
Before the meeting, which took
place in Moscow’s historic Ukraine
Hotel of the Radisson chain, the
foreign ministers were received by
Russian President Vladimir Putin
in the Kremlin, who outlined the
priorities of his country during its
SCO chairmanship. Putin noted
the significant contributions and
initiatives of Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev towards
deepening cooperation in Eurasia and expressed support for the
adoption of the organisation’s development strategy until 2025.
During their own meeting, the
foreign ministers of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan discussed
topical issues on the international
and regional agenda and prospects
for developing cooperation within
the SCO framework in political,
economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres, as well as agreed on
the agenda of the upcoming council of heads of states meeting. The
foreign ministers also discussed
the prospects for expanding the
organisation to countries including India, Pakistan and potentially
Iran and its interaction with other
states and entities and developed
concrete proposals on these issues
for consideration at next month’s
summit.
“In recent years, the SCO has
turned into one of the most reputable and dynamic organisations
of multifaceted cooperation, not
only in the region but in the whole
world,” said Idrissov.
The SCO was established in
June 2001 and came out of the
1996 agreement between four
former Soviet states and China to
strengthen confidence along their
mutual borders and withdraw
heavy weaponry to beyond 100
kilometres from the borders. In
June 1996, Uzbekistan joined the
former Shanghai Five as it evolved
into a formal organisation, the
SCO.
In the framework of cooperation
within the SCO, Kazakhstan gives
priority to a coordinated approach
of the key issues of political, economic, cultural and humanitarian
cooperation, as well as worldwide
security and stability in the SCO
space, Idrissov added. Further
deepening of cooperation in these
areas can significantly increase the
potential not only of the organisation’s member states, but also to a
certain extent the observer countries and dialogue partners. The
necessary legal outline has already
been laid, he said.
“The adoption of the SCO development strategy until 2025 will be
a powerful impetus to the dynamic
development of cooperation between our countries. I believe that
this policy document, designed
for a decade, should reflect not
only the prospects of cooperation
in political and economic spheres,
but also the routes and directions
of timely resolution of regional
problems, including environmental safety and prevention of a water
crisis,” said Idrissov.
In this context, Idrissov drew
the attention of his colleagues to
the issues of trans-boundary water
management in the SCO region.
In his words, as close neighbours
with common cross-border water
resources, the member states may
use their organisation as a platform for constructive dialogue and
search for mutually-acceptable
solutions. In this respect, partnership between the SCO secretariat
and the executive committee of the
International Fund for Saving the
Aral Sea looks promising.
The minister also noted that
Kazakhstan supports establishing contacts and continuing active
cooperation between the SCO and
other regional and international
organisations and dialogue platforms. A memorandum of understanding between the SCO and
the Conference on Interaction and
Confidence-Building Measures in
Asia (CICA) dated May 20, 2014
opens opportunities to develop
contacts in many areas of cooperation. The potential for fruitful collaboration also exists in establishing formal relations between the
SCO and the Eurasian Economic
Commission of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Idrissov also noted that Kazakhstan counts on the support of the
SCO partners for its candidacy for
non-permanent membership on the
United Nations Security Council
for 2017-2018.
“Our candidacy was put forward
in accordance with the principles
of fairness, rational geographic
rotation and adequate representation of all countries of Asia and the
Asia-Pacific region. Kazakhstan
has gained considerable experience during the chairmanship of
the SCO, OIC, CICA, CIS, CSTO
and the OSCE in different periods
and is willing to apply it in matters
of international security,” he said.
In his speech, Idrissov outlined
Kazakhstan’s approaches to further expansion of the SCO and
implementation of cooperation
in economic and transit-transport
sectors, noting the relevance of
this work in light of the application
of Nurly Zhol, Kazakhstan’s new
economic policy. The minister also
informed his colleagues about upcoming, large-scale developments
in Kazakhstan which are planned
in light of executing Nazarbayev’s
five institutional reforms.
Referring to the cooperation in
the sphere of security, Idrissov
noted the importance of strengthening the capacity of the SCO’s
Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure
(RATS) and increasing cooperation between the border and customs structures for the effective
fight against illegal migration and
trafficking in drugs and weapons.
The importance of coordinated
action of the SCO member states
in the light of the situation in Afghanistan, as well as due to the increased activities of the so-called
“Islamic state” in the Middle East,
were emphasised.
The issues of regional security
were discussed more concretely at
the high-level conference with the
theme “Security and stability in
the SCO region,” which took place
June 4 in Moscow. The conference
was attended by the SCO foreign
ministers, as well as ministers and
high-ranking representatives of
SCO observer states, such as Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia,
Pakistan and SCO dialogue partners, including Belarus, Turkey
and Sri Lanka.
Partnership With UNDP Growing
Int’l Seminar Examines
History of Kazakh Nuclear
Disarmament Efforts
“We have consistently advocated for the universalisation of the
Treaty on the Nonproliferation of
Nuclear Weapons,” Tokayev added, noting that not all countries in
the world are members of the key
treaty. In particular, India and Pakistan, which have nuclear weap-
Summits in Washington, Seoul,
and The Hague, where our President took part with enthusiasm.”
The chairman of the Senate
also pointed out that “We are convinced that building a more secure
world has to be based not on the
doctrine of nuclear deterrence, but
on international measures of trust
and cooperation. We believe that
rity issues. “Not only will this project honour those who have been
involved, but it will, I am certain,
provide inspiration and lessons for
other challenges in other places,”
Holgate said.
Idrissov also referenced the importance of the event as it has the
potential to build a “bridge to the
future” of such cooperation.
Kazakh, Russian and American participants in the seminar pose at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Astana on June 1.
ons, and Israel, which is believed
to have them, have never joined
NPT as did the new nation of South
Sudan. The Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea (DPRK), which
also acquired nuclear weapons,
announced in 2003 its withdrawal
from the treaty. “We consider it a
cornerstone of international security. At the same time, we must
admit that the treaty with the emergence of de facto nuclear weapon
states is not a perfect document for
the real non-proliferation regime.”
Tokayev further placed a great
emphasis on the fact that “Attempts of the so-called ‘non-systemic’ players who can access nuclear technology and arsenals are
considered extremely dangerous.
A recent statement by the Islamic
State that within a year it will become the owner of nuclear weapons should be taken seriously.”
“Kazakhstan stands for the realisation of the Comprehensive
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the
strengthening of its verification
mechanism,” he said. “Kazakh diplomats are working on a project of
the United Nations Universal Declaration on achieving a world free
of nuclear weapons, for the institutionalisation of the treaty on the
establishment of a zone free from
nuclear weapons in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan supports the intention
of world powers to give a new impetus to the processes of nonproliferation, as clearly evidenced by
the results of the Nuclear Security
the permanent members of the UN
Security Council should play a key
role in the establishment of peace
in the world.”
Learning from
Nunn-Lugar Lessons to Build
“Bridge to the Future”
The Nunn-Lugar programme was
a 1991 U.S. initiative to provide
funding and expertise for states
from the former Soviet Union in decommissioning weapons, including
nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons stockpiles, from former
Soviet states, including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Some of
the programme’s biggest projects
have been undertaken in Kazakhstan, including a 17-year year operation to seal plutonium left behind in the Degelen Mountain at
the former Semipalatinsk nuclear
test site and collaboration on other
long-term efforts to remove weapons from Kazakhstan and to secure
the by-products of weapons testing
securely in the country.
Kazakh Minister of Energy
Vladimir Shkolnik, Holgate and
other speakers also commented that
while the seminar would honour
past efforts and actors, the trilateral
cooperation of many Nunn-Lugar
efforts, as well as President Nazarbayev’s vision on nuclear issues,
is still very relevant to current secu-
It did not go unremarked that
U.S. and Russian experts were
embarking upon a four-day conference together at a time when
relations between the two powers
are strained. “I do not agree with
Kipling … that ‘East is East, and
West is West, and never the twain
shall meet,’” said Yevgeni Maslin,
former head of the 12th department
of the Russian Defence Ministry,
which oversaw the nuclear arsenals. “No – all problems can be
solved peacefully. We just have to
try.” He went on to quote beloved
Kazakh poet and philosopher, Abai,
saying that “the worst person is he
who does not have a goal,” and that
the two sides should work together
to achieve their goals.
Idrissov, too, commented that
perhaps meeting in this format
would facilitate meetings between
the U.S. and Russia in other formats. “The whole world is observing the relations between the U.S.
and Russia,” he said, “and the
whole world wants the superpowers to go back to a constructive
way of building relationships.” He
expressed his hope that the conference over the next four days and
the celebration of the achievements
they, and the world, reached by
working together, could help warm
today’s frosty relationship.
Ambassador of Russia to Kazakhstan Mikhail Bocharnikov and
Ambassador of the United States to
Kazakhstan George Krol also spoke
at the plenary session.
And so the relationship moves
quite a lot. And such countries also
start to look at how they’re positioning globally and their own development cooperation.”
The UNDP has developed formal
agreements with eight of the G20
emerging economies, Clark noted.
China, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey,
South Africa and Mexico, among
others, are all doing development
cooperation, she said, and in these
cases, the UNDP changes its approach. The primary concern is to
remain relevant to the country’s
development and continue to operate projects as needed within the
country, but also to help support
more south-south cooperation and
triangular programmes involving
third countries through the developing nations’ own aid agencies. “So
it’s about a partnership that sees us
working not only in the country but
with the country in its global and
bilateral relationships for development.” The UNDP has concluded
these types of relationships with other upper middle-income counties,
like Chile, and Kazakhstan seems
quite interested, Clark reported.
Kazakhstan could be a significant
ally in working toward the SDGs,
Clark said, which are expected to be
signed off upon in September. “Of
course, there are development needs
here, but Kazakhstan also has a lot
of experience to share, and KazAID
could be the vehicle for that.”
KazAID will need partners, she
noted, as it lacks an on-the-ground
presence in many countries, particularly throughout Africa, where
Kazakhstan is showing a great deal
of interest, opening new embassies
and joining the African Union as an
observer state. “That is where a big
multilateral like the UNDP comes
in,” she said.
“We could be a good partner and,
having got the legislation in place
and started construction of the agency, the officials now will be thinking, ‘Well, what are we going to
do?’ We can be helpful, as we have
been with other such countries and
emerging economies’ development
agencies where we can support the
development strategy.” Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and the UNDP are already working
together to bring nearly 100 African
students to Kazakhstan for training
in the oil industry, public health and
agriculture, an initiative announced
at the African economy panel at the
Astana Economic Forum. Kazakhstan’s experiences in the oil industry,
crop diversification, dry land agriculture and solutions for its landlocked status are experiences other
developing countries will definitely
want to know about, Clark said.
When it comes to south-south
cooperation, knowledge sharing
is crucial, she explained. “It is not
the traditional official development
assistance, a lot of which is grant
aid. ... There’s not so much outright
money that goes into south-south
cooperation. It would be maybe a
sixth of what Western donors put
out. But the critical thing is the
experience sharing and the knowledge sharing,” she said. Developing countries are interested in how
other nations in their position tackled their problems. “For example, if
you’re a lower middle-income landlocked country in Africa, where do
you look for advice? New Zealand’s
probably not going to be so relevant, or Canada. But Kazakhstan
could be, or Uzbekistan could be. ...
That’s really at the heart of southsouth cooperation.”
This type of cooperation will also
support the SDGs, she said. “Actually, to achieve the SDGs, there has
to be a lot of policy reform. So if, for
example, a country is subsidising
fossil fuels – these need to go. They
have to go!” This, she argues, will
free up money that had been going
to those who don’t really need it to
be directed toward investments that
will benefit those who do.
“[The SDGs] are definitely about
policy reforms which improve the
enabling environment for growth
and trade and investment, and ...
this is what’s very important about
Kazakhstan’s institutional reform
agenda, the five institutional reforms. What’s at the heart of them?
Clean governance and transparency,
rule of law. I mean, the concept that
this [Astana international] financial
services centre will actually run
according to English law – this is
revolutionary. So these are the kinds
of things in the whole policy and
enabling environment that need to
be done to support growth and domestic resource mobilisation.”
Kazakhstan is also highly bankable, Clark commented, with loans
coming in thick and fast from a number of intergovernmental banks, and
in that way can also be an example
for other countries seeking investment for development projects.
Over her four days in Kazakhstan, Clark also visited UNDP projects using Global Environmental
Facility (GEF) funding in operation
around the Aral Sea.“The relationship is good ... and I think we’re doing things that are of real value, and
clearly the government and the regions that are the subject of joint UN
programming are happy,” she said.
“I think the work done with GEF is
extremely important – the Aral Sea,
wetlands, water management, more
suitable agricultural production. ...
So I come away thinking our team
here has done a good job.”
A4
economy
World Bank Updated Forecast Predicts
Economic Recovery in 2016 and 2017
By Aiman Turebekova
ASTANA – The spring 2015 edition of the biannual Kazakhstan
Economic Update of the World
Bank titled “Kazakhstan – Low Oil
Prices; an Opportunity to Reform”
forecasts a positive economic scenario for the country in the coming
years, despite external shocks and
lowered demand domestically.
Kazakhstan’s gross domestic
product growth slowed from 6 percent per year in 2013 to 4.3 percent
in 2014 due to weak demand from
China and Russia, main trade partners for Kazakhstan’s metals and
metal products, and because of
slackening domestic demand after
the tenge was devalued in February
2014. During the second half 2014,
oil prices plummeted by about 50
percent internationally, affecting not
only export and fiscal revenues but
also investor confidence in the Kazakh economy.
The report predicts GDP growth
in 2015 will be as low as 1.5 percent,
the lowest since 2009. However, the
next year could see some recovery
with a growth of 2.8 percent, while
in 2017 the economy could expand
at a more solid rate of 3.9 percent.
To attract and retain investment,
Kazakhstan’s authorities are establishing systematic procedures to
ensure the quality of both new and
existing regulations, such as expand-
ing the mandate of the Interdepartmental Commission for Regulation
and setting out obligations for the
systematic use of Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs) when new
regulations are proposed. In addition, the Kazakh government is setting up a system to prevent investorgovernment disputes by appointing
an investment Ombudsman.
Notably, the authorities are moving ahead with their ambitious agenda of regulatory and institutional
reforms to diversify the economy
and increase private sector participation, including a plan for 2014-16
to privatise a portion of state-owned
enterprises (SOEs), which was announced by President Nursultan
Nazarbayev in April 2014. Further-
more, the government is also expected to sell its interests in 32 smaller
companies to strategic investors
through auctions. Therefore, implementation of the plan and streamlining regulations consequently will
lead to improvement of the business
environment of the country.
Trade, transport, and real estate
services were the main supports for
economic growth in 2014. Notably,
official unemployment declined
from 5.2 percent of the total force
in 2013 to 5.0 percent in 2014 due
to job creation in the services sectors. Since 2006, a large share of the
population has escaped poverty, and
“further poverty reduction is expected” according to the World Bank.
There is no doubt that after the
February 2014 devaluation (when
the tenge was devalued by 19 percent against the U.S. dollar), tighter
monetary policy has led to lower
credit growth, raised the cost of
borrowing and affected domestic
demand. In order to manage the
pressure on the tenge the authorities together with tighter monetary
policy have combined a modest fiscal expansion.
The World Bank welcomed
two economic support packages
launched in 2014, which have been
mitigated by simultaneous budget
cuts in other areas. The 2015 national budget was cut by $3.3 billion, pared down by deferring nonpriority investment expenditures
and delaying increases in public
salaries until Jan. 1, 2016, the report informs. Notably, budget cuts
were partially offset by $1.9 billion
in disbursements from the National
Fund for the Nurly Zhol (Path to the
Future) programme, a major governmental infrastructure investment
programme announced by President
Nazarbayev in his state-of-the-nation address in November 2014.
The World Bank update claims,
assuming relatively stable external
conditions in the near term, that the
Nurly Zhol programme is expected
to have a positive effect on employment, though its impact on GDP
growth is likely to be marginal due
to the budget cuts.
During the fiscal adjustment, the
government protected pensions and
social assistance obligations from
sequester; while some non-priority
capital spending in the social area,
especially education, was delayed
until next year.
Regarding the update’s projections, if oil prices start to recover
to $57 in 2016 and $61 later, export earnings and domestic demand
would gradually recover, allowing
growth to reach 2.8 percent in 2016
and 3.9 percent in 2017. It has been
predicted that oil production will
remain almost flat until the end of
2017, when the offshore Kashagan
oil field is expected to come on line
and boost production. Moreover,
“the economic support programmes
may stimulate GDP growth for 2016
and onward; to avoid procyclical
fiscal expenditures, the authorities
have committed to eliminate them
if the economy is recovering well,”
the report pointed out. As a result,
assuming non-oil revenues rise as
the economy starts to recover, the
non-oil deficit is projected to decline
gradually from 10.8 percent of GDP
in 2014 to 8.8 percent in 2017.
In terms of financial and monetary stability, in the medium term,
authorities intend to move to establish inflation rate targeting and a
more flexible exchange rate regime.
Therefore, a more neutral monetary
policy stance in addition to a floating
exchange rate regime would more
sustainably support growth.
Nazarbayev Addresses Kapshagai Segment of Almaty–Taldykorgan
Economic Challenges at AEF Road to be Opened by Year’s End
This affects the severity of natural disasters,” he said. Third is the
continued food shortage. Under the
pressures of population growth, urbanisation and increasing incomes,
food production will need to double
over the next 30 years, the President
said. “And it will have to do at a time
when the Earth’s resources are being
depleted,” he noted.
Kazakhstan’s government is already implementing some specific
programmes that will help overcome
these challenges on a local and global scale. According to the President,
the recently adopted Nurly Zhol economic stimulus programme, which
focuses on building infrastructure,
will achieve a number of significant
results. By 2019, travel time between
major cities will be reduced by a
third, and access to the neighbouring countries will be easier, he said.
Kazakhstan will form a unified energy system to fully meet electricity
demand in the country. Doing all of
this, the programme will create half a
million new jobs, he said.
The President also said that deeper
reforms are needed for sustained
growth and the transition of Kazakhstan to the category of developed
countries. He mentioned that five
areas of institutional reform were
his campaign manifesto in the recent
presidential election.
“These are the improvement of
public administration and the rule
of law, promoting economic growth,
strengthening the Kazakh identity
and, finally, improving the transparency and accountability of the state.
The implementation of these reforms has already been adopted and
a concrete action plan titled ‘Modern
State for All’ has been published.”
The President also mentioned
that a country programme with the
OECD has been signed as part of the
reforms to be introduced, with the
most advanced tools and standards
of public administration in the most
developed countries.
Nazarbayev also announced that
the Astana International Financial
Centre would be established on the
premises of the EXPO 2017 specialised exhibition. “We have held talks
with representatives of the Dubai
[International Financial] Centre and
agreed that their experience will be
completely transferred to Kazakhstan. Thus, our focus will be based
on [introducing] the principles of
English law, a preferential tax regime
and an independent financial court.
We are confident that the Astana financial centre will be the core of the
financial infrastructure in Kazakhstan, and in the future [will turn into]
a financial hub of the whole Central
Asian region.” This announcement,
particularly that the centre would
use English law and be independent
in terms of its judiciary, drew praise
from other panellists.
Finally the President spoke of the
construction of new railways and logistics facilities. Kazakhstan recently
opened the Lianyungang logistics
terminal port in the Yellow Sea, providing a direct route from Europe
through Russia, Central Asia, the
Asia-Pacific region, and vice versa
by rail. During the first year of the
volume of cargo from China to Europe rose by 80 percent. Meanwhile
the completed construction of the
Zhezkazgan-Beineu railway created
a more direct connection for China
through Kazakhstan to the Caspian
seaports.
“All these projects are aimed at
increasing the transit potential of
both our country and the whole of
the Eurasian Economic Union,” said
the President. “This is the new Silk
Road. Forty countries have showed
an interest in free trade with the Eurasian Economic Union. But we must
not stop there. I propose to create a
new high-speed, multi-modal transport route, the Eurasian transcontinental corridor.”
For the future, the president suggested creating a permanent platform
within the framework of the unified
Eurasian space to discuss proposals
for the future direction of the continent, increasing integration between
all its members. “The Astana Economic Forum could become such a
platform,” suggested the President.
Chief Business Correspondent and
Talking Business presenter of the
BBC, Linda Yueh, who moderated
the session, presented the other panellists. Those included Xavier Bettel, prime minister of Luxembourg;
Helen Clark, administrator of the
UN Development Programme; Jacob Frenkel, chairman of JP Morgan
Chase International and former governor of the Bank of Israel; Kenneth
Rogoff, professor at Harvard University and former IMF chief economist; and Nouriel Roubini, chairman
of Roubini Global Economics and a
professor at New York University.
Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, who
couldn’t attend the forum in person,
sent a special video message.
Speaker after speaker were returning to President Nazarbayev’s
speech in their own remarks, commenting specifically on the Nurly
Zhol programme and the proposal to
establish the AIFC.
“If I understood the translation
correctly, the Astana financial centre
would have English law at its basis.
This and other conditions would
mean this will be a game changer,”
Rogoff said in his remarks.
By Dauletkhan Zhienkulov
At the end of this year, the Kapshagai route from Almaty to
Taldykorgan will be opened to
traffic. Full commissioning of the
road, which is about 260 kilometres long, is planned by 2017, representatives of the KazAvtoZhol
national company announced at a
press tour of the construction site
of the motorway.
Earthworks are underway on the
project, which is being operated
by the K-Dorstroi, Kazakhdorstroi
and Naiza-Kurylys companies.
The roadbed has been laid and
bridges, overpasses, interchanges
and culvert channels have been
built, company representatives
announced. More than 90 percent
of the materials used come from
domestic production, they said.
These include modern asphalt
plants and metal constructions.
The road is being built according
to the 1A standard, and expanded
to six lanes. Director of the Almaty regional branch of KazAvtoZhol Batyr Dadamurzayev said
the road’s quality is the same as
the Astana–Burabai motorway,
and will have a maximum allowed
speed of 140 kilometres per hour.
They expect traffic on the Almaty–
Kapshagai route to increase from
the current 18,000 cars per day to
61,000 cards per day. Fares on the
toll road will be determined later,
he said.
Checks are being done on each
segment of the road, with different sections being controlled by
engineering supervision services.
The checks include tests on building materials. The new standards
mean the road’s thickness will
be increased using a multilayer
technology that protects the road
from mechanical wear and climate
stress. The service life of cement
concrete structures is expected to
be 20-25 years without a major
overhaul, the representatives said.
Equally large-scale construction
is underway between Kapshagai
and Taldykorgan, which is being
worked on by Italian company
Todini, Turkish company SineMidasStroi and domestic enterprises
Zholdary Taldykorgan and Kapshagai Mostootryad. Fresh asphalt
has been laid on the 1B category
road. The road will be a four lane,
category 1B road; it will bypass
the dangerous Arkharly pass and
several settlements. Given the terrain, with its steep ascents and descents, contractors had to conduct
blasting. Now, drivers can see one
kilometre of the road ahead when
they drive, which should significantly reduce the accident rate.
Deputy Chairman of the Board
of KazAvtoZhol Ulan Alipov noted
that Kazakhstan is paying special
attention to the development of infrastructure. Under the Nurly Zhol
economic stimulus programme,
which emphasises infrastructure
development, construction and assembly work is planned to cover
7,100 km of roads in the country
by 2020, and the National Fund of
Kazakhstan and international financial institutions are to allocate
2.3 trillion tenge (US$12.37 billion) for the work.
Among the projects in the Almaty region are roads connecting
Almaty and Astana, Almaty and
Ust-Kamenogorsk, Almaty and
Khorgos and Usharal and Dostyk.
The consctruction of the Almaty-Kapshagai road goes full steam ahead.
The region has allocated more financing than anywhere else in the
country: 48 billion tenge (US$258
million) so far this year.
According to experts, the Almaty–Ust-Kamenogorsk
road,
which includes the length of
Taldykorgan, will play an important role in domestic and international transportation of goods and
passengers. It is part of the transit
corridor connecting Central Asian
countries with Russia. By the end
of the year, 98 km of the route will
be put into operation. More than
1,100 pieces of equipment, including placers, concrete mixing and
crushing and screening plants,
dump trucks, graders, excavators
and bulldozers have been mobilised and 2,400 jobs have been created on the sites
“The project has received the industry’s highly skilled engineers,
who are building the road to European standards,” Alipov said,
according to a press release. “The
highway passes through areas that
are home to nearly 400,000 people. That is why this transit corridor can be called a way of life.”
Among other things, the Nurly Zhol programme has a major
multiplier effect on related areas:
roadside service, transport and
logistics centres. There is work to
equip modern campsites, shopping
and entertainment areas, medical
facilities, food service, service stations, gas stations. This will give
an impetus to the development of
tourism and small businesses, ensure the growth of the economy,
which, in turn, will contribute to
the successful resolution of the issues of employment, strengthening
the social sphere as a whole.
economy
news in brief
Kazakhstan’s National Bank has
the cash reserves it needs to support
the national currency, the tenge, as
the country begins taking measures
to make its currency more flexible,
the International Monetary Fund
announced, according to a May 19
report by Bloomberg. The country
has sufficient international reserves
to withstand even “strong pressure,” according to Juha Kahkonen,
deputy director of the IMF’s Middle
East and Central Asia department.
Kazakhstan’s currency was allowed
to weaken by 19 percent in February 2014, and has since been fighting pressure to devalue again as the
Russian rouble’s value has fallen.
National Bank Chairman (Governor) Kairat Kelimbetov said that the
tenge corridor is adequate for now,
but the country must move to a new
currency policy in the next 12-36
months at an IMF conference in Almaty in May.
Tengizchevroil (TCO), Kazakhstan’s biggest oil company, increased crude output by 4.4 percent
year-on-year to 7.1 million tonnes
in the first quarter of this year, TCO
General Director Tim Miller said on
June 1, as reported by Reuters. TCO
is the developer of the giant Tengiz
onshore oil and gas field. TCO plans
to boost its annual output by 42 percent, to 38 million tonnes, by 2021,
the report said. Direct payments to
the government of Kazakhstan for
the first quarter of 2015 were $3
billion, Miller said, and since 1993,
the company has paid $106.9 billion
to the country. TCO is 50 percent
owned by Chevron, with Exxon
Mobil, KazMunayGas and Russia’s
Lukarco holding minority shares.
According to official statistics, in
July-April of 2014-2015, Kazakhstan exported 2.6 million tonnes
of wheat, a decrease of 37 percent
compared with the same period in
the previous season, The Financial
reports. Monthly shipment volumes
of wheat fell by 19-52 percent compared to last year. Since beginning
of the season, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have imported
the most Kazakh wheat so far this
season, according to APK Inform.
Lukoil and KazMunayGas have
signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation
in exploration at unlicensed areas
in Kazakhstan, Oil Voice reports.
President of Lukoil Vagit Alekperov visited Astana to attend the
28th Plenary Session of the Foreign Investors’ Council under the
President of Kazakhstan and met
with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan
Karim Massimov, executives from
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy
and KazMunayGas, the national oil
company of Kazakhstan. The parties discussed Lukoil’s operations in
Kazakhstan and signed the memorandum following their meeting.
Lukoil has been operating in Kazakhstan since 1995 and currently
has seven ongoing onshore production projects. Lukoil is the largest
Russian investor in Kazakhstan and
since beginning operations in the
country has invested more than $7
billion into Kazakhstan’s economy.
More than $5 billion has been invested by the government into Kazakhstan’s agro-industrial complex
over the last four years, President of
Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
announced at the plenary session
of the Foreign Investor’s Council in Astana, BNews reports. The
sector is becoming more profitable
and more important to the nation’s
economy as a result, he said, particularly due to the Agribusiness
2020 state programme. Overall,
$16 billion will be invested into the
sector through the programme, the
President said, in an effort to make
Kazakhstan’s agricultural production come closer to its “enormous
potential.”
Chairman of the Kazakhstan’s
Mazhilis (lower chamber of Parliament) Kabibulla Dzhakupov
received Ambassador of Saudi
Arabia to Kazakhstan Ghorom
bin Saeed Al Malhan to discuss
bilateral cooperation, particularly
trade, economic and inter-parliamentary cooperation development,
BNews reports. The pharmaceuticals, oil and gas sectors were identified as promising agricultural
areas. Dzhakupov emphasised Kazakhstan’s favourable investment
climate and the country’s interested in attracting new technologies.
There is great potential for economic cooperation between Saudi
Arabia and Kazakhstan, he said. A5
Business
BUSINESS
news in brief
The Caspian lowland may contain
60 billion tonnes of hydrocarbon reserves, Kazakh Minister of Energy
Vladimir Shkolnik told the Mazhilis (lower chamber) of Parliament
on June 1, the Xinhua news agency
reports. The estimate is based on
studies carried out by leading experts, he said. The Kazakh-Russian
Eurasia exploration project has already begun and is generating interest from oil and gas companies
around the world, Shkolnik said. The
project will be implemented from
2015–2020 and is estimated to cost
$500 million. A consortium has been
formed to find potential investors for
the project, he said. The project will
use innovative technologies for subsoil and super-deep wells drilling to
a depth of 15 kilometres. Eighty percent of Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon
reserves are located in the Caspian
lowlands.
Romania and Kazakhstan want to
develop joint projects in energy, tourism, transport, agriculture, research
and education, the Romania Insider
reports. State Secretary at the Economy Ministry of Romania Bogdan
Pandelic and Vice Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan Magzum Mirzagaliyev met in Bucharest for the 11th
session of the Romanian-Kazakh
Intergovernmental Commission for
Economic and Scientific Cooperation. Romanian exports to Kazakhstan grew by 60 percent in 2014, to
$84.3 million. Kazakhstan’s exports
grew by more than 29 percent, to
more than $3 billion, but are mostly
crude oil for the Rompetrol group,
which is owned by KazMunayGas.
Kazakhstan plans to produce the
AI-92 and AI-95 gasoline brands
of K5 environmental class, corresponding to the Euro-5 standard
by late 2015, Azer News reports.
The announcement comes from
Kazakhstan’s Development Bank.
The new gasoline will be produced
in West Kazakhstan at the publicprivate Condensate company in
Aksai, which will be modernised
and upgraded in order to produce
the new forms of fuel. Condensate
also plans to produce virgin gas oil
fractions, vacuum gas oil and tar,
according to Azer News. The project will cost about $200 million,
with 60 percent of the funding to be
supplied by Kazakhstan’s Development Bank over a six-year period,
and is intended to reduce fuel shortages in the country and eliminate
the dependence of the region on
imported fuel. The loan agreement
was signed on June 2.
Kazakhstan is seeking around $3
billion in loans from China to build
two new plants to increase copper
and aluminium output, according
to the Business Recorder, citing an
interview by Kazakh Deputy Investment and Development Minister Albert Rau with Reuters. Kazakhstan’s
KAZ Minerals, one of the world’s
major copper producers, announced
in March that it would team up with
China’s Baiyin Nonferrous Metal
Group to build a new smelter, which
is expected to produce 300,000
tonnes of cathode copper a year and
to cost $1 billion. Kazakhstan produced 294,000 tonnes of copper last
year. KAZ Minerals and its Chinese
partner are expected to complete
forming their joint venture by the
end of the first half of this year, Rau
said. “The construction of the plant
will take a minimum of three years,”
he added. “Building this new copper
plant in Kazakhstan to process ore
from the Aktogai and Bozshakol deposits is a priority project (with China),” Rau said, according to Business
Recorder.
The next Foreign Investor’s Council of Kazakhstan will be dedicated
to the establishment of Astana’s
proposed financial centre. President
Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan suggested focusing on the soonto-be-opened financial centre in the
next session, and noted that the new
international financial centre is going
to use infrastructure created for the
EXPO 2017. Before the announcement, the President had instructed the
government to use the experience of
Dubai in establishing the new financial centre. At the Astana Economic
Forum last month, Nazarbayev said
the new centre in the Kazakh capital
would be independent, follow English law and use English as the language of business conduct.
Foreign Investors Council
Focuses on Agro Sector
Investment, Development
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – The 28th session of
the Foreign Investors Council of
Kazakhstan, focusing on the development of the country’s agricultural sector, was held on June 4-5 in
the Kazakh capital and chaired by
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev, who called on foreign
investors to involve themselves in
Kazakh agribusiness and said that
despite economic challenges, his
country continues to be an attractive investment.
“Despite the difficult external
economic environment that we are
observing now [and] geopolitical
challenges, Kazakhstan continues
to show growth and attractiveness
to investors,” Nazarbayev said at
the plenary session on June 4. “The
choice [to discuss agribusiness development] was not accidental. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country
in the world by area that has unique
agricultural resources,” he said.
Among the developments in
agriculture in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev announced that the Philip
Morris Company had established
an agribusiness centre in the Almaty region for the study of drip
irrigation, greenhouse production,
the use of fertilisers and other new
technologies. Projects like this
would always receive the support
of the government of Kazakhstan,
he said.
Nazarbayev also announced that
Kazakhstan’s three large agrarian universities would be merged
to create a unified agricultural research and education centre to help
develop applied science, train specialist and put into practice modern technologies. “We intend to attract the best international partners
to create the centre in the next five
years,” the President said, according to BNews. “It will be a useful
experience for the entire region
and the post-Soviet space.”
The President also cited offers
to launch high-quality beef production in the country and noted
that the roads, railways and multimodal transit projects underway
in the country (which include the
Western Europe-Western China
highway project) would support
the development of Kazakhstan’s
agriculture in providing more
ways for the landlocked country to
export its products to existing markets and new markets in China, India and the Middle East.
President of the European Bank
of Reconstruction and Development Suma Chakrabarti, who cochairs the council, addressed the
plenary session saying that Kazakhstan could play a key role in
global food security.
“Kazakhstan can play a greater
role in global food security if it creates the right conditions for companies to increase production. If
companies boost productivity, improve communication with international markets and build up infrastructure, they can produce and sell
much more – especially now when
there is a gap in regional and international markets created by geopolitical turmoil,” he said.
Kazakhstan has made great
achievements in its agricultural
sector already, Chakrabarti added,
particularly in wheat and flour exports. But in the context of the current economic crisis and regional
turmoil, diversifying the economy,
including in terms of ownership,
is key – and rebalancing the economy of Kazakhstan is a shared
goal under the Partnership for ReEnergising the Reform Process
signed between Kazakhstan and
the EBRD in May 2014.
“Change is necessary. New
technologies, fresh capital and dynamic entrepreneurs need to come
to the sector,” Chakrabarti said. “A
promising industry like agriculture
should be generating greater income for Kazakhstan and insuring
it against oil price shocks.”
“But there also needs to be a
strong domestic private sector to
really take Kazakh agriculture to
global levels,” he stressed. “Domestic agribusiness companies
need to reform from within to attract international financing, including from the EBRD. These domestic companies need to become
more transparent, improve their
corporate governance and financial management.”
The EBRD is already working
on agricultural projects in Kazakhstan, including through credit lines
to agricultural companies. “Thanks
to the government’s support, we are
about to launch a new programme
called Advice to Agribusiness,” he
announced. “We are also working
together to improve global market
coordination in grain. Last year, the
government invited us to get Kazakhstan connected to the Agriculture Market Information System,
and we are working, in partnership
with the [Food and Agricultural
Organisation of the United Nations
(FAO)], to get the country fully
plugged in.”
However, he advised, to really
boost agriculture exports, much
more needs to be done in storage,
transport and trading infrastructure.
Promoting industrial development in Kazakhstan was also on
the agenda of this council session.
In his remarks at the plenary session, Minister of Investment and
Development of Kazakhstan Asset
Issekeshev announced that Toyota
plans to increase its presence in Kazakhstan, and Coca-Cola, Heidelberg Cement and other companies
plan to increase production. The
Japanese car maker plans to expand
its presence in Kazakhstan’s market
through projects at the KhorgosEastern Gate Special Economic
Zone on the border with China, as
well as make inroads in the food industry, the minister announced.
Issekeshev also discussed other
industrial projects. “Kazakhstan
is currently working on a couple of promising projects that are
part of the country’s ambitious
programme to upgrade domestic
industrial sector. These include a
full-cycle car manufacturing plant
built together with Renault-Nissan
Alliance and Avtovaz, a fertiliser
manufacturing plant developed
together with EuroChem, a new
plant for production of pipes built
by Italy’s Tenaris, and more,” he
said, according to Kazinform. He
also reported that he had been in
talks with foreign and local companies, including Tengizchevriol, the
Astana EXPO 2017 Company, Abu
Dhabi Plaza and others, about expanding their use of local content.
“We will continue to work with
investors. We also plan to establish
a chain of small and medium industrial service companies around
big projects,” he said.
The council also reviewed the
report on the implementation of
instructions from the last session
and recommendations of council
working groups.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Investors’
Council is an advisory body established in 1998 to promote direct
dialogue between the government
of Kazakhstan and foreign investors to address key investment issues and improve the investment
climate of Kazakhstan. The council currently consists of more than
30 presidents and chief executive
officers of foreign companies and
international organisations and
meets twice a year.
New Projects
Reflect Progress in
EBRD-Kazakh Ties
They also represent a country
strategy tailored to what Kazakhstan
is trying to achieve, particularly in
terms of diversifying and greening
its economy and improving quality
of life in the country. The municipal
services loans are indicative of the
EBRD’s thrust to improve services
in the regions, Chakrabarti said.
Delivering better public services,
he said, is an important step toward
doing more difficult institution reform – giving people results they
can touch and use every day is an
important means of generating the
goodwill needed to carry on to more
difficult work.
Chakrabarti: “The critical situation in my
view is really the Russian economy, when
you talk about this region. ... Sometimes
in the West, people aren’t talking enough
about that. We all know that the Russian
economy is having difficulty, but we aren’t
talking about the knock-on, spillover impact
into Central Asia enough.”
The solar project, a groundbreaking Kazakh-British joint venture
that will be co-financed by the
Clean Technology Fund, follows the
EBRD’s investment in a major wind
farm in Kazakhstan last year, and
will be one of many green energy
projects, Chakrabarti hopes. “We’re
pushing forward with the government on renewables generally and I
think we’ll do a lot more on energy
efficiency as well, going forward,
through credit lines, et cetera.”
Since signing the Partnership for
Reenergising the Reform Process
in Kazakhstan in May 2014, an arrangement designed to boost reform
and channel oil wealth into other
sectors of the economy, annual investment rose by about 80 percent,
Chakrabarti said in his June 4 speech
to the Foreign Investors Council in
Kazakhstan. “That’s a reflection of
the reform process going well here,”
he told The Astana Times earlier in
the day.
The intensification of work within
the country comes at a time of financial turmoil in the region, with
the crucial Russian economy hit by
sanctions as well as low prices of
oil, which serves as the backbone
of many regional economies. The
EBRD issued lowered growth forecasts for Central Asia just last month.
Forum Empowers ‘Soft Power’
of Female Entrepreneurs
By Yelden Sarybay
ASTANA – The International
Women’s Forum organised by the
Kazakh Association of Business
Women (ABW) was held May 21
as part of the Astana Economic
Forum. The session, titled “Nurly
Zhol – new opportunities,” included a business training workshop
and three-hour discussion divided
into two parts with panellists and
delegates.
Speaking at the official opening of the forum, ABW President Raushan Sarsembayeva explained that the title was dedicated
to Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev’s development programme. She acted as the moderator of the first part of the discussion session.
“The Nurly Zhol programme
is a roadmap to improving the
quality of life,” she said. “The
President’s address highlights the
role of small and medium-sized
enterprises and the support they
need. It’s no secret that SMEs
in Kazakhstan have a woman’s
face. Every other entrepreneur is
a woman. This can be called a silent revolution. Women who have
Speakers at the International Women’s Forum organised by the Kazakh
Association of Business Women as part of the Astana Economic Forum on May 21.
the opportunity to be employed or
work for themselves more often
choose the latter.”
Active efforts in gender equality
allow for social stability, according to Sarsembayeva.
“Meetings, sharing of experience, motivating each other and
raising standards increase women’s soft power,” said the head of
AWB. “Harvard Professor Joseph
Nye calls soft power the spiritual
and cultural currencies of social
actors. The President gives importance to maternity and women’s
employment. Countries with gender equality are more competitive.”
Sarsembayeva ended her speech
with a statement that received
resonance and ovations from the
gathered audience.
“If soft power takes charge of
the silent revolution, we will reach
the goal of becoming among the
30 top competitive countries at an
even faster rate,” she said.
The first panellist to speak was
Secretary of State Gulshara Abdykalikova, who talked about
“I think if anything, [regional
financial difficulties] have really
speeded up what we’re doing,” said
EBRD Country Director Janet Heckman in the June 4 interview. “It’s
meant more of an urgency for reform
and we’ve seen more of a focus from
everyone in Kazakhstan on the reform initiative, on the importance of
reform, the importance of bringing
more investment, both domestic and
foreign, into the country.”
The region has been quite badly hit
by the downturn in the Russian economy, Chakrabarti noted, and while
lending in Kazakhstan had already
increased due to the new partnership
agreement, the EBRD has increased
its lending to Central Asia in general.
women’s special mission in the development of society.
“The President set a task to attract women to government and
business. Every year the issues
they deal with are broadening,”
she said.
Abdykalikova cited the figures
of the Global Competitiveness Index of 2014, where Kazakhstan is
in 25th place in the share of working women.
Helen Clark, Administrator of
the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), also spoke
as a member of the panel. She
served three consecutive terms as
Prime Minister of New Zealand
from 1999 to 2008.
“The issue of women’s leadership is very close to my heart, having been prime minister and 27
years in the parliament. Delighted
to see a woman state secretary,”
she said.
Speaking of the numbers of
women in decision-making bodies, Clark cited the example of
Rwanda, where 64 percent of the
parliamentarians are women. They
raise issues that are important to
mothers and working women.
“With the Nurly Zhol programme, I fully expect that women
“The critical situation in my view
is really the Russian economy, when
you talk about this region,” Chakrabarti said. “Sometimes in the West,
people aren’t talking enough about
that. We all know that the Russian
economy is having difficulty, but we
aren’t talking about the knock-on,
spillover impact into Central Asia
enough, in my view.” The situation
has currency implications, remittance implications, social and political implications, he noted. “This
region does need Russia and the
Russian economy to do well. … So
I hope, maybe, this will be a spur
to some of the reforms [the EBRD
office in Russia] is pushing,” particularly in diversifying the Russian
economy both sectorally and regionally.
The new Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) can, over the long term,
be a force for economic growth in
the region, Chakrabarti said. “I think
the impact of a customs union or any
union of economies isn’t going to be
immediate one way or another – I
think it’s going to be a slow impact
over time. Clearly, if you look at the
European economies, integration
over time did help bring institutional
change and reform, but it wasn’t as if
[countries] transformed overnight. It
took time.”
entrepreneurs and women seeking
employment in Kazakhstan are going to see more opportunities,” she
added.
Tavankul Karman, Yemeni laureate of the 2011 Nobel Peace
Prize, made a passionate speech
on the role of women in a maledominated society. Speaking of
the situation before the revolution in Yemen that year, Karman
said that women were doubly oppressed: first by the ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh, who she felt feared
the power of women, and second
by the men in their community.
“When women were begging for
small things, people treated them
like beggars. When the revolution
was in full swing and women started asserting their demands, that’s
when they were beginning to be
treated like people,” she said.
The second part of the discussion session was moderated by
Zhanat Berdalina, a member of the
board of directors at Samruk Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund and
Baiterek Holding.
The session was specifically
dedicated to the economic benefits
of gender equality in Central Asia
and Afghanistan. Speakers included Lyazad Ibragimova from the
Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund, Executive Director of
KazAgro Holding Liliya Musina,
human rights ombudsman in Russia’s Sverdlovskaya Oblast Tatyana Merzlyakova, Israeli business
consultant Natasha Mazor, and
other officials.
A6
EDITORIALS
Growing International Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Religious Tensions
Vital to Achieving a Green Economy,
Reinforce Need for Astana Says Energy Minister
Religious Congress
By Alevtina Donskikh
W
e live, for good or bad, in
an age of instant judgement.
But whether an initiative has
been necessary or successful
often requires a significant amount of time
to assess in our complex, changing world.
Time allows considered judgement to be
made on whether it still fits current needs
and whether that need has grown.
It is against these criteria that President
Nursultan Nazarbayev’s call early in
2003 for an international forum to foster
religious understanding and respect should
be judged. His appeal came against a
background of worsening religious tensions following
the 9/11 terrorist
attack, the international response
against al-Qaida
and the Taliban
in Afghanistan
and, crucially,
just before
military action in
Iraq.
By the time the
first Congress of
Leaders of World
and Traditional
Religions was
held in Astana in
September 2003,
the need to promote understanding between religions appeared
even more necessary. Inflammatory talk
about a clash of civilisations had become
all too common. It was no surprise that the
delegations from the 13 countries who attended that first event agreed the congress
must become a regular forum.
Sadly, time has shown the importance
of their decision. We now know that those
who believed that those early years of
the new century would be the height of
religious tensions have had their concerns
proven right. In the 12 years since the first
congress was held, religious divisions
and the consequences have worsened and
spread to new parts of the world.
In the Middle East, in parts of Africa
and Asia, we have seen how religious beliefs have been abused to justify barbarism
and drive conflict. Thousands have died
and millions have been forced to flee their
homes. These same distortions have led in
many other countries to terrorist outrages
and growing prejudice and suspicions
between those of different faiths and
backgrounds.
It has not mattered that the differences
between the great religions are far less
than what unites them. This common
ground includes, of course, the decent,
generous, shared values that are the
bedrock of our societies and our collective
civilisation.
Instead, we have seen the differences
between and within religions deliberately
exaggerated and exploited to foster hatred.
This is now threatening our safety, peace
and stability across the world.
The sadness is that faith can be seen not
as a positive but a negative influence on
our societies. There is an urgent need to
reclaim religion from those who distort
its peaceful message and to counter those
who use it to divide communities and
countries.
This need explains why the appeal and
influence of the Congress of Leaders
of World and Traditional Religions has
grown so strongly. The fifth forum, taking place this week in the specially built
Palace of Peace
and Harmony
in Astana, will
draw 112 delegations from
44 countries.
Among the
distinguished
figures attending will be
UN SecretaryGeneral Ban
Ki-Moon, King
Abdullah II of
Jordan, President Sauli Niinistö of Finland
as well as senior
leaders of all the
world’s great
religions. From
relatively modest beginnings, it is now a major event on
the international calendar.
There is a huge amount to discuss in
Astana this week. Under the overarching
theme of the role of religion in encouraging peace and development, the congress
will examine, for example, how to build
bridges between political and religious
leaders and how to counter the dangerous
appeal of extremism to younger generations.
Underlying all these discussions is the
congress’s central purpose from its earliest
days. Its primary goal has always been to
help identify and underline the common
ground between our great religions and to
provide a platform to enable and encourage the widest possible dialogue to help
shape solutions to global challenges.
These solutions must include, of course,
providing opportunities for people – and
particularly young people – to improve
their lives. Poverty and hopelessness are
the fertile ground in which the extremists
sow their message of hate and division.
A world in which respect and understanding for the common values of our
great faiths are strengthened is a world
that is safer and better for us all. At a time
where no country is safe from violence
and extremism, we all have good reason to
wish the congress well.
There is a huge amount to
discuss in Astana this week.
Under the overarching
theme of the role of religion
in encouraging peace and
development, the congress will
examine, for example, how to
build bridges between political
and religious leaders and
how to counter the dangerous
appeal of extremism to younger
generations.
ASTANA – The Kazakh government
has announced its intention to move to a
green economy, with a primary goal of
reducing carbon-emitting elements of its
gross domestic product.
That is a challenge for Kazakhstan given
the country’s fossil-fuel-heavy economy,
however, that effort demonstrates Kazakhstan’s desire to meet international environmental standards and develop renewable
energy sources (RES). Kazakh Minister
of Energy Vladimir Shkolnik recently discussed the status of that effort in an exclusive interview.
What are the indicators and benchmarks
of the programme on reducing emissions?
Energy comes from the national benchmarks, which are designated [in Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy]. The strategic objective for the transition to a low carbon
economy is defined, as well as alternative
and renewable forms of energy. Reduction
of energy intensity of GDP by 2020 at least
to 25 percent is a strategic aim. By 2015,
this figure should be reduced by at least 10
percent. The most important instrument
for the implementation of these tasks is to
regulate emissions of greenhouse gases at
the national level through quotas, monitoring and reporting, selling emissions and
other carbon units.
How does the mechanism of distribution of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions work?
The quota system and trade of greenhouse gas emissions were introduced in
our country in January 2013. According to
the law, the users of natural resources are
prohibited to engage in activities without
obtaining quotas for greenhouse gas emissions. I mean the activities of companies
in the sectors of oil and gas, energy, mining, chemical industries, greenhouse gas
emissions that exceed the equivalent of 20
tonnes of CO2 per year.
In the National Plan of allocation of quotas for greenhouse gas emissions for 20142015, from a total of 166 plant operators,
60 represent activities in the energy field.
In the current National Plan of allocation of
quotas for greenhouse gas emissions, gradual transition to a more resource-efficient
production of products is encouraged.
Kazakhstan will take part in the UN
Climate Summit. How is the preparation
going?
The problem of climate change is an
international threat. Kazakhstan officially announced its own intentions to take
voluntary, quantitative commitments to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now
we are engaged in the preparation of Kazakh delegation’s participation in the
global 21th Conference of Parties to the
UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) that will be held and
the 11th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which will be held from Nov.
30 to Dec. 11 in Paris. The primary intent
of the forum is achieving consensus with
195 countries – parties of the UNFCCC
on development and adoption of a new
global agreement. It is aimed at achieving
the stated objective to keep the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius. That means
countries should have specific policies
and programmes to limit and reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions.
Kazakhstan is still in the process of defining its target. According to the roadmap
defined by intended nationally determined
contributions (INDC) [which involves intended programmes approved at a national
level], we plan to bring the document to the
Council for a Green Economy, chaired by
Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov
in September. After that, we will send it to
the UNFCCC Secretariat. We believe that
the final decision of the Republic of Kazakhstan on INDC under the new climate
agreement will be adopted, taking into account the outcome of the negotiating process that will take place in 2015.
There is a lot of talk about decarbonisation of the national economies in the
world. What is its essence and what kind
of plan does Kazakhstan have?
Broadly defined, decarbonisation of
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Vladimir Shkolnik
the economy (elimination of emissions
of CO2) is the transition to a low-carbon
economy with the implementation of plans
on energy efficiency, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increases in clean
energy. At the present time, the 15 largest
countries that produce carbon have begun
to develop strategies for decarbonisation.
Kazakhstan supports these initiatives.
Specifically, I believe there is an urgent
need to develop a country strategy on decarbonisation of the economy along with
the large-scale introduction of low-carbon
technologies. It is necessary to include
targets for improving energy efficiency,
maximum electrification, development of
renewable energy, diversification of sources of energy to a possible shift from coal
to gas, wherever possible. Complex measures for decarbonisation of the economy
are needed to improve the environmental
quality and sustainability of the national
economy.
Amongst the urgent conservation measures is the development, together with the
producers of electricity, heat and other
large industrial companies the principles
of a road map of transition to new emission standards, similar to European standards. Modernisation and installation of
gas and dust filters in the generation and
industrial facilities located near big cities and bringing performance to existing
emission standards in accordance with
the roadmap are also important. [And] if
possible, conversion of existing coal-fired
power plants to gas and transfer of urban
transport to compressed gas in major cities
of Kazakhstan until 2020, depending on
the gas resources and decision-making on
subsidising gas prices.
The priority area of decarbonisation is development of the carbon trade. This is an effective mechanism to stimulate actions to reduce emissions, to attract green investments.
For example, in 2013 the turnover of the European market of emission permits reached
120 billion euros. According to forecasts of
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2016
the global carbon market will amount to 180
billion euros. Kazakhstan has significant potential for carbon, which is necessary to use,
in accordance with international standards
of carbon finance.
Recently, the ministry together with
the Green Academy scientific and educational centre held a roundtable devoted to
the improvement of legislation in the field
of a green economy. According to the results, it was proposed to develop an action
plan of the government until 2020 in order to reduce emissions. At what stage is
this work now?
Development of the document is included in the plan of priority actions of the
government for 2015 with a term of its introduction in July. The ministry developed
draft amendments to some legislative acts
of Kazakhstan on the transition to a green
economy, which take into account the recommendation to regulate greenhouse gas
emissions. We are considering expanding
the horizons of the action plan up to 2030,
in view of the goals at the global level.
As the head of Kazatomprom you supported renewable energy. Have you not
changed your attitude to it since becoming minister of energy?
This area is still a priority for me. Despite the fact that Kazakhstan [has] traditional fuels, there is a need to develop
clean technologies and energy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other
pollutants. The country has launched 43
RES facilities with a total capacity of
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177.52 megawatts. However, the share of
renewable energy sources in generating is
small. Today, 73.1 percent of facilities operate on carbon and 18.3 percent on gas.
Hydroelectric power plants (excluding
small HPP) make up 8 percent; RES (including small HPP) 0.6 percent.
In 2014, power generation by RES
faciltiies amounted to 570 million kilowatt-hours. This is 40 million kilowatthours, or 7 percent more than in 2013.
The field of renewable energy continues to
grow. The concept of transition of Kazakhstan to a green economy predicts achieving a 3 percent share of RES in the total
energy production by 2020 and 10 percent
by 2030.
Until the end of 2020, it is planned to
put into operation up to 106 renewable energy facilities with a total installed capacity of 3,054.55 MW. The plan includes 34
wind farms, 41 hydropower plants, 28 SES
and 3 bioelectric power stations. In 2015
alone, it is planned to put into operation 10
RES projects with a total installed capacity
of 145 MW in the Akmola, Almaty, South
Kazakhstan, Zhambyl and Kyzylorda regions.
Implementation of the planned measures
will allow Kazakhstan to become one of
the leading countries in the development
of green energy. Let me remind you about
the upcoming mega-event for Kazakhstan
– Astana EXPO 2017. It will be held under
the slogan “Future Energy,” which once
again underlines our focus on innovation
in the energy sector.
Recently, the head of state said that the
centre of Almaty should become pedestrian. How do you see this task as a former
Almaty resident scholar and energy-environmentalist?
Questions on Almaty environmental
protection are extremely relevant. Today,
the number of private cars is three times
higher than in 2000. Poor fuel quality and
low technological standards for exhaust
gases lead to increased air pollution and
significant risks to human health. In turn,
this has a negative impact on the national
economy.
One of the available environmental alternatives to gasoline may be the use of
gas as motor fuel for cars. Its use significantly reduces the total exhaust emissions
– carbon monoxide CO, nitrogen dioxide
NO2, hydrocarbons CH.
In the meantime, according to national
statistics, the country has 3,765,500 vehicles registered with petrol engines. More
than 70 percent of these registered cars
have got environmental class Euro-2 and
below. Yet on Jan. 1, 2014 environmental
standard Euro-4 (reducing emissions by
40 percent compared with the standard of
Euro-3) was introduced on the territory of
the republic. Within the framework of the
Customs Union, beginning Jan. 1, 2016
standard Euro-5 will be valid.
In your opinion, what stops environmental problems from being solved? And
what will ensure the success of the environmental prospects?
The main barrier in addressing these issues, in my opinion, is an isolated attitude
to ecology in the planning of production
tasks and processes. Therefore, it is necessary to consider reducing the burden
on nature caused by human activities to a
sustainable level through sound policies,
intelligent technology and intelligent management.
Kazakhstan has already made the decision to switch to a green course of economic development. The concept of the
transition to a green economy is being
implemented. This is one of the important tools for ensuring sustainable development of the country. The transition to a
green economy will enable Kazakhstan to
achieve its goal to become one of the 30
most-developed countries of the world.
At the moment, the policy of systematic transition to a green economy is being
formed, as well as the council under the
President of Kazakhstan. In general, all
these will provide a significant contribution to the solution of environmental problems. Three pillars of sustainable development, such as environment, energy and
economy should be considered in close
synergy.
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re-registered by the Ministry of Communications and Information of the Republic
of Kazakhstan under the registration No. 14037-G of 20 December 2013.
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A7
opinionS
The Time for Courage and Vision for Middle East Peace Is Now
By Jeffrey Feltman
The search for peace in the
Middle East is, once again, at a
crossroads. Negotiations on the
two-state solution have stalled.
The region, meanwhile, is threatened by violent confrontation and
extremism, potentially throwing
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
into greater turmoil. This difficult
landscape for negotiation makes it
even more important to continue
international efforts to help bring
about a settlement, especially as
we know the enormous human
costs of missed opportunities and
past failed peace initiatives.
In such difficult times, leadership and vision are essential. A
new Israeli Government has now
been formed. The UN Secretary-
General stands ready to work with
all in order to encourage a return
to negotiations, on the basis of an
agreed framework. He has also
strongly urged the incoming Government not only to reaffirm Israel’s commitment to the two-state
solution, but also to take credible
steps to foster an environment
conducive to a return to meaningful negotiations. This should, first
and foremost, include a freeze of
settlement activity. Recent settlement announcements by Israeli
authorities are, therefore, alarming. Settlements are illegal under
international law and send the
wrong signal to the Palestinians
and the international community
about Israel’s intentions. Continued security cooperation between
Palestinian and Israeli authorities
remains a cornerstone of a peaceful resolution.
On the Palestinian side, unity is
essential for the viability of any
peace agreement. The United Nations has consistently supported
efforts towards Palestinian unity
within the framework of the Pal-
estinian Liberation Organization’s
commitments, which include the
recognition of the right of the State
of Israel to exist and the renunciation of terrorism and violence. The
forming of the Palestinian Government of National Consensus in
June of last year, opened the way
for unity at long last. This was
an important first step in what is
likely to be a long and complicated
process. Almost one year later, the
consensus Government has yet to
assume full responsibility in Gaza,
including at border crossings. Both
sides, while calling for elections,
have been unwilling to take the political risks necessary to make progress on the difficult issues at hand.
The severity of extreme poverty
and continuous conflict has placed
a massive toll on the people of
Gaza. Enormous financial chal-
lenges and the slow pace of reconstruction in Gaza exacerbate an
already fragile security situation.
Unemployment is massive, estimated by the World Bank at 43
per cent, and at 60 per cent among
Gaza’s youth. Public sector employees remain unpaid. The virtual
closure of the border crossings stifles trade and suffocates its people.
Such realities feed frustration and
tension in a vicious cycle that undermines the path to peace.
While the UN continues to play
a key role in assisting people in
need – including through UNRWA,
for example, which provides assistance and protection in very difficult circumstances for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees
– what is needed is a lasting solution to this long-standing conflict.
In order to achieve this long-
Helping Kazakhstan’s Agriculture Blossom
By Sir Suma Chakrabarti
One of the reasons I enjoy coming to Kazakhstan is its hospitality and especially the generous
and delicious meals. I have personally enjoyed many examples
of the local produce: from rice
grown in Kyzylorda to apples
from Almaty and of course bread
made of Kazakhstan’s high-quality wheat.
So I am especially pleased that
this year’s Foreign Investor Council meeting on June 4-5 is focusing
on agriculture in Kazakhstan.
We at the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD) are already increasing our
involvement in agriculture and we
certainly want to do more to reform the sector and to increase its
role in the economy.
Over the past year, we have
pursued an innovative model of
cooperation in Kazakhstan which
makes me optimistic about taking
on new challenges.
Last May, the EBRD and the
Kazakh government signed an
Enhanced Partnership Arrangement to boost reform, re-energise
transition and to help channel
some of the oil wealth into other
sectors.
As a result, we increased our
annual investment in Kazakhstan
by about 80 per cent, to over $700
million last year, focusing on areas that directly improve people’s
lives, such as public utilities and
transport. This brings our total financing here to more than $7 billion.
We are now ready to deepen our
cooperation in agriculture. Our
main message is that the private
sector has to play a larger role.
Many citizens of Kazakhstan
heard family stories about ances-
tors who were farmers or herders,
and have an instinctive understanding of the bonds that tie a
farmer to his land and to his livestock. President Nazarbayev himself comes from a family of agricultural workers and is, in his own
words, “the son, the grandson and
the great-grandson of cattle herders”.
Kazakhstan was the breadbasket
of the Soviet Union, but at a great
price. The farmers’ bonds to their
land were all but destroyed.
Today, it is time to return private
initiative, know-how and entrepreneurial spirit to agriculture in
Kazakhstan. This will allow the
country to play a key role in global
food security and to diversify its
economy.
Food Security and Role
for Kazakhstan
The simple truth is that the
world needs more food. Food security and sustainable agriculture
are at the heart of the global debate, in which the EBRD is active.
We launched our Private Sector for
Food Security initiative four years
ago, in partnership with the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO), to help governments create
conditions for companies to grow
more.
Kazakhstan can play a greater
role by creating the right climate
for companies to increase production and exports – especially
now when there is a gap in the
markets created by geopolitical
turmoil. Agriculture is also key
for the economy of Kazakhstan
itself.
Diversification
According to my Kazakh
friends, Kazakhstan produces the
best hard wheat in the world, and
experts confirm this. The country
is one of the top 10 wheat exporters and the second-largest wheat
flour exporter in the world.
The country achieved this while
most agriculture remains controlled by the state. So maybe
things are fine as they are?
We know Kazakhstan’s answer
to this question: change is necessary. A promising industry like
agriculture should be generating
greater income for Kazakhstan and
insuring it against oil price shocks.
New technologies, fresh capital
and dynamic entrepreneurs need to
come to the sector.
Rebalancing the economy, allowing private companies to play a
more active role, is our shared goal
under the Strategic Partnership. I
would like to stress the role of domestic companies here.
Foreign investment is important
because it brings new technologies
and practices.
But to realise the full potential of
Kazakh agriculture, there needs to
be a strong domestic private sector.
Companies need to reform
from within to attract international financing, including from the
EBRD. They need to become more
transparent, improve their corporate governance and financial management. And there simply needs
to be more of them.
Already in the Field
The EBRD and Kazakhstan are
already ploughing away in the sector.
We provided financing to companies like Louis Dreyfus Commodities and RG Brands. We are
desired goal, both sides must make
difficult choices – to refuse to be
swayed by extremist elements on
either side, to embrace cooperation
rather than conflict, to realise that
lasting peace depends on agreeing viable arrangements for coexistence that will allow for the full
development of the peoples within
the two states.
We must turn back from the
cycle of violence and confrontation before it’s too late. We at the
United Nations believe there is
still time for both sides to show
the commitment and courage necessary to chart a viable course towards a better future. That time is
now.
The author is United Nations
Under Secretary-General for
Political Affairs.
working on credit lines to SMEs,
including in agriculture. Thanks
to support by the Kazakh government, we are about to launch a new
programme, “Advice to Agribusiness”.
Last year, the government invited us to get Kazakhstan connected
to the Agriculture Market Information System, and we are working,
in partnership with the FAO, to get
the country fully plugged in.
We are also involved in largescale transport infrastructure projects like roads and rail which are
necessary for any sector.
We financed part of the Western
Europe-Western China corridor,
crucial for grain exports to China.
But to really boost agriculture
exports, more needs to be done in
storage, transport and trading infrastructure.
Agriculture can be very promising, but we at the EBRD also
know how challenging it is to reform this particular sector in any
country. There are no easy recipes.
But Kazakhstan has found ways to
turn other big challenges into successes. We are ready to be a committed partner as Kazakhstan takes
on this new task.
The author is President of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Dr. Eric Maskin: Diversification as Mechanism
to Tackle Economic Crisis
By Lyazzat Shatayeva
ASTANA – The Kazakh capital
hosted another Astana Economic
Forum, drawing the world’s attention and bringing together influential speakers from Europe, Asia,
Africa and America.
The 2015 Astana Economic Forum, which completed its work
May 22, was attended by more than
3,000 delegates, including world’s
leading politicians, international
experts in economics, Nobel laureates, heads of international organisations, business executives,
media representatives and opinion leaders. The forum once again
provided a platform where guest
speakers exchanged knowledge
and engaged in discussions on issues far beyond economics-based
topics, encompassing the broader
spectrum of long-term tasks targeting sustainable development.
Dr. Eric Maskin, Harvard University Professor of Economics,
was among the forum’s honoured
guests and gave a speech on sustainable development at a panel
discussion. In 2007, Maskin received the Nobel Prize for laying
the foundations of mechanism design theory. During his visit to the
capital, Maskin gave lectures on
the theory at Nazarbayev University and Kazakh Institute of Law,
where he was titled the institute’s
Honorary Doctor.
On the last day of his visit,
Maskin sat down with The Astana
Times to talk about mechanism
design theory and its application
in real life situations and share his
impressions on the forum.
You have spent a great deal of
your career on mechanism design
Eric Maskin
theory. Could you please, in short,
explain what mechanism design
is?
Mechanism design is the part
of economics where we work
backwards from the goals to try
to design a mechanism or a procedure for achieving the goals.
The example I like to give is dividing a cake between two children. If you were a mother and
you had two children and you
wanted to divide the cake equally between them, the goal is to
make sure that each child thinks
that his piece is bigger than the
other. That’s a fair division. How
do you do that, because you don’t
know how the children view the
cake? It turns out there’s a simple
mechanism that solves that problem. You let one of the children
divide the cake and the other
one gets to choose which piece
he takes for himself. That means
that when the first child is cutting he has to think, “If I cut this
cake unequally, my brother will
take the bigger piece, so I’ll have
to try very hard to cut it so that
the two pieces are equal from my
point of view.” The first child is
happy because he is getting half
of the cake and the second child
will be happy because he gets to
choose his favourite piece and
that solves the problem. That’s a
very simple example of mechanism design, but it illustrates
the basic features of the subject,
which is that you could attain a
goal, in this case fair division,
even though you as the mechanism designer don’t have the
necessary information yourself
for reaching that goal.
On a bigger scale, on a scale of
a country and society, where can
mechanism design be applied?
It can be applied almost everywhere. For example, we’re riding
through the streets of Astana right
now and Astana from time to time
has traffic jams. One place where
mechanism design can be used is
to try to reduce traffic in the city.
There are different ways that you
might attack this problem: you
might impose tolls on some roads,
or you might decide that all cars
driven in the city have to be registered, or you might require cars
to have transponders which keep
track of where the cars are in the
city and charge them accordingly,
or you might ban certain types of
cars from part of the city at certain
times of the day or you might have
some combination of all of these.
Mechanism design gives you a set
of tools for deciding which combination of those different policies
will work best.
I assume governments are
the main mechanism designers
in most cases. Can society be a
co-designer and if so, how does
it become involved in designing
mechanisms?
One way that society takes part
directly is through contract negotiations. You can think of a contract
as a mechanism for deciding how
two people or maybe more than
two people or two groups structure a transaction between them.
If there is a company and a group
of workers, they have to decide between them how long the workers
are going to be working each day,
what they’re going to be paid and
under what circumstances their
pay can be increased or reduced.
All of these decisions are typically
spelled out in a contract, so writing a contact is in itself an exercise in mechanism design which
is undertaken by the people themselves, the people involved in the
company.
Kazakhstan’s economy depends
heavily on oil prices and Russia’s economy; with the two going down, there is another crisis
looming over Kazakhstan. What
mechanisms, in your opinion,
should be designed and put into
place to make sure this does not
happen again?
Oil, of course, has been a boom
to the Kazakh economy, but relying on it almost exclusively is
risky. Economists say that whenever we’re making an investment
and the prospects are uncertain,
the best strategy is to diversify
and the same principle, I think,
applies here. What Kazakhstan really needs to do is to diversify its
economy so that it’s developing
alternatives to oil as the source
of wealth for the country. Then it
will have some insurance against
fluctuations in oil prices. Coming
back to mechanism design, governments can encourage this diversification by giving incentives to
entrepreneurs who may be moving
in other directions.
Astana has just hosted the
eighth Astana Economic Forum.
Many locals believe the government may be putting too much
focus on branding the country
and overspending on PR. When
do you think the country’s measurable achievements and positive
trends in the economy will be the
tools for promotion of its image
rather than large-scale promotional events?
You need both. In the long-term,
you have to produce results, you
can keep talking; but if you can’t
produce solid outcomes, after a
while no one is going to listen. At
the same time, I think it is reasonable for a government, for a country,
to hold large-scale events to get the
world’s attention. It’s not just the
matter of displaying your wouldbe accomplishments; it’s also a
way of getting some ideas from the
outside about future directions. It’s
seems to be that people here, people in the government, are open to
outside ideas and will try to act on
them.
You’ve attended the Astana
Economic Forum a few times.
Are you seeing any positive outcomes and benefits for the hosting
country from the previous discussions?
The President has just announced
a series of 100 steps to advance the
Kazakh economy. It seems to me
that those steps have emerged out
of the discussions with experts and
advisors who have attended the
forum in the past. That’s one example of the benefit from previous
discussions.
At this year’s forum, your
speech was on sustainable development and addressing the
problem of unskilled workers and
increasingly uneven wealth distribution. What are your recommendations in this regard for Kazakhstan and other transitional
economies?
I talked about the problem, that
to this point the current globalisation has tended to favour workers
who have skills, not necessarily
very high-level skills, but at least
some skills, and has more or less
left out people without skills.
This has aggravated inequality in
many developing countries. What
to do about it? Well, the problem
is not going to go away by itself;
the solution is to give low-skill or
no-skill workers some training so
they can have opportunities, too.
But this training is expensive, so
that they are not going to be able
to pay for it. The employers may
not have the incentive to pay for
it because if you train me, I can
then go to work for your competitor and then you’ve lost your investment. So employers may not
have sufficient incentive to do
training. That leaves the government or some third party to do the
investments. One way this can
be done is for the government to
subsidise job training by giving
a tax break to an employer who
hires and trains low-skilled workers.
A8
eurasia&world
Astana Hosts UN Media Seminar on Middle East Peace
ASTANA – The United Nations
(UN) and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) of Kazakhstan held
the 23rd International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East on
May 26–27.
Participants exchanged views on
the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, difficulties in covering the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the
role of social media in news reporting.
The annual seminar brought together diplomats, senior UN officials, journalists, bloggers, activists,
film-makers, academics, experts
and policymakers from around the
world to discuss the evolving media
dynamics in the region. Professors
and students from Astana’s Nazarbayev University, the Gumilev
Eurasian National University and
KAZGUU University also attended
the gathering.
The UN delegation was led
by Under Secretary General for
Communications and Public Information Cristina Gallach. At the
opening ceremony, she delivered a
message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“I am pleased to convey my
greetings to all those taking part in
this United Nations International
Media Seminar on Peace in the
Middle East. I am grateful to the
Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan for hosting this event. For
nearly a quarter of a century, this
annual Seminar has served as an
important opportunity to enhance
dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. In
parallel, it has provided an oppor-
UN Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information
Cristina Gallach (L) discusses future cooperation with Deputy Chair of the
Mazhilis of the Paliament of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva (R) as Kazakh
Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov looks on.
tunity to review and examine key
media dynamics as they relate to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
the wider, ever-evolving situation
in the Middle East,” Ban’s message
said.
“The UN system will spare no
effort in supporting the quest for
peace. The occupation that started
in 1967 must end. But this can only
happen through a negotiated solution. I have repeatedly called on all
parties to resume peace talks and
fulfil the aspirations of their people – the aspirations of Palestinians
for an independent, sovereign and
viable state and the aspirations of
Israelis to live in a secure and safe
state,” it continued.
In her welcoming speech, Deputy
Chair of the Mazhilis of the Paliament of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva said that there has been
increased violence against the media lately. She used the “barbaric”
executions of journalists in Syria,
as well as problems faced by reporters in Iraq, the Gaza Strip and
along the Palestinian-Israeli border
as examples. Even at home, journalists are at risk, as seen in the
tragic shootings of staff at Charlie
Hebdo in Paris.
“Media revolutions have changed
our world,” she said, with events in
the Middle East and Ukraine serving as examples of how social networks influence societies. Terrorist
groups also organise their activities
through Internet communities and
social networks, transforming the
web into a weapon.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov noted
that Kazakhstan understands that
the Middle East is experiencing
some of the world’s most pressing
crises and is watching them closely.
At the same time, the mood regarding the Palestinian situation is
changing, with growing recognition of a Palestinian state among
European nations.
“We believe this is a move in the
right direction and we are working
for a peaceful end to this longstanding issue,” he said.
The two-day seminar featured
five panel discussions with journalists who had been on the frontlines
of political and social events important enough to change the tide
in favour of either war or peace.
Throughout, journalists spoke of
their challenges in reporting on the
complex Palestinian experience
which is characterised by war amid
regular and often severe restrictions
on the media. At points, they described how language and terminology were instrumental in framing reader opinions.
The journalists, who had worked
at the epicentre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, showed the audience
many photo and video reports that
depict war, chaos, human blood,
fire and bombings.
“Less and less people are taking
part in real journalism. Today, there
are many commentators who had
never been inside of a war zone,”
prominent Israeli broadcast journalist Itai Anghel said.
In talking about the risks journalists face while covering military action, representative of the
UNESCO Division for Freedom
of Expression Saorla McCabe told
that her organisation works to protect journalists in the Gaza Strip.
In her presentation, she discussed
the UN’s plan for journalist safety
and issues of impunity, which was
endorsed by the UN Chief Executive’s Board in April 2012.
This plan was written to create a
free and safe environment for journalists and media employees, both
in and out of conflict zones and pays
special attention to strengthening
peace, democracy and development
worldwide. Its measures include,
among other things, the establishment of a coordinated inter-agency
mechanism to handle issues related
to the safety of journalists as well
as assisting countries in developing
legislation and mechanisms favourable to freedom of expression and
information and supporting their
efforts to implement existing international rules and principles.
During the seminar, the Oscar
nominated Palestinian drama film
Omar, directed by Hany Abu-Assad
was shown for the first time in Kazakhstan. It was screened at a special UN section at the 2013 Cannes
Film Festival where it won the Jury’s Prize. The audience was very
impressed with the film and gave it
strong praise.
“The power of images, illustrations, video and photography has
been rapidly proliferating. A study
of news consumption in Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and the UAE found
that 75 percent of those surveyed
said they are more likely to access
a news story if it is accompanied by
video, 83 percent said it improves
their understanding of the story,”
Chairman of the Committee for
International Information of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Roman Vassilenko said as he
explained the challenges all actors
are facing in the new age of digital
media. “This has become an overlapping world of journalism, communications, and activism. Social
media platforms have given voice
to many individuals who have the
opportunity to break news in real
time. Social media played a highprofile role in shaping political
debates in the Arab Spring. Trust
in social media as a news source
is growing fast for the youth in the
Middle East. Should this trend continue, social media may become a
more trustworthy source of news
than television by next year.”
“While creative and social media
can lead to positive impact and influence, these can be hijacked and
abused by extremists, such as the
so-called Islamic State. Their brutal
videos and messages were shared
via social media and spread around
the world via digital and regular
news media. This is a gruesome reminder of the power of social media
and the need to control messages
using these new channels,” he said.
“Governments could substantially increase their efforts to engage with citizens through emerging social channels like Instagram,
Snapchat, and WhatsApp, as well
as the more established channels.
For example, the UAE government
in 2014 launched a unified Instagram account promising behindthe-scenes footage of government
work, including ‘on-the-spot information’ from Cabinet meetings.
And I would like to express our
intentions to utilise emerging social
media to engage with people in the
Middle East and build closer cultural ties with that region,” Vassilenko
added.
ICRC Seeks Increased Dialogue Sweden Marks Its National Day
with Kazakhstan on KazAID, in Astana, Seeks to Boost
Humanitarian Work
Economic Ties with Kazakhstan
ASTANA – As Kazakhstan develops as a regional player and establishes its national development
aid agency as a donor, international
development and aid organisations
are keen to establish more strategic partnerships and more dialogue
with the country. Among these is
the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC).
“We have good cooperation with
the government of Kazakhstan but
we are trying to get even more
structured dialogue,” ICRC Vice
President Christine Beerli told
this newspaper on May 21. “We
think that Kazakhstan is a regional
power with a lot of impact and we
would like to have a real strategic
dialogue with the government on
what is going on in the region, but
also beyond.”
The ICRC has an ongoing dialogue at the ministerial level,
Beerli explained. “We are very
pleased, also, to see the development of this KazAID department
[KazAID is the working name of
the country’s nascent official development programme]. We have
had exchanges on that topic with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
before and we think this is a very
positive development and I think
that we will be also in contact with
this agency.”
The two organisations are already considering how they might
work together in the region and
further afield. One of the first possibilities for a KazAID project
might be in Ukraine, Beerli noted.
“We heard before that the Kazakh
government is interested in having a proposition from our side on
how they could channel help into
Ukraine.”
The ICRC operation in Ukraine
is one of their biggest at the moment, she said. “And the situation
in Ukraine is still very difficult,
with a lot of internally displaced
people, with a lot of refugees …
with a lot of destruction after the
fighting. The nation is in a really
dire situation.”
The ICRC is helping with water
supplies, sewage systems, recon-
struction, medical aid – and they
have discussed with Kazakhstan
the possibility of joining forces to
do more in the conflict-torn region.
“I think that we will propose a project and this will perhaps be one of
the first projects proposed for KazAID. We’ll see what will happen.
At least, we discussed it and we
got the request, and [were asked
to] submit a project, so we’ll see.”
There is also the potential to
cooperate on projects in Africa,
Beerli said. “As we saw with the
[AEF] panel on Africa, that’s also
a declared interest of Kazakhstan,
to invest and to be active in development on the African continent.”
With the ICRC’s delegations
around Africa, particularly in areas of violence and conflict, “We’d
be able to produce quite a lot of
insight into situations in the field
– and that’s also what we were
discussing with the government of
Kazakhstan, that we could have a
structured, strategic dialogue on
these topics but also of course on
more humanitarian diplomacy topics.”
Earlier, Kazakh officials had
said the initial primary focus of the
country’s emerging official development assistance system would
be on countries in Central Asia,
such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
as well as Afghanistan, which are
willing and eager to accept such
assistance.
Regarding their work in Central
Asia, Beerli said she cannot predict what will happen in the region,
but that her organisation is on the
ground and will go where there is
need. The ICRC is in constant dialogue with Central Asian countries
in which they have operations,
such as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,
and on a more strategic and diplomatic level with countries like
Kazakhstan and Russia, she noted.
“What we can do is say where
we see needs, because our work
is extremely needs-based and we
try to be there when needs are the
greatest and where people are the
most vulnerable. And we will try
to make proposals when we think
there is a big need in the region, we
will try to submit a proposal and
see what will happen,” Beerli said.
With Kazakhstan an important regional power, she said, they hope
to open an ICRC headquarters in
Astana, to help facilitate dialogue
and diplomatic contacts. “[The
headquarters agreement] has been
signed, but we’re still waiting for
it to be ratified. We hope it will be
soon!”
In the Kazakh capital for the
Astana Economic Forum on May
21-22, Beerli brought a specific
message to the development community: in your eagerness to work
with the private sector and use
development aid to harness investment, don’t forget about the
world’s most vulnerable people,
who live in conflict zones that are
not going to be attracting capital in
the near future.
“The most vulnerable people
and the poorest 20 percent of people worldwide are living in situations of conflict and situations of
violence,” Beerli said. And where
these people are – in Yemen, Syria,
Somalia or South Sudan – there is
no hope, at the moment, of attracting investment or raising money
through taxation. “That’s where I
think the public money has to go
first, because there will not be investment money there and there
will not be taxes there,” she said.
“Afterwards, we hope, these countries will come out of these very
difficult situations, and then development money, taxes and investment will click in and go further
on.”
Then, of course, development
and the private sector can work
together to help countries develop
their economies. But there should
not be a dichotomy between humanitarian and development aid,
Beerli repeated. “We should not
think of it as a competition. They
should work hand in hand, because
where you have the biggest need
in these conflict areas you have to
strengthen the resilience of people. Only afterwards can development come in and … build on the
ground, together with humanitarian aid. I think there we will have to
discuss much more with development agencies and with donors, so
they see there is a convergence.”
By Dmitry Lee
ASTANA – Swedish companies have nearly dominated the
telecommunications market in
Kazakhstan since the early 2000s.
Kcell, one of the top cell phone
companies in the country and a
subsidiary of the Swedish TeliaSonera, was established in Kazakhstan in 1998. According to its
official web site data, as of Dec.
31, 2013 the company had 14.3
million of the 17 million subscribers in the nation. Tele2, another
telecommunications
provider
from Sweden, entered the market
in 2010 and has rapidly grown its
subscriber database. The telecommunications market, however, is
not the only sector where Sweden
has interests. In an exclusive interview with The Astana Times,
Swedish Ambassador Christian
Kamill discussed the current relations between the two countries,
spoke about prospects and shared
his personal view of Kazakhstan.
Could you describe in general
the bilateral relations between
Sweden and Kazakhstan including
diplomacy, economy and trade?
The contacts between Sweden
and Kazakhstan have substantially increased in the last few years
with the opening of embassies in
both Stockholm and Astana. To
increase trade with Kazakhstan
and to promote investments are
priorities for Sweden. This spring,
three important business delegations have visited Kazakhstan
and on June 2-3 Swedish MFA’s
Director-General for Trade Eva
Walder paid a visit to Almaty and
Astana. During this successful
visit, Sweden joined the charter of
the Green Bridge Partnership Programme; the event was highlighted by a signing ceremony and the
National Day of Sweden concert
celebration in the capital. Walder
was joined by a business delegation focusing on the railway sector, which is one of the key areas
that we have identified. We, of
course, note the policies outlined
by the Nurly Zhol programme and
Photo by Martina Huber
By Michelle Witte
Christian Kamill
the infrastructure investments in
the coming years. With the important role that the railways have for
Kazakhstan with its vast expanses, we know that Swedish companies have the know-how and the
techniques that we hope could be
of great use here.
We are pleased whenever we
can to join the process of modernisation on the infrastructure
of the country and there are other
areas as well besides the railway
sector. We see good prospects in
the healthcare sector that is also
a part of the social infrastructure.
In 2014, trade turnover amounted
to $120 million, where Swedish
exports to Kazakhstan constituted
$80,771,476, while Kazakhstan’s
imports totalled $38 million; these
include engineering machinery
and equipment, chemical products, metal products, cars, pumps,
centrifuges, compressors, appliances and different equipment for
telecommunications. Besides telecommunications, Sweden is also
represented in the mining sector
(Atlas Copco, Sandvik, SKF and
other companies), power (ABB),
healthcare (Diaverum) and transport (Scania and Volvo). In total,
there are over 20 Swedish companies operating in Kazakhstan;
most of them are based in Almaty.
In your opinion, what are some
of the parallels between Sweden
and Kazakhstan?
Just like Kazakhstan, Sweden is
very active in the sphere of nuclear
non-proliferation; this is something
we pretty much share. We both
underline the importance of the
United Nations’ system of multilat-
eralism and we both are now running for the United Nations Security Council non-permanent seats
in 2017-2018. If both our countries
are successful, we will become
partners. We compete in different
respective groups, so we are not
competing with each other. We do
take similar stances on the issues of
disarmament and non-proliferation
of nuclear weapons.
Sweden marked National Day
on June 6 and with your efforts
this day was also marked in Kazakhstan. Could you tell us how it
was celebrated here and how it’s
usually celebrated in Sweden?
On the sixth of June we celebrate the Swedish National Day,
which is also known as the Day
of the Swedish Flag. On this day,
we celebrate the election of King
Gustav Vasa in 1523 and on the
same date in 1809 the country
adopted a new constitution, which
served Sweden until 1975 when it
was revised. On June 3, we held a
symphony concert jointly organised with the State Philharmonic
of Astana; we also launched an
exhibition by Swedish artist Lyudmila Christeseva the next day
at Kulanshi Art Gallery. It’s a contemporary art exhibition focusing
on the notions of femininity and
feminism. My country is considered one of the most equal countries when it comes to equality
between men and women and the
current exhibition explores these
themes in a very interesting way.
Could you tell us about your
impressions of Kazakhstan?
My family and I consider ourselves fortunate to be able to live
in Kazakhstan in the period of big
progress, which is easily noticeable. It’s a pleasure to work in
this country. We also have the intention to see as much as possible
of the different regions. Together
with my family, so far I have visited southern Kazakhstan including Taraz, Shymkent, Zharkent
and Khorgos. We enjoy visiting
cultural events and concerts, museums and of course the picturesque vistas of Kazakhstan.
B
Nation & Capital
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B5
B7
Almaty, Astana Mark Int’l Olympic PM Massimov Leads
Presentation of
Day as Bid Preparations Intensify
Almaty’s 2022 Bid
COUNTRY
SOCIETY
Sports
Roadmap 2020 Continues
to Create Jobs in 2015
Historians Collect Documents
of Kazakh Khanate from Foreign
Archives
Astana Pro Team Wins Giro d’Italia
By Aiman Turebekova
ASTANA – Prime Minister of
Kazakhstan Karim Massimov led
a high-level Kazakh delegation at
the technical presentation of Almaty’s bid to host Winter Olympic
Games 2022 on June 9 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
After an encouraging Evaluation
Report of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on June 1,
which noted the relevance of the
bid’s slogan, “Keeping it Real” in
all aspects of the Almaty plan, the
bid team headed to Lausanne to
present their technical file at the
IOC headquarters.
According to the staff of the Almaty 2022 Bid Committee, Massimov, who is also the chairman of
the bid committee, focused on the
economic aspects of the bid and explained how Almaty’s bid would both
be economical and meet the requirements of the Olympic movement.
The Kazakh delegation also feaTens of thousands of residents took part in mass bike rides across the country to celebrate the International Olympic Day nationwide on May 23, as the deadline for a
decision on the host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games approaches. Kazakhstan is hopeful to win the Olympic bid.
By Aiman Turebekova
ASTANA – Tens of thousands of
residents of Almaty, Astana, Oral
and other cities enthusiastically
took part in bike rides and other
events May 23 to celebrate International Olympic Day and demonstrate support for Kazakhstan’s
largest city’s bid to host the 2022
Winter Olympics.
Starting from the Sunkar inter-
national ski jump complex, Almaty
participants finished their bike ride
at the central stadium, where volleyball, table tennis, arm wrestling
and other activities were arranged,
reported Kazinform news agency.
“Today, we opened a bike ride
event in the framework of International Olympic Day, which has a
special significance for us since our
city is bidding to host the [Winter]
Olympics in 2022. Thousands of
people passed through the streets of
the city, thus confirming the commitment of people from Almaty city
to a healthy lifestyle,” said Mayor
Akhmetzhan Yessimov, who also
handed awards to the most active
cyclists in various categories.
A message of greeting on behalf
of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach
was delivered by Kazakh National
Olympic Committee Vice President Pavel Novikov.
“Olympic Day is a perfect opportunity to attract young people to
a healthy lifestyle. Let’s keep these
wonderful traditions. Continue to
explore and discover new sports,
create, inspire, be active,” read the
IOC president’s statement.
Continued on Page B7
Re-Building Reading Culture in
Kazakhstan One Book Club at a Time
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – Amid modern Kazakhstan’s ubiquitous gadgets and
the increasingly slivered style of
communication everywhere, some
of the country’s urban residents are
taking the time to step out of the information highway for a while and
read, at length, together.
“The reason I decided to found a
reading club is very simple,” said
Jeanne Kimanoff, who founded
Astana’s Reading Together club in
2011, on May 14. “I wanted to read
more myself. At that time, I found
myself not reading any sound liter-
ature for two to three years. I wanted to change the situation and thus
was looking for fellow readers.”
The reading and writing clubs
popping up have different areas of
focus. The Enactus Reading Club
in Almaty, founded two years ago
as an offshoot of the Enactus Club,
(“A community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using ... entrepreneurial
action to transform lives and shape
a better, more sustainable world.”)
concentrates on skills-based books,
founder Azamat Utenov told The
Astana Times on April 30. They
started with topics like leadership,
presentation and storytelling, mar-
keting, the science of happiness
and other self-improvement ideas.
“[These] topics are not covered
in universities, they are not in the
programme,” he said, explaining
why the group was founded. The
ideas may be covered in a couple
of schools as part of MBA programmes, but not at the bachelor
level, he said. “So, there is a gap:
students get only academic background in university halls, but not
the other materials from business
books that they could apply to their
life and career. I want to change this,
to decrease this gap by cultivating
reading [business and other] books.”
The Reading Together club in
Astana also began as a more skillsoriented organisation, Kimanoff
said. “For the first four months we
were reading motivational books:
‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill, ‘Never Eat Alone’ by
Keith Ferazzi. ... In February 2012
we changed the format of the club
meetings and suggested other kinds
of books to read together (classic,
biography, history and others).”
Astana’s weekly poetry club, on
the other hand, is purely about art
and expression. Founded 11 years
ago, the club meets on Saturdays to
discuss literature and workshop the
members’ poems.
Kazakh Literature Needs English
Translations, Says PEN Club President
By Daniel Massow
WASHINGTON – Bigeldy Gabdullin, president of the PEN Club
of Kazakhstan, arrived in the United States recently with a special
mission. He says he wants to open
the heart and soul of the Kazakh
people to the American reader
through literature.
To achieve that, Kazakhstan’s
PEN Club has launched a series
called “We the Kazakh People,”
which envisions English translation and publications of works by
the most prominent Kazakh writers. The series will include the
poems of Mukagali Makatayev,
“My Name is Kozha” by Berdibek
Sokpakbayev, “A Lonely Yurt” by
Smagul Yelyubayev, “The End of
the Legend” by Abish Kekilbayev
and “The Code of the Word” by
Olzhas Suleimenov.
Kazakhs are proud of their lit-
erary tradition, but English-language publishers do not typically
come looking for it. Moreover,
Gabdullin admits, the translation
itself is a great challenge: the
natural rhythmic elegance and
the unique expressiveness of the
Kazakh language, the distinctive
ethnic ‘flavour’ as well as the historical context pose significant
difficulty for a translator. But the
PEN wants to use the hegemonic
role English plays in international
communication to make the culture and ideas of Kazakh writers
available to readers throughout
the world.
The works by the selected authors, and, by extension, all of the
Kazakh culture, offer an enormous
number of intellectual and artistic experiences, which will now
be available to English-language
readers, Gabdullin told an audience of more than 100 people at a
special event hosted by the Embas-
sy of Kazakhstan in Washington,
D.C. on May 21.
One of the selected authors is
Mukagali Makatayev, a Kazakh
lyrical poet, writer and translator
of the Soviet era. Often called “the
Kazakh Pushkin” of our times,
Makatayev had a tragic fate: He
was censored by the Communist
leadership, lost his job and was
expelled from the Writers’ Association of Kazakhstan. Unrecognised in his lifetime, he suffered
hardship and poverty and died suddenly in the prime of his life. Only
a fraction of Makatayev’s poems
were published during his lifetime; the majority were published
only after his death. Makatayev
was one of the first poets who brilliantly translated into Kazakh the
world’s classic literature: “Leaves
of Grass” by American poet Walt
Whitman, Shakespeare’s sonnets,
Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” and
many others.
Indeed, the success of the
PEN’s “We the Kazakh People”
project lies in the assumption that
English-language readers are not
only interested in their own favourite English authors, but are
also interested, or are capable
of becoming interested, in Kazakh authors, such as the brilliant
thinker Makatayev.
It is certainly harder to market
translated authors, but that is because readers lack a context for
picking up an unfamiliar book in
the first place. To market a translated book, Gabdullin says, their
PEN Club will have to find ways to
make the book relevant and inviting to readers in the West. Given
the enormous difficulty of the task,
Gabdullin and his partners try to
be creative in developing all sorts
of strategies. One of them will be
reaching out to companies like
Amazon to have translations freely
available online to read.
tures Minister of Culture and Sport
Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, Mayor
of Almaty Akhmetzhan Yessimov,
President of the National Olympic
Committee Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov, Vice Chairman of Almaty
2022 Bid Andrey Kryukov, Sochi
2014 Olympic medalist Denis Ten
and the recently appointed IOC Athletes Entourage Committee Member
and Chairwoman of the Olympic
Council of Asia Women and Sports
Commission Natalya Sipovich.
In his three-minute speech, part
of the 45 minute presentation,
Massimov highlighted Kazakh
government’s firm support for
Almaty’s bid, and said it was doing everything possible to support
it and to guarantee the success of
the Games. He expounded on past
investment in facilities for winter
sports in the Almaty region including those built for the 2011 Winter
Asian Games and those being built
for the Winter Universiade in 2017.
Kazakhstan, Int’l
Partners Launch
Sustainable Urban
Development Project
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – The UN Development Programme and the Kazakh government have launched a
five-year, $71.3 million project to
generate and support Nationally
Appropriate Mitigation Actions
(NAMAs) for Low-carbon Urban
Development in Kazakhstan. The
NAMAs are expected to encompass investments in infrastructure,
capacity building, awareness raising and technical assistance and reduce Kazakhstan’s greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions by 15 percent
by 2020, a UNDP announcement
about the project reads.
“The major idea is to help urban municipalities develop truly
sustainable urban development
plans and to help them devise fiscal instruments that are going to
make these plans attractive to private investors,” explained Rassul Rakhimov, UNDP programme
analyst and portfolio manager for
the Energy and Environment Unit,
on May 26. “This is an instrument
that was developed under the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change to help developing
countries develop more sustainable
agendas. It is funded by a number
of foundations, the largest being
the Global Environmental Facility
[GEF]. This particular project aims
at sustainable development in cities,” Rakhimov said.
The NAMAs will address transport, energy supply, communal
energy efficiency and waste management in 15 cities around Kazakhstan, Rakhimov said. The list
is being devised by UNDP/GEF
Projects Coordinator Alexander
Belyi, who is looking for cities that
are interested and that they have
development plans in operation.
“It was a surprise to us that some
towns don’t really have development plans; they do not really think
that they might want to change anything,” Rakhimov noted. “So we
are targeting those that have both
desire and capacity.”
SUMMER STUDY + ACTIVITIES CAMPS→AMSTERDAM,
MALTA & BOSTON AGE:5-19; JUNE 8-SEPTEMBER 5,
VISA-SUPPORT↔TOPCLASSTUTORS.ORG→SMART CAMPS
Things to Watch &
Places to go
Astana opera
June 12 at 7 p.m.
Romeo and Juliette, ballet
June 14 at 7 p.m.
Traviata, opera
June 17 at 7 p.m.
Swan Lake, ballet
June 21 at 7 p.m.
Gala ballet
June 23 at 7 p.m. From Classical music to Jazz
duman recreation centre
June 13 at 6 p.m.
Kazakhstan Kid’s Fashion Show
Central park
June 20 at 2 p.m.
Tai Chi and Qigong session
B2
Nation&Capital
people
Almaty Honours Kazakh Historian Persecuted
Under Stalin with Memorial Plaque
On May 15 in Almaty, a memorial plaque was dedicated to prominent Kazakh historian Ermukhan
Bekmakhanov, who would have
turned 100 this year. Bekmakhanov was repressed under Stalin,
standing accused of “bourgeois
nationalism” for his research on
the last Kazakh Khan, Kenessary
Kassymov, leader of the anti-imperialist uprising of 1837-1847.
The memorial was installed on
the façade of the house where the
well-known scholar worked and
lived.
“He had a short but very meaningful life of only 50 years. I am
still amazed by how in such a short
period of time, he became a double
Ph.D. in different fields. The dedication of this plaque shows that our
country remembers and honours its
heroes of all sorts. Today, we are
truly celebrating,” the scientist’s
son Sermukhan Bekmakhanov said.
Deputy Akim (Mayor) of Almaty Zauresh Amanzholova noted
that the plaque’s dedication is taking place during the 550th anniversary of the formation of the Kazakh Khanate and Bekmakhanov
turning 100.
“In December 1952, he was
sentenced to 25 years in a labour
camp for “anti-Soviet activities”.
In February 1954, with help from
[prominent Russian specialist on
Kazakh history] Academician
Participants in a ceremony to install the Ermukhan Bekmakhanov Memorial Plaque in Almaty on May 15.
Anna Pankratova, Bekmak hanov
was released. Despite his difficult
life, he reached great heights in
the professional world. In order to
commemorate this national figure
and honour his memory, we are
opening a memorial plaque in his
name,” Amanzholova said.
The event was attended by scientists, public figures, followers
and friends of the historian.
Bekmakhanov was born in 1915
in Bayanaul, which is located in
the Pavlodar region. One of his
major researches was a book titled
“Kazakhstan in the 1820s-1840s.”
It was commended by prominent
Kazakh and Russian scholars after its publication in Moscow in
1948 but in December 1950 became a subject of harsh criticism
in the article “Marxist-Leninist
study of Kazakhstan history issues is needed” published in the
Soviet Communist Party’s official
newspaper Pravda. Following that,
a campaign was organised against
Bekmakhanov, with him being
stripped of his scientific titles and
honours, fired from office, and
finally sentenced to 25 years of
exile in Siberia starting in December 1952. Stalin’s death in March
1953 was followed by a political
“thaw” that allowed release of
many of those unjustly persecuted,
and thanks to this Bekmakhanov
regained his freedom in February
1954. The efforts of his friends
and admirers both in Almaty and
Moscow allowed him to return to
an active academic life.
Bekmakhanov’s other notable
works include “Kazakhstan’s Integration into Russia,” “Essays on the
History of Kazakhstan in the 19th
Century,” as well as textbooks for
secondary schools. Bekmakhanov,
the founder of the Chair of History
of Kazakhstan in the Kazakh National University named after AlFarabi died in 1966 in Almaty.
Next month, a movie about Bekmakhanov called “Amanat” by
prominent Director Satybaldy Narymbetov produced by Kazakhfilm
will be shown in cinemas across
the country. The historical drama
depicts the life of the repressed
historian, who formed academic
hypotheses about the largest antiTsarist Kazakh uprising of the 19th
century led by Khan Kenessary.
The monument to Kenessary,
which is a bronze horseman on a
granite pedestal, is located on the
banks of the Yessil River in Astana.
Kenessary was the grandson of
Abylai Khan and the last Kazakh
Khan. He fought for the country’s
independence and the freedom of
the Kazakh people all his life. The
creators of this monumental work
of art are sculptor Nurlan Dalbai
and architect Shota Valikhanov.
The horseman’s height is seven
metres and that of his pedestal is
six metres, weighing a total of 10
tonnes. The monument was unveiled on May 10, 2001.
The monument’s symbolism
also lies in a historical fact that
in one of the notable successes of
the insurgency, on 2 June 1838,
Kenessary’s forces captured the
fortress of Akmolinsk, which was
founded by the Tsar’s army eight
years prior to the event and which
gave the foundation for the town of
Akmolinsk that is today’s Astana.
In 2013, the mass grave of Khan
Kenessary’s guards was discovered
in the centre of Astana. According
to experts, this is a unique discovery of significant importance for
the history of Kazakhstan.
According to Director of the
Institute of Contemporary Studies at the Gumilev Eurasian
National University, MukhitArdager Sydyknazarov, a group
of researchers who were searching for the remains of Kenessary
Khan’s soldiers near an old cemetery near the Molodezhny micro
district, found a tombstone with an
Arabic inscription.
According to a rough translation made by Sydyknazarov, the
tombstone was laid in 1838, in the
month of Radjab, during the holy
days of abstinence. He reported
that there are about 250 warriors
resting in the grave, most of them
died rather young.
Magzhan Sagimbayev Successfully Completes Bike the Earth Project
By Yelden Sarybay
More than a year after leaving
Almaty, Magzhan Sagimbayev
returned to the city’s Republic
Square May 16 where he started
his 380-day, 22-country solo bicycle tour.
Sponsored by the Kazakh Geographic Society and Limpopo
sports store, the 27-year-old resident was the architect of the Bike
the Earth trip. His route wound
through China, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ecuador, Iran,
Spain, France, Colombia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Serbia, Austria, Portugal, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In total, the cyclist visited
170 towns and more than 200
villages.
His journey, which began May
1, 2014, ended at the Kazakh
Monument of Independence,
where he was met with flowers
and loud cheers from relatives,
friends and Almaty fans who
followed his online journey diary. In an exclusive interview
for this newspaper, he shared
his views on the journey and the
benefits of travelling in such a
way.
What made you set out on your
trip?
It was curiosity for everything
new. In Almaty, I met a lot of
travelers who inspired me every
time with different stories from
their crazy journeys. After all,
if you’re not traveling, it’s as if
you’re reading only one page of
a book. To grow and develop, you
need to get out and see the world
and make friends with people who
have other views and values. This
prompted me to travel.
What role did the Kazakh Geographic Society play in the project?
The Kazakh Geographic Society played a crucial role in this
project, not only as a sponsor of
this trip but as a helper in different situations. It was the perfect
collaboration, as I got to choose
the route and write my diary myself. There wasn’t a format I had
to write in. I have written about
different things, about my feelings about people, about many
things, even if it did not relate to
geography. But the project was
a success and I am very happy
about it!
How would you describe your
feelings during the trip?
My feelings were changing
every day. Mostly I had a smile
on my face and was full of joy,
but there were difficult moments when I was very tired.
A couple of times I even cried,
not because of the difficulty but
Magzhan Sagimbayev ends his 380-day, 22-country bike trip in Astana on May 16.
of the loneliness. I could spend
three or four days completely
alone, surrounded by nothing …
It was cold and hot, I got stuck
in a sandstorm, in hail and snow.
Every day there were different
feelings.
How would you comment on the
cycling culture in Kazakhstan?
Each year more and more people in Kazakhstan get on bicycles.
Over the past year I have received
thousands of letters from throughout Kazakhstan that read, “Thank
you for the inspiration, Magzhan;
thanks to you I bought a bike.”
More and more Kazakhs are beginning not only to cycle but also
do other sports. The Amateur Triathlon Federation opened this year,
which I plan to join in the near future.
What needs to be done to develop it?
In order to develop a cycling
culture in Kazakhstan, first there
needs to be an infrastructure for it.
Bike lanes should be built in cities
and in the future perhaps between
them as well. The problem of smog
in many cities will disappear.
What do people know about Kazakhstan?
About Kazakhstan? Virtually
nothing! Every time I stayed with
host families, they looked at me
with wide eyes and asked a lot of
questions about my country. Often
I was told that I was the first person from Kazakhstan in this or that
place. Especially in small villages
and it made me feel proud. I had to
show many the map of the world to
point out Kazakhstan. The surprise
knew no bounds when they saw
how big it is.
What else would you like to
share with our readers?
Be inquisitive, open to everything new. Travel and make new
friends. Do sports and be happy!
B3
Nation&Capital
Culture
Kazakh Artists Create Display Space on Sidelines of Venice Biennale
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – To counter what
some believe to be an underrepresentation of Kazakh art internationally, the International Art
Development Association (IADA)
created an “Invisible Pavilion” entitled “Protagonists” on the sidelines of the May 1-10 Venice Biennale, where Kazakh and Central
Asian artists were able to exhibit
their work and their culture.
“Since the independence of Kazakhstan, we have never had our
own pavilion,” explained one of
IADA’s founders, Dina Baitassova. “It is quite a disappointing
fact for a country that aims to be
one the most developed countries
globally, but it actually motivates
young artists and art specialists to
change this,” she said.
“Protagonists” was set up to
showcase young artists at work, as
well as to hold workshops, discussions and presentations in the format of an artists’ studio.
This is the second time the
IADA, a nonprofit organisation for
promoting European and Central
Asian artists, has held a pavilion
at the Venice Biennale. “This time
we decided to bring seven cuttingedge young artists for workshops
around the idea of the ‘invisible
pavilion’ and ‘Protagonists,’ pushing them to create in the context of
the given place and time,” Baitassova said. “So actually, it wasn’t
presented in a form of a temporary
show in a space but as a series of
performances on San Erasmo Island, where the artists lived, and in
the city of Venice during the opening of the biennale. They tried to
be spontaneous, to act and to react
to a problem, to make themselves
The Kazakh artists’ group performance on the sidelines of the Venice Biennale.
visible, to become protagonists of
contemporary art.”
The concept of the invisible
pavilion was proposed by French
art critic and curator Paul Ardenne, Baitassova said. The pavilion would give Kazakhstan’s
young, contemporary, but often
unrecognised artists a place to be
visible, even while outside of the
velvet rope. As for ‘Protagonists,’
that was suggested by French performance artist Sarah Trouche,
Baitassova said.
Trouche has travelled to Kazakhstan twice for IADA art residencies, and worked with Protagonist’s exhibitors. “For some of
them it was their first performance
experience. She stimulated artists
to experience performance and
pushed them to think on who they
are and what they wanted to show,
what they have to say in this specific context,” Baitassova said.
Aza Shadenova, one of the artists featured in Kazakhstan’s invisible pavilion, said one of their
goals was to find ways of making
themselves visible, and their individual and group performances
supported this.
“The idea of the performance
was to prepare the ground for our
future Kazakh pavilion,” she said.
“The artists got linked and connected to each other by the throat
with one rope. Each of us had a
bucket, [and] we took the water
from the canal and slowly spread
out the water between us. Then
we moved and started splashing
the water from the buckets into
the ground – something you’ll see
Kazakh grandmothers do before
sweeping their backyards. That
was the group performance, which
brought loads of attention as it interacted with the visitors that were
walking to different pavilions. …
It was a 20 minute action which
made a contextual point for our
invisible Kazakh pavilion and
brought the attention we needed.”
There can be a burden in coming
from a relatively unknown region,
and a tension between presenting
an individual vision while hoping to promote a broader regional
understanding. “Protagonists” was
designed to balance the lack of a
Kazakhstan or Central Asian Pavilion this year, but individual artists were free to signify the region
or not, Baitassova said.
“It was never my priority to
show my ethnicity in my work up
until I moved to Europe, to London,” Shadenova said. “The thing
is, I’ve found this new love for
my motherland from the distance,
which then affected my work as an
artist. Before moving here, I was
always concentrating in moving
forward with European thinking,
and putting aside my ethnicity. But
being brought up by my Kazakh
family, born in Uzbekistan and living in Kyrgyzstan, I got unintentionally confused with my background, and this inspired me to try
to work and use this rich Central
Asian mix in my work.”
In addition to introducing the
world to Kazakh art, the biennale
was a chance to introduce Kazakh
artists to Venice, Baitassova said.
Most of the artists they invited
were young, and only Shadenova
had taken part in the Venice Biennale before, she said. “I think it’s
really important to feel the city of
Venice, which creates its special
context, vibes and energy. It was
also very important to make this
project at the opening of the biennale because it’s a perfect chance
to meet all the most important curators, artists and gallery owners
and generally to see what is presented at the international level of
art. It was a kind of pilot project
for preparing the future pavilion.”
IADA expects Kazakhstan to
have its own pavilion as soon as
2017 – they have been working toward that for two years, Baitassova
said. “There is a real need for a developing country to show that it has
achievements not only on the economic or agricultural level, but also
in contemporary culture. There are
a lot of talented, strong artists in
the region that deserve to be represented on such an international
platform. I think that government
should support this idea and contribute to this ambitious project.”
Artists included in the Invisible Pavilion of Kazakhstan this
year were Shadenova, Askhat
Akhmediyarov, Kamilla Gabdullina, Syrlybek Bekbotayev, Ada Yu,
Assel Kadyrkhanova and Alpamys
Batyrov.
Astana Event Celebrates
Building Reading Culture
Poetry of Rena Zhumanova One Book Club at a Time
By Yelden Sarybay
The Russian Centre of Science
and Culture in Astana hosted a poetry evening of Rena Zhumanova’s
work on May 25 to mark the launch
of her new book “Pin Cushion.”
The event included speeches by
other prominent poets and journalists as well as reviews of the work
by the Kokshetau native.
“If a person is talented, he is talented in everything. If the human
soul is singing, it is expressed not
only in music but also in poetry,
leaving an impression for life,”
said Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo in Kazakhstan Sergey
Zhuravlev, opening the event.
“I noticed fresh ideas in the
poems of Rena Zhumanova,
some interesting techniques, poetic discovery and inner irony.
Music flows through and fuses
into her poetry. Rena has some-
thing to say about the outside
world, something to share with
her readers. Be yourself – this
is the main credo of the author,”
said Assistant Professor of Philology at the Ualikhanov State
University in Kokshetau Natalia
Loktionova.
Poet Anuar Omar said he was
pleased by the fact those who understand and appreciate the lofty
ideas of poetry and art in general
had gathered together in the hall,
calling them the creative intelligentsia of Astana and Kokshetau.
“Pin Cushion” is the first published collection of poems by Zhumanova. Some of the poems were
turned into songs and performed
by artists from Kokshetau.
The presentation was organised
by the Friendship Centre of World
Women, with the support of Rossotrudnichestvo in Kazakhstan, the
media centre of the Association of
Tatars and Bashkirs of Kazakhstan
and Adebiportal.kz.
Zhumanova is a freelance journalist and poet whose literary work is
always related to her main profession. She is a graduate of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory, a musicologist and a teacher
of Birzhan Sal Kokshetau College
of Music for nearly twenty years.
In 2012, Zhumanova was included on the shortlist of finalists
for the annual Russian Poet of the
Year award. Zhumanova’s works
have been published in regional
print media, the Kokshetau literary
and art magazine, St. Petersburg’s
“Fires Harbour” poetry almanac
and other publications.
A work titled “Twenty Sonnets to Shokan Ualikhanov” by
Zhumanova attracts particular attention and has received positive
reviews from the famous Kazakh
writer Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov.
Renowned British Composer Performs
Kazakh Pieces in Almaty, Astana
By Julia Rutz
The Almaty Symphony Orchestra, directed by well-known virtuoso violinist Marat Bisengaliev,
recently performed Abai, Shakarim and Tlep by Karl Jenkins, a
British composer named one of the
most famous of modern times according to Classic FM Radio. The
performances took place in Astana
on May 10 and Almaty on May 13.
Karl Jenkins, who is an honorary member of the Royal Academy
of Music, the University of Cardiff, the Royal Welsh College of
Music and Drama, Trinity College
Carmarthen and Swansea University, gave new life to the melodies,
which nearly every Kazakh learns
as a child. Before he started to
work on his Kazakh projects, the
British composer visited Kazakhstan several times in order to dive
into the world of nomadic music
and to learn about traditional Kazakh instruments.
The first outcome of these trips
was a performance of Jenkins’ compositions with Kazakh melodies at
Abai National Academic Theatre
of Opera and Ballet on Nov. 12,
2013 in Almaty. This premiere was
also accompanied by performances
from Seishin’s art ballet troupe,
the Kazyna Choir and the Kazakh
singer Sitora Nazarova.
The Almaty Symphony Orchestra and Marat Bisengaliev recorded
their debut CD in cooperation with
Deutsche Grammophon records.
The CD includes new works from
Jenkins such as Abai and Shakarim that were composed for folk
and orchestral instruments as well
as for choirs. A year ago, the same
programme was given at Carnegie
Hall in New York City.
“We are very interested in being
part of Marat Bisengaliev’s projects. I must say that Jenkins did his
best in combining Kazakh, Scottish
and contemporary music, without
compromising original character,”
Art Director of the Kazyna Choir
Galymzhan Berekeshev said.
It was also said that Bisengaliev
expressed his willingness to cooperate with the choir not only during concerts, but also in the near
future in recording new tracks. The
Kazakh violinist is famous for his
progressive new ideas in music,
which he showcases in his performances. His orchestra was the first
in Kazakhstan to use LED instruments and touch-screen displays
instead of sheet music, making inthe-dark performances possible.
Jenkins is not the only musician
that the Kazakh violinist has cooperated with. It is expected that
Bisengaliev will present his joint
projects with Kazakh composer
Sairambek Zhaksenbi, also known
as Sairash and British composer
Nigel Hitchcock in the near future.
Continued from Page B1
The group publishes its own literary magazine and says there are
plenty of options for print and online publishing in Kazakhstan. But
finding readers of poetry? That’s
another matter, laughed poet and
group member Boris Ipatov, 24, in
an interview on April 29. “Maybe
some people are interested in reading such things, but I wouldn’t
say that there are many. ... Some
of them are just our friends, some
of them are fond of poetry and are
interested in such literature. ... But
we can’t say that there are a lot of
people in Kazakhstan who are fond
of poetry.”
“When we write, we want people
to read us, but we don’t expect that
it will be really [a lot of] people. So
when people tell us or write us that
they have read [our work] it is always unexpected … and we feel really cool,” said Narkes Orazbayeva,
26, another member of the group.
They meet because poetry is important to them, Orazbayeva said.
The primary purpose is their own
growth and self-expression. “But
then, we do some evenings, we try
to do some projects … with these
events, we want to say that poetry
is important itself, because in our
opinion, in literature in general and
in poetry, there are all the experiences of people, relationships of people,
and so on.” Accessing other peoples’
experiences through literature is important for everyone, she said – it
helps readers avoid mistakes.
They’re not the only people in
Astana interested in poetry – there
are seven other poetry clubs, the
members said, though many focus
on Kazakh language poetry. “It’s
kind of surprising,” Ipatov said.
“Before, I didn’t know that there
were so many poetry and literature clubs in Astana. I just thought
it was, like, a dead place for poets,
for literature and writers. It’s kind of
surprising that, yeah, there are a lot
of such places and clubs and small
societies.”
The Reading Together club has
grown over four years, starting from
four people at their first meeting to
now including more than 700 on the
group’s Facebook page. About 30
Members of one of Astana’s poetry and literature clubs.
attend their monthly meetings regularly, Kimanoff said; 15-25 come
to Enactus’s meetings, according
to Utenov. But that hasn’t assuaged
Kimanoff’s worries about the state
of literature in the region.
“In my opinion, literature is one
of the indicators of the cultural development of a society. Unfortunately, nowadays, very few people
in Kazakhstan and in the rest of the
Commonwealth of Independent
States read and talk about books.
Even fewer people are interested
in writing and publishing books,”
she lamented. (The most recent information UNESCO has for books
published in Kazakhstan is from
1996, when the country published
1,226 new titles. Kazakhstan’s National State Book Chamber says
5,033 new titles were published
in 2013, the most recent year for
which data was available).
Neither Utenov nor Kimanoff
think literature and reading are supported enough in Kazakhstan. And
neither intends to wait for someone
else to turn that around. In a country
that is still awakening to the power
of civil society, these and other reading clubs are a small part of a larger
process of bringing art and culture
into individual hands.
“Look at www.ibookyou.kz – it is
a group of enthusiasts (not the government) who created this website,
with blogs, and last year they started
organising book exchange parties
in cafes,” Utenov offers. “I went to
Almaty and there were many people
at 10 a.m. on Sunday there to exchange books with each other. So, in
my opinion we shouldn’t expect and
wait for government to support the
culture of reading books. Any person who is concerned about it can
make a contribution by himself – by
first of all reading a book, or simply
making a gift of a book to friends,
parents, colleagues or anyone.”
And rather than losing literacy to
technology, Utenov points out, Kazakh readers’ gadgets are bringing
them stories they might not have
encountered before. “Thanks to
smartphones, people read more on
their gadgets. Many people used to
read only when they went to beach,
or laid on the sofa, or when they
bought a book. But now you can
just click and download any book or
audiobook, so you can listen in traffic,” he said.
Low-cost ebooks are also a digital boon, he said. “I meet students
very often – they can’t afford to buy
a book they would like for 2,000–
3,000 tenge (US$10.76–US$16.14),
but they can find it online for free,
or at least cheaper.”
“I would really want to support
the reading culture of Kazakhstan’s
citizens,” Kimanoff said. “I hope
that the Astana reading club motivates its members to read and to
read more. … The importance of
literature is invaluable. A book can
be your friend, your teacher, your
coach, your partner. Reading develops your imagination and creativity.
Classic literature supports your cultural development. Historical books
make you an educated person. Biographies motivate and inspire you.
Fantasy turns on your creativity.
There are so many ways literature
can enhance your life.”
B4
Nation&Capital
COUNTRY
Supreme Court Revises
Requirements for Judges
Kazakhstan to Supply
Housing for Orphans
By Julia Rutz
One hundred apartments will
be purchased for orphans in the
Almaty region. The decision was
made during the regular session
of the regional maslikhat (city
administration) on May 20, announced the press service of the
Akim (Governor) of the Almaty
region. The administration has allocated 646 million tenge (US$3.5
million) from the regional budget
to realise the project.
According to the head of the
regional Department of Economy
and Budget Planning Nafisa Satybaldina, the development of the
social sphere of the region remains
on top of the agenda for the next
few years.
The matter of providing afford-
The Supreme Court building in Astana.
By Yerbolat Uatkhanov
ASTANA – Requirements for
judges were revised recently by the
Kazakh Supreme Court with due
consideration of five institutional
reforms of President Nursultan
Nazarbayev. The new standards
were sent to the National Modernisation Commission for further
review.
The prerequisites of candidate training include a master’s
degree in law from the Institute
of Justice, a Kazakh language
test similar to the one used for
A Corps civil servants and a
compulsory internship. Other
exams and psychological tests
would need to be passed after the
practicum. A proposed one-year
period in the courts when the in-
months of training including interning in regional courts.
“The Supreme Court was persuaded of requirements for specialised training, which will make
sufficient improvement of future
judges’ qualification possible. It is
necessary to develop separate state
standards for training judge candidates in order to improve the practical aspect of the training,” said
chairman of the supervisory board
on Supreme Court criminal cases
Abai Rakhmetullin, according to
the Azattyq radio website.
The Supreme Court has offered
to address the issue of professional
valuation of judges’ activities once
every five years for those who
have less than 15 years of work
experience, he added.
All the changes would provide
proximity and openness of the
Rakhmetullin: “The Supreme
Court was persuaded of requirements
for specialised training, which will make
sufficient improvement of future judges’
qualification possible. It is necessary to
develop separate state standards for training
judge candidates in order to improve the
practical aspect of the training.”
dividual would perform the duties of an assistant judge would
be followed by a second twelve
courts and improve the quality
of the defence of rights and legal
interests of citizens and legal bod-
ies, noted Supreme Court Judge of
the supervisory judicial division
on civil and administrative cases
Nurzhan Kayipzhan, as reported
by Azattyq.
Former Supreme Court Judge
Utegen Ikhstanov agreed with
Kayipzhan’s statement that judges
must be examined, but noted it is
necessary to think about the independence of Kazakh courts. He indicated district judges were elected
by the people in Soviet times and
suggested the importance of reinstituting the practice.
“We need to provide real independence of the courts. They have
it under the Constitution, but it
isn’t developed in practice. Courts
have to be governed only by legislation. Also, junior judges have
low salaries and very low retiring
pensions, which are several times
lower than the low retiring pensions of police and public prosecution office employees. It is necessary to think of this problem,” he
said, as quoted by Azattyq.
Fourteen years ago judges in Kazakhstan were selected as the result
of a contest, which was considered
to be “a public and multiple stage,”
according to Rakhmetullin. Today,
Kazakh judges are selected as the
result of the qualification examination held by the Institute of Justice
of the Academy of Public Administration under the President. After
the examinations, candidates are
considered by the Supreme Court
board.
able housing for orphans has also
been addressed in East Kazakhstan. In 2011, then Regional Akim
(Governor) Berdibek Saparbayev
established a complex plan to
provide medical, educational and
social support for orphans of the
region. One of the most important
parts of the plan became a Maiyrim charity auction, which provided opportunities for orphans to
find apartments. During the past
four years, the auction has embraced 1,861 orphans and 1,911
charity organisations, which allocated 211 million tenge (US$ 1.1
million) and 243 apartments to
support children in need.
According to Deputy Head of
the Pavlodar Regional Board of
Education Sayan Mukanov 2,995
children are now on the waiting
list to get an apartment, however,
it is expected that only 5 percent of
them will receive new housing in
the next three years.
“Three new [housing structures
with] 216 apartments each will be
put into operation this year in Pavlodar, but less that 20 percent of
these apartments will be given to
orphans. Only 42 children will be
able to start living in a newly built
house. It is also not planned to start
construction in 2016 and 2017 because of the absence financial support,” explained Mukanov.
The highest number of apartments given to orphans in the
Pavlodar region was in the city
of Ekibastus (145). In Aksu and
Pavlodar, orphans have received
58 and 47 apartments respectively. The Kichirsk district allocated
only 15 apartments for orphans.
Roadmap 2020 Continues
to Create Jobs in 2015
By Julia Rutz
The intermediate results of the
Road Map 2020 programme’s implementation were announced during a recent Central Communication
Service press conference in Astana,
including the funds allocated for
various projects and job creation
projections.
According to the Vice Minister
of Health Care and Social Development Daulet Argandykov, this year
the government allocated 37 billion
tenge (US$199.1 million) to support
the project.
The government also plans to
repair 520 buildings in rural areas and continue the construction
of 30 health clinics in rural areas.
These measures are expected to
create 4,000 new jobs. More than
10 billion tenge (US$53.8 million)
has also been allocated to provide
microcredit opportunities for selfemployed and unemployed citizens.
According to the vice minister, Road
Map 2020 also offers professional
training programmes.
“As part of government and industry programmes Nurly Zhol,
Business Road Map 2020 and the
Unified Programme on Regional
Development, more than 320,000
citizens of Kazakhstan will be employed this year and about half of
Daulet Argandykov
them will get permanent jobs,” said
the vice minister.
According to Argandykov, the unemployment rate in Kazakhstan fell
from 6.6 percent in 2008 to 5 percent
last year. During the same period, the
number of economically active people increased by 500,000 and amounted to nine million citizens. The employed population in the country
increased from 7.8 to 8.5 million.
“For comparison, according to the
European statistic agency Eurostat,
the unemployment rate reached 11.3
percent in 2014. Of course, the data
vary by country. For example, in
Eastern Europe, the unemployment
rate reached 18 percent, in Germany
only 5 percent. Traditionally, the
worst situation has been in Greece,
where every fourth citizen of working age is unemployed,” said Argandykov.
Talking to journalists, the vice
minister noted that blue collar occupations are particularly in demand
on the market now.
“We are constantly monitoring the
available working positions on the
market. We have also conducted a survey with a participation of about 5,000
employers to determine their need for
labour forces. The most popular occupations are drivers, mechanics, welders, tractor drivers. Particular shortage
of labour forces is observed in the field
of agriculture and in the construction
industry. These trends will continue
remaining over the next five-year period,” concluded the vice minister.
Kazakhstan, International Partners Launch Five-Year
Project to Spur Sustainable Urban Development
Almaty is a priority city for
the project, Rakhimov said. “Almaty would be logical to continue
working in [because] we already
have a project on transport, and it
makes sense to just scale up and
show that Almaty, despite being
[Kazakhstan’s] biggest city, can
also be the most advanced in sustainable development.” Almaty’s
money, capacity for implementation and status as Kazakhstan’s
informal entrepreneurial capital,
with the concurrent investors,
make it an appealing partner,
Rakhimov said. The project has
also received a great deal of attention from South Kazakhstan,
he reported, and industrial North
Kazakhstan also holds promising
potential partners. The final list of
cities will be completed by October, he said.
After the cities are chosen,
UNDP/GEF experts will work
with cities to define needs and
goals, Rakhimov said, while simultaneously looking for financial instruments. The project has
drawn interest from the Eurasian
Development Bank and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan
so far, he said, but they will be
looking for a variety of large and
small investors. The project is
funded primarily by the government of Kazakhstan, which has
contributed nearly $31 million of
the total funding so far, according
to the UNDP.
They’ll also be working with
other local and international
technical partners, Belyi pointed
out. “We are working with companies providing energy-saving
equipment and technology, [but]
we are not talking only about
technical [purchases and installation]. We pay great attention to
the training of technical staff of
domestic buildings and organisations on using energy-saving
equipment. We also cooperate
with non-commercial organisations. … Training target groups
and promoting of low-carbon
practices in city household is important for us too.”
The project is driven partly by
the need to address Kazakhstan’s
urbanisation. “As [Kazakh citizens] increasingly migrate from
villages and smaller towns to the
largest cities … it is estimated
that by 2030 up to 66 percent
of the population will be urban.
Urban settlements have a disproportionately larger impact on the
country’s GHG emissions than
rural populations because of their
higher consumption level, and
more GHG-intensive lifestyle
and infrastructure. With average
per-capita emissions of around
12 tonnes of carbon dioxide per
year, Kazakh urban settlements
are placed among the most GHGintensive municipalities in the
world,” the UNDP project announcement said, versus seven
tonnes per capita per year in
Prague and 4.89 tonnes per capita
per year in Tokyo. “Main sources of GHG emissions in Kazakh
cities are public and residential
buildings, transport and waste
management,” the UNDP said.
The project, which was supposed to launch last year but
was delayed by the 2014 government reshuffle and then the April
presidential election, will now
be included in the UNDP’s next
five-year mandate to work in Kazakhstan, for 2016–2021, which
addresses urbanisation issues.
“One of the key pillars of our
mandate of our activities is going
to be sustainable urbanisation,”
Rakhimov said. “What we expect from this particular project
is [that it will] provide us with a
basis to operate in sustainable urbanisation for the next five years,
and when I say basis, I mean
[that] we need more information
A heating substation, an example of low-carbon urban municipal solutions supported by the UNDP/GEF.
about municipalities’ development plans, [and that] within this
NAMA project we’re going to
test financial instruments with
private investors. We will get an
understanding of whether communal housing, for example, or
communal infrastructure or urban
transport are areas that might be
of particular interest for private
investors. And that’s going to
help us in implementing our own
projects for the next five years.
So we do have high expectations
for this particular one – it’s going
to be a sort of a pilot.”
The project is already up and running, Rakhimov reports, and at the
official inception meeting in the autumn, they expect to present detailed
work plans for the 15 selected cities.
B5
Nation&Capital
SOCIETY
Historians Collect Documents of Kazakh
Khanate from Foreign Archives
By Lyubov Artymovich
ASTANA – Issues of the formation and genesis of the Kazakh
Khanate were reviewed May 22
during the international scientificpractical conference “From the
Kazakh Khanate to independent
Kazakhstan” hosted by the Nazarbayev Centre.
The symposium was attended
by members of Parliament, diplomatic corps, officials, analysts
and scholars, including members
of the Assembly of the People of
Kazakhstan, in addition to representatives from Russia, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Turkey and Italy. The
event was organised by the Foundation of the First President of Kazakhstan and the Institute of History of the State, with additional
support from the Nur Otan Party.
“Insight into the historical path
of the nation from the Kazakh
Khanate to independent Kazakhstan is not only of particular relevance in scientific terms, but also
has great social significance today.
The new reading of the history and
evolution of the Kazakh Khanate
will facilitate deeper understanding of the history by the younger
generation and the formation of
historical consciousness in modern
society,” said conference moderator Professor Burkitbai Ayagan.
Mazhilis Deputy Kamal Burkhanov, a known historian himself,
noted the Kazakh Khanate had
many interesting aspects in its political, social and religious systems
which could be relevant in modern
society.
“The Sharia rules were not applied in the Kazakh Khanate. None
of the Kazakh Bi [a leader of clan
who also served as judge] used
the stoning practice against his
fellow countrymen and never cut
off someone’s hands and feet. The
Kazakh steppe lived under Genghis Khan’s code of laws, as well as
those left by Kassym Khan, Yessim Khan and the Tauke Khan’s
Zheti Zhargy (Seven Laws) code.
In the Kazakh Khanate, religion
did not interfere in politics. Khan
did not hamper in the affairs of
the mullahs, or the judge, the mullah did not interfere in the affairs
of the Khan or Bi and everybody
minded his own business. There
was a delimitation of authority. It
is important today, too,” he said.
Burkhanov added Kazakh women never wore the hijab.
“Islam came to us with a book,
not with a sword, so the Kazakhs
today ought to live by their own
customs and traditions,” he concluded.
Professor of the Almaty-based
Suleimenov Institute of Oriental
Studies Meruert Abusseitova provided valuable copies of archival
documents, unique historical finds
which shed light on the development of the Kazakh Khanate. Copies of photographs and miniatures
were found in foreign archives
thanks to the “People in the stream
of history” programme, which was
initiated two years ago by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“The manuscripts and other documents we found illustrate that the
Kazakh Khanate of the 15th-18th
centuries was a state with a defined
territory and established ethnic
composition. The term ‘Kazakh’
had not only a political meaning
but also an ethnic one. Along with
the progress of political and trade
relations, its diplomatic relations
were evolving, too,” Abusseitova
argued.
She showed a copy of a unique
picture, the original of which is
kept in a museum in France. It
depicts the moment of diplomatic
protocol: the ambassadors of the
Kazakh Khanate brought a horse
Meruert Abusseitova
to the Chinese emperor, a most
valuable gift for the nomads and
rulers of different countries. The
drawing was created by a Chinese
court painter of Italian origin.
Correspondence between Abylai Khan, the prominent 18th century Kazakh ruler, and the Chinese
emperor suggests that the Kazakh
khans had a sophisticated chancellery of their own. The letters had
the seal of Abylai Khan, indicating
authenticity.
The conference also included a
presentation of little-known papers of traveller Henri Moser, now
stored in a Swiss museum in Bern,
who visited the Kazakh steppes
four times in the 1870s. He met
with sultans Zhanturin, Seidallin
and Baimukhamedov and as a sign
of hospitality, they gave the traveller many decorative items from the
yurt. A photo of those gifts is still
kept in the Bern museum.
In the British library, Kazakh
researchers found 16 thumbnails
from the Kazakh Khanate era which
were part of Tavarih-i Guzida-i
Nusrat-namé, the prominent historical manuscript on Central Asian
history from the 16th century.
The conference was accompanied
by an exhibition of books dedicated
to the Kazakh Khanate and artist
Rakhimzhan Kassymzhan’s exhibition of black-and-white drawings
entitled “Nomads of Eurasia.”
This article first appeared
in the Liter newspaper and is
translated and reprinted with
permission.
National Council for Combating Conference Remembers Victims
of 20th Century Oppression
Corruption Reviews Progress,
Discusses New Approaches
By Michelle Witte
By Farida Akhmetova
A May 20 meeting of the Nur
Otan Party’s National Public
Council for Combating Corruption, chaired by Member of the
Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) Kairbek Suleimenov, was
convened to coordinate anticorruption efforts between state and
non-government entities between
2015 and 2025. Five institutional
reforms proposed by the head of
state were also covered.
Draft bills titled On Combating
Corruption, On Public Control and
On Access to Information were
discussed at the meeting. Currently, the bills, which are designed
to radically change Kazakhstan’s
corruption prevention laws, are being expanded.
At the meeting, the participants
also summarised the efforts taken
between 2011 and 2015 in combating corruption. A performance
analysis revealed that after the
adoption of this document, a series of organisational and practical measures aimed at improving
the efficiency of anti-corruption
programmes, legislation, public
awareness and policy were implemented. However, only five of the
programme’s 10 indicators were
achieved.
As time goes on, the population
is becoming more and more aware
of the laws surrounding corruption
matters. However, according to the
National Public Council, due to
certain organisational deficiencies
in the programme, its effectiveness
has been compromised. Serious
improvements in corruption levels
around the country have not yet
been achieved.
According to the National Public Council, the greatest number of
corruption offences between 2011
and 2013 were committed in the
akimats (local administrations)
and their divisions. The Ministry
of Internal Affairs took a dubious second place and the Ministry
of Agriculture was third. A large
number of offences occur in the
tax and customs authorities, the
Ministry of Defence and Border
Patrol. Regionally speaking, South
Kazakhstan, Zhambyl and Almaty
lead in corruption, as well as the
East Kazakhstan region, Astana
and Almaty (city).
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti-Corruption,
Kairat Kozhamzharov outlined
new approaches towards preventing corruption, which are outlined
in the Action Plan for 2015-2017.
They focus on strategy.
As a result of the dialogue, a
resolution aimed at improving the
fight against corruption was adopted and a number of specific recommendations were given to various
ministries, the Agency for Civil
Service Affairs and Anti-Corruption and the akimats.
ASTANA – A conference in
memory of the victims of 20th
century repression and starvation
in Kazakhstan was held on May
31, Kazakhstan’s Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression and Hunger, in the capital’s Palace of Independence.
“The purpose of such a conference is to understand the lessons of
the history of political repression
and famine in Kazakhstan from reliable sources, to pay tribute to the
victims of the totalitarian system
and to promote unity among the
ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan,” said Astana Deputy Akim
(Mayor) Yermek Amanshayev in
his opening remarks at the event,
according to the akimat website.
The 20th century was a difficult period for the Kazakh people,
Amanshayev said; a time of hunger, war and repression. Kazakhstan was the site of some of the
biggest labour camps of the Soviet
Gulag system and contained 953
camps and settlements. Within a
few dozen kilometres of the city
is the former women’s camp,
ALZHIR, which is an acronym for
Akmola Camps of Wives of Traitors of the Motherland. Within a
few hours are the remains of larger
camps, such as Karlag in Karaganda and many others.
It is estimated that 14 million
people moved through the Gulag
labour camps from 1929–1953,
and some 5 million people were
sent to Kazakhstan over the years
of repression, Kazinform reported.
According to the akimat, 100,000
people were sentenced in Kazakhstan between 1921-1954 and
25,000 executed. Among those
imprisoned were well-known Kazakh cultural figures and politicians, including writers and social
activists Shakarim Kudayberdyuly, Beimbet Maylin, Myrzhakyp
Dulatov, Saken Seifullin, Sanjar
Asfendiyarov and Ilyas Dzhansugurov; educator and intellectual
Akhmet Baitursynov; politicians
and intellectuals Turar Ryskulov
and Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpayev;
and many others.
In the 1930s and 1940s, entire
nations and ethnic groups were
deported to Kazakhstan, including Koreans, Kurds, Iranians and
others, and during World War II,
Germans, Greeks, Chechens and
Ingush people, among others, were
also displaced, in numbers estimated to exceed one million people.
“The Communist regime recklessly … led a relentless, vulgar
policy, and as a result more than 3
million people of Kazakhstan were
lost. Such pain and tragedy do not
go away. We need to talk about it
now, so that such a tragedy does
not happen again. From the past,
we should learn a lesson,” said
Professor Yesim Garifolla of Astana’s Gumilev Eurasian National
University, an institution named
after Lev Gumilev, who himself
spent time in the Gulag.
One of Kazakhstan’s first acts
as an independent country was
to move to rehabilitate victims of
political repression through a law
passed in 1993. Since a presidential decree on the holiday was
passed in 1997, May 31 has honoured those who were lost through
oppression and famine.
Victims of political repression
also receive financial compensation. The Strategy 2050 website
reports that between 2003-2014,
one-time cash payments totalling 2.9 billion tenge (US$15.6
million) were made to victims of
repression, and 1.8 million tenge
(US$9,680) has been allocated
from the 2015 national budget for
this purpose. Retired or disabled
victims of repression also receive
additional state support. The number of recipients as of May 1 this
year was 35,793 people, according
to Strategy2050.kz.
Other events in the capital to
commemorate victims were held
at the Alzhir camp museum and
at Nazarbayev University. Events
were also held in cities around the
country.
11 Transplants Conducted
this Year As Doctors Urge
New App Allows Viewers Learn Societal Change
Kazakh Language on Smart.tv
Kairbek Suleimenov (c) convenes a meeting to coordinate anticorruption efforts.
By Shynar Ospanova
By Ainur Kuramyssova
A mobile application for the
study of the Kazakh language
developed by Soyle.kz has been
adapted for Smart.tv televisions,
according to a May 20 announcement by Director of the State Language Development Fund Azat
Shaueev.
“From today, anyone who wants
to learn the Kazakh language can
do so on Smart.tv televisions for
free. We have created all necessary
conditions for this,” said Shaueev
at a Central Communications Service briefing.
“In order to improve the learning
portal, we have enhanced the testing programme, added the option
to view errors and correct answers,
linked authorisation through social
networks, developed an online chat
platform and a library,” he said.
The Soyle.kz app made its debut in December 2014. The development cost 20 million tenge
(US$107,625). More than 20,000
people have become regular users
of the service and 350,000 more
have expressed interest in the portal.
In addition, there is a functioning
app called Balasoyle.kz designed
for children of preschool age.
“It has fairy-tale cartoons in
the Kazakh language, games and
exercises. The site is available
without registration. About 3,0004,000 children are currently using
the app,” said the director of the
fund.
Four heart transplant operations
have been conducted in Kazakhstan this year,said Director General of the National Scientific Medical Centre Abai Baigenzhin at the
First Congress of the Turkic World
Transplantation Society held May
20-22 in Astana.
“According to the official data
for 2014, 138 people in Kazakhstan need a heart transplantation
every year, about 250-300 need
liver transplants, 1,384 people new
kidneys, 37 patients are awaiting
a new pancreas and five people
new lungs. At the same time, since
2012 Kazakhstan has performed
445 kidney transplantations, 76
liver and 21 heart transplant operations. Eleven of such transplantations have been done during the
past four months of the current
year,” he said during his speech at
the congress.
The National Coordinating Centre for Transplantation of Organs
and its regional centres and offices
in Astana and Almaty have been
established to ensure coordination
of the country’s transplant services, noted Baigenzhin. The country
has 37 donor hospitals and nine
transplant centres licensed to conduct transplantations.
The country has also created a
unified electronic register of donors and recipients which automates the process of creating the
list of those who are awaiting the
operation. The website www.transplant.kz also provides information
about donation and transplantation
procedures and allows patients to
consult with medical professionals.
According to famous Kazakh
heart surgeon Yury Pya, the country is experiencing a shortage of
donor organs, as society is not
ready to accept the practice of
voluntary organ donations. Most
donors are living relatives of patients who need an urgent transplant. In turn, the cadaveric donation is not as highly developed in
the country and for this reason, a
large number of healthy organs
that could save many lives get
buried, he said.
“We need to talk about that
openly again and again, because
there is no other way to change
the situation. Every minute a person dies because of the absence of
needed organs for transplantation.
On the other hand, every minute
people die on the roads or because
of household injuries and their
bodies go into the ground. Our objective is to connect these two issues in order to help people who
need help and who can be saved,”
said Pya.
The doctor also spoke about an
upcoming, complex heart-lung operation that he will conduct for the
first time in his professional practice.
B6
Nation&Capital
Tourism
Almaty Dolphinarium Launches
with Charity Show
By Dmitry Lee
Approximately 700 children attended the grand opening of the
new Almaty dolphinairum on
May 12 that was accompanied by
a charity show, Tengrinews.kz reported, citing Vitaly Staragin, public relations and marketing director
of the dolphinarium chain Nemo.
The facility is currently located
in the vicinity of the Almaty-1
train station but will soon be relocated to the Central Park of Cul-
ture and Recreation, according to
Staragin.
“It will be a permanent, yearround, large and beautiful building that will meet all maintenance
standards [for mammals]. Within
[the next] six months we will
move there. Now, the building
is being prepared. ... We employ
highly-qualified specialists and
use modern equipment. The water is cleaner than in the sea, and
the content is ideal [for the mammals],” said Staragin.
In addition to the facility’s enter-
‘Good Life’ Food Festival
Organised by Ritz-Carlton
Brings Together Int’l Chefs
By Dmitry Lee
Almaty residents had a rare
chance to try various international
cuisines, and took part in master
classes and simply enjoyed good
company at The Ritz Carlton,
Almaty on May 20-24, as the renowned chefs of the hotel chain
have gathered in Kazakhstan’s
largest city for the Good Life Food
Festival, the hotel’s press release
stated.
“We are glad to have the RitzCarlton cooks in Almaty. For us it
means a lot to be able to talk about
the world’s culinary trends within
the walls of the hotel, to develop
a culture of haute cuisine, to surprise our guests and to share new
knowledge [with them],” said Joe
Ghayad, general manager at the
Ritz-Carlton, Almaty.
The distinguished invited chefs
of the festival included Jan-Oliver
Henschel from The Ritz-Carlton,
Berlin; David Campbell, virtuoso
pastry chef from Sanya, Yalong
Bay, China; Erik Meloche, a chef
from Dubai; and a cook from Bahrain Alfonso Ferraioli.
The Ritz-Carlton Berlin is famous for its Brasserie Desbrosses
and chef Henschel, the inspirer and
leader of the Brasserie will unveil
some of the cooking secrets of the
Desbrosses. Henschel will also host
a master class for the visitors on
how to prepare for a real banquet.
The virtuoso pastry chef from
The Ritz-Carlton, Sanya, Yalong
Bay will throw a real confectionery show titled Chocolate Truffle,
and will talk about the delights and
enjoyable culinary experience of
the chocolate and desserts. Campbell will also hold a ‘Pink Afternoon Tea’ ceremony with sweets.
Chef Meloche has been cooking
for the hotel chain for over 10 years
and currently heads the restaurants
at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai. The
chain offers a wide selection of authentic dishes from the Middle East
inspired by the special culture of
the Bedouins. Meloche will cook a
four-dish specialty dinner for true
connoisseurs of haute cuisine.
Chief Ferraioli from Bahrain
is a student of the holder of two
Michelin stars Oliver Glowig specialising in Italian cuisine. He will
hold a master class ‘The Story of
Risotto’ where he will shed light
on peculiarities of preparing one
of the most popular dishes in Italy.
The ending note of the festival
will be a gala dinner and a Sunday
brunch in a company of all the invited chefs.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC, Chevy Chase, Md., currently has 83 hotels in America,
Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa
and the Caribbean. More than 30
hotels and projects are at the stage
of development worldwide. The
Ritz-Carlton is the only company
in the service sector to receive
the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award twice
in 1992 and 1999, according to
www.ritzcarlton.com.
Ritz Carlton chefs at the Good Life Food Festival in Almaty on May 20-24.
tainment shows, the dolphinarium
will hold scientific shows that will
recount in detail the secrets of maritime wildlife and night shows involving different artists and diving
sessions, including a dolphin therapy programme for the treatment of
autistic children and children with
infantile cerebral paralysis (ICP).
“When we move into a stationary facility, we will bring a beluga
dolphin. From time to time, we
will bring new fish and mammals,
and it will be a surprise for our audience,” Staragin said. Currently,
the new dolphinarium has six animals and mammals: a Pacific bottlenose dolphin named Nicole; two
Black Sea bottlenose dolphins:
Kate and Yumi; two South American fur seals Anfisa and Vasilisa;
and a sea lion named Zlata. All of
them were transported to Almaty
from Odessa, Ukraine.
As previously reported by Tengrinews.kz, the dolphinarium in
the Central Park of Culture and
Recreation is expected to be 1,000
square metres with a 750 seating
capacity.
Mexico to Open
Embassy in
Kazakhstan in 2015
Staff Report
Mexico plans to open its embassy
in Kazakhstan this year, according
to a May 20 announcement during
the presentation of credentials to
Secretary of State of Kazakhstan
Gulshara Abdykalykova by the nonresident ambassadors extraordinary
and plenipotentiary of Mexico, Venezuela, Congo, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Sudan and
El Salvador in Kazakhstan.
During the meeting with Ambassador of Mexico Marta Elena Bárcena, the secretary of state stressed
that Mexico is the second largest
trading partner of Kazakhstan in
Latin America after Brazil. Trade
turnover between the two countries in 2014 totalled $120.8 million. She expressed confidence that
the establishment of direct diplomatic relations in connection with
the planned 2015 opening of the
Mexican embassy in Kazakhstan
will deepen bilateral political and
economic, as well as social and humanitarian relations. Kazakhstan
has opened its diplomatic presence
in Mexico City last year but it has
yet to appoint its ambassador there.
As Abdykalykova stressed, in
the context of globalisation, the
development of cooperation in
political, economic, commercial,
scientific, cultural and other areas
meets the national interests of both
countries. In this regard, the level
of cooperation contributes to the
level of diplomatic success.
“Abdykalykova thanked the ambassadors of Mexico, Venezuela,
Congo and North Korea for support
of Astana to host EXPO 2017, as
well as the ambassadors of Mexico,
Venezuela, El Salvador and North
Korea for support of Kazakhstan’s
candidacy as a non-permanent
member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018,” the Akorda
statement on the event read.
Mexico is the
second largest
trading partner
of Kazakhstan
in Latin America
after Brazil. Trade
turnover between
the two countries in
2014 totalled $120.8
million.
The sides noted the deep mutual
interest in expanding contacts on
a wide range of issues, including
cooperation in the financial sector, the oil and gas sector and the
mining industry, food production,
alternative energy and others.
The secretary of state expressed
the hope that the activities of the
ambassadors of these countries
will contribute to continuing cooperation between their countries and
Kazakhstan.
B7
Nation&Capital
Sports
Astana Pro Team Wins Giro d’Italia
By Dmitry Lee
The Astana Pro team won the
team category of the May 9-31
Giro d’Italia in Italy after two of
the Astana Pro Team racers finished the 21-stage-race second
and third securing the win for the
Astana Pro team.
Thirty-seven-year-old
Italian
Paolo Tiralongo won stage nine,
his compatriot Fabio Aru, 24, won
the 19th and the 20th stages, while
Spaniard Mikel Landa, 25, surprisingly won mountainous stages 15
and 16. All three ride for Astana
Pro Team.
Spanish Alberto Contador, 32,
of the Russian Tinkoff-Saxo team
finished first. It was the second win
at Giro d’Italia for the Spaniard in
his career. His first victory was celebrated as part of the Astana crew
in 2008.
“We did not give up without a
fight; this has never happened in
Astana Pro Team riders meet with their fans in Astana on June 6. Now their
focus is on Tour de France on July 4-26.
our history that we have won five
stages. Landa took two stages, we
thought that he could help; my regards to Fabio,” Astana Pro Team
General Manager and London
2012 Olympic Champion Aleksander Vinokourov said after the
race.
On June 6, Giro d’Italia stage
winners Aru, Landa and Tiralongo
jointly with their teammate Andrew Seitz and General Manager
Vinokourov met with fans in Astana, Kazakh TV reported.
“It is my first time in Kazakhstan. I was in Milan before. I visited EXPO 2015 and the Kazakh pavilion. It was amazing, of course.
I will try to learn more about Kazakhstan and will come here more
frequently,” Landa said.
“This is my third time in Kazakhstan and every time I come here, I
feel happy. I am happy to see the
faces of the fans who support us. In
the future, I will try to show better
results,” Aru commented.
The Astana team is now focusing its training on the July 4-26
Tour de France.
Kazakh-Australian
Women’s Doubles
Team Reaches French
Open Final, Loses in
Three Set Match
PM Massimov Leads Presentation
of Almaty’s 2022 Olympic Games Bid
“Kazakhstan has been pursuing our Olympic dream for many
years, in fact this is our second bid
for the Winter Games,” said President Nursultan Nazarbayev ahead
of the event as quoted in a press
release by the Almaty 2022 Bid
Committee. He added, “We have
invested heavily in winter sport for
the past fifteen years to increase
our venue capacity and our hosting
experience. … Almaty 2022 represents a great step forward for the
people of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region; a region that has
never hosted the Olympic Games.
Almaty and all of Kazakhstan are
looking forward to showing the
world our hospitability, diversity
and uniqueness.”
Andrey Kryukov, Vice Chairman
of Almaty 2022 Bid Committee,
also commented, “We are on the
final stretch of this exciting race.
The successful visit of the Evaluation Commission in February was
accompanied by incredible winter weather and lots of fresh, pure
snow. We worked hard to improve
the concept based on the recommendations we received from
Chairman Zhukov and his great
team and reduced our operational
budget by over half a billion dollars
to improve our already excellent
plan. And this plan is what we will
present to the IOC membership and
the representatives of the International Federation on June 9.”
Kryukov added, “We know we
have a great offer for the Olympic
Movement – the most efficient and
convenient Winter Games concept
in over thirty years. Seventy percent
of our venues are ready today and 80
percent will be ready by 2017 for the
Universiade. Almaty is a safe choice
in terms of venues and infrastructure.
We feel like a team in the hockey final of the Olympics now, fully concentrated, motivated and very much
looking forward to present our wonderful city and the nature surrounding it to the IOC membership.”
In turn, Sipovich, who is also a
member of the Almaty 2022 Bid
Committee, said, “Kazakhstan is
a sporting nation committed to the
ideals of the Olympic Movement.
We applaud the Agenda 2020 initiatives and are committed to follow the
IOC’s lead on these matters.”
In a phone interview for this story out of Lausanne, Kryukov said
the presentation went very well
and said he was quite optimistic
about a good impression it made
on members of the IOC.
News reports following the presentation seem to confirm the sentiment
with the Associated Press reporting
that the team has impressed IOC
members with its focus on specifics
such as snowy winters and relative
affordability of the games concept.
According to media reports, the
Chinese delegation presenting Beijing’s bid later during the day was
led by Vice Premier Liu Yandong
who attended the event in Lausanne
as part of her European tour.
Massimov, during his two-day
stay in Lausanne on June 9-10, was
also reportedly scheduled to meet
with IOC President Thomas Bach.
The final voting to determine the
host of 2022 Winter Olympics will
take place at the 128th IOC session
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where
99 voting members will cast their
ballots in secret to choose between
Almaty and Beijing. The winner will
be determined by a simple majority
of votes.
Astana Arlans Oust Russian Boxing
Team to Advance to WSB Finals
By Dmitry Lee
ASTANA – The Astana Arlans
beat the Russian Boxing Team
5:0 and 4:1 (9:1 on aggregate) in
two encounters at the Daulet National Tennis Centre in Astana on
May 23–24 in the semi-final of
the fifth World Series of Boxing
(WSB) season to advance to their
third WSB final, which will see
them square off against defending
champions the Domadores from
Cuba.
In the first round, Kazakh Temirtas Zhussupov beat Russian Vadim
Kudriakov in the flyweight category (52 kilogrammes). Lightweight
Kairat Yeraliyev (60 kilogrammes)
defeated Andranik Grigoryan to
make the score 2:0. In the welterweight (69 kilogrammes) category,
Samat Bashenov dominated Avak
Uzlian; in the next bout, lightheavyweight (81 kilogrammes)
Meiirim Nursultanov stopped
Sukhrob Sidikov. Finally, heavyweight (91+ kilogrammes) Vasiliy
Levit’s opponent Vitaly Kudukhov was disqualified in the fourth
round for foul play and Levit was
announced the winner.
In the second segment of the
semi-final, the Russian team made
a tremendous effort to come back
and equalise the situation; however, their efforts were futile, as
the Kazakh team had won the first
bout and had already qualified for
the final. The Russian team had
only a show to fight for, and fight
they did.
Flyweight Olzhas Sattibayev
defeated Karen Arutiunian, and
lightweight Zakir Safiullin scored
another victory for the Kazakh
team by beating Artur Subkhankulov. Welterweight 2013 Amateur
International Boxing Association
(AIBA) World Champion Daniyar
Yeleussinov beat Iagub Nuriev by
a split decision. Russia finally won
a bout in the light-heavyweight
category when Eduard Yakushev
eliminated Nurdaulet Zharmanov
on points, but super heavyweight
Ivan Dychko of Arlans brought the
final victory to his team by beating
Ruslan Shamalov.
Arlans have had a nearly perfect season, winning 15 of their
16 bouts. The team will be looking forward to winning its second
WSB title in the final.
Astana Arlans boxers devastated Russian Boxing Team 9:1 on aggregate May 23-24 to reach WSB final. Arlans managed to win 15 of their 16 bouts this season.
(L-R) Dellacqua, Shvedova at the Roland Garros doubles final on June 7.
By Dmitry Lee
The Kazakh-Aussie duo of Yaroslava Shvedova and Casey Dellacqua, ranked fifth in the world for
doubles by the Women’s Tennis
Association (WTA), reached the
June 7 French Open doubles final,
but lost to a Czech-American duo
in three sets.
SHVEDOVA:
“[Reaching the]
Final of [Roland
Garros] is also a
good result!’’
After winning the first set, Shvedova-Dellacqua gave up the next
two (3:6, 6:4, 6:2) to Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and
American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“[Reaching the] Final of [Roland Garros] is also a good result!
Thanks to [Casey Dellacqua] for
great weeks. We will get it next
time and thanks to our team and
[everyone] who support us and
believe in us!” Shvedova wrote
in her Instagram account after the
match.
Doubles winner and tournament
singles runner-up Safarova said
after the match, “I was a little bit
sad, but it was exciting for me to
be here in the final,” according to
www.espn.go.com. “I was very
pumped to at least get one title out
of those two. I’m really happy it
happened.” Safarova lost to Serena
Williams of the U.S. in the singles
final on June 6. Williams secured
her 20th Grand Slam title despite
the flu struggle the day before.
Earlier in May the ShvedovaDellacqua duo won the Spanish
Open.
Almaty, Astana Mark
Int’l Olympic Day as Bid
Preparations Intensify
In the capital, the celebration
of Olympic Day was opened by
Kazakh Minister of Culture and
Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly.
According to the city administration website, Olympic champions, world champions and other
outstanding Kazakh sportsmen
and politicians, as well as college
and high school students attended
the festive race. Wheelchair athletes also participated in the event,
covering a distance of 100 metres.
For the participants’ entertainment, 4,000 servings of ice cream,
beverages, Olympic symbols, and,
of course, certificates were provided for the runners.
The detailed dossier prepared by
the bid committee will be presented for the IOC members’ scrutiny
next month, announced Director of
the State Fund Directorate of InterNational Sports projects of Almaty
Ilya Urazakov during a special
May 20 press conference.
“A technical report will be provided from June 9-10 at the headquarters of the International Olympic
Committee, which is in Lausanne
(Switzerland). Almaty and Beijing
(China), the contenders to host the
Olympic Games in 2022, are to present their applications to all members of the IOC,” he said
In addition to representatives of
the Almaty 2022 bid committee
and Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee in Lausanne, the
nation’s senior officials will join
the presentation, Urazakov added.
The proposal will be given online
and everyone will be able to ask
questions about the application
and concept of the games.
With several other
potential bidders
pulling out of the
running, only Beijing
and Almaty remain.
The IOC will choose
the host city July 31 at
its meeting in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
“In Lausanne, Almaty Mayor
Akhmetzhan Yessimov will join
the team. … Timur Kulibayev and
the newly-elected head of the nation’s paralympic committee Kairat
Boranbayev expressed a desire to
attend the event. Now we are clarifying this list. … It is important to
show that our bid is supported [by
senior officials],” he said.
With several other potential bidders pulling out of the running, only
Beijing and Almaty remain. The IOC
will choose the host city July 31 at its
meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
B8
Nation&Capital
capital
Blogger Takes Conversation to Real World,
Opens Community Gathering Place in Astana
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – Blogger Adlet Kumar has opened an island in the
middle of landlocked Astana – a
place he hopes will be an oasis for
travellers, a meeting point for people from different walks of life and
an island of free expression in an
otherwise buttoned-up capital city.
Freedom Island, as his new venue
is called, is a multipurpose meeting
place, a combination of cafe, coworking site and music and discussion venue across from Astana’s
Diplomatic Quarter. The door, set
among a row of offices and cafes,
opens into a vast kitchen – the place
in the home where most relaxed
conversation happens. There are
cakes and cookies out, and tables
wait for guests to seat themselves.
The venue is purposefully homey,
Kumar explained. He wants to create a space where people from many
walks of life can interact freely.
“People are very closed here –
all with ties, very official,” Kumar
said in an interview with The Astana Times in his new venue on June
2. “But on the other hand, many of
them have their own opinions and
points of view, and it looks like our
country is moving somehow, slowly, to some kind of real democracy.
So hopefully, people will begin to
express their views, to feel freer.
Speakers and guests at the opening of Freedom Island on May 30. Adlet Kumar is second from left.
And I hope that this will be one of
the channels of communication between the power and the common
people on a modern level.”
In the open kitchen and seating
area, guests can work or talk, or the
venue can be turned into an events
hall. Beyond are living rooms or
meeting rooms, and a smaller music and meditation room.
Guests are welcome to coffee and
tea for free, and hungry visitors can
request sandwiches or other small
snacks at no charge, though Kumar
says he hopes people who eat will
leave a donation. The only payment
is for time: 600 tenge (US$3.22) to
900 tenge (US$4.84) per hour, de-
pending on the number of hours.
Meeting and resting rooms can be
rented for 1,000 tenge (US$5.37)
per hour and up. They have a link
with local tailors, Kumar reports,
so travellers can handle last-minute
sartorial emergencies.
Freedom Island is in some ways
a reinterpretation of an intellectual
salon. “If you want to see some civil servant, at the moment, you have
only the opportunity to see him in
his office or to see him in a press
conference, which [doesn’t allow
for] any kind of free talk,” Kumar
explained. “But here, we want to
make some kind of platform where
they can express themselves as hu-
man beings, as they are. And not on
topics like politics and economics,
but on fishing or where they like to
go on vacation or what they cook
or what movies they like – something to show that they are human
beings, so people can see that.”
Kumar, who is also known as
writer, blogger and Facebook personality Ajijiro Kumano, author
of “City of Flying Bags,” a critical look at Astana’s society in the
years soon after the relocation of
the capital, knows both sides of
that coin. After a career in Kazakhstan’s Foreign Service and
then KazMunayGas, he got frustrated with bureaucracy and went
into business for himself. Three
years ago, he said, he wound his
business up and started travelling,
to Japan, India and eventually to
Saudi Arabia and Mecca.
Now, he explains, he wants to
do something settled, to be in one
place.
“It was my dream to open here in
the middle of Astana a place where
people can feel free,” Kumar said.
He has big plans for his island: he
wants to launch a Speaker’s Corner,
and perhaps to create a club, so members can have first dibs on tickets to
different events; he wants to bring
musicians to the intimate venue.
Appropriately, the new venue
launched May 30 with a Cubathemed gathering. Cuban Ambassador to Kazakhstan Carlos
Enrique Valdés de la Concepción
addressed the audience, discussing Cuban-American relations
and the ongoing normalisation,
about which he was very positive, Kumar reported. “For us, it
was nice to see real Communists
… true believers,” he said. “It’s
nice, because they really believe,
but their minds are open, they
understand. For example, when
the ambassador talked about relations with the U.S., he was very
positive. But at the same time, he
showed that they would do everything step by step. ‘We won’t
rush, we have our national inter-
Astana Akimat Issues Swimming Safety Guidelines
By Michelle Witte
ASTANA – The Akimat (city administration) of Astana has issued
a list of safety guidelines to coincide with the official June 1 launch
of swimming season, reminding
local swimmers that 14–25 people
die in the water each year. Most
accidents are due to swimming or
boating while intoxicated and that
nearly all fatal accidents occur in
areas not designated for swimming, the akimat noted.
Though the beaches are now
opened, the akimat warns that
swimmers should remain cautious
about air and water temperatures.
“Beach season is opened every
year on June 1,” the akimat reported. “It is better to swim in specially
equipped places: beaches, pools
and places patrolled by lifeguards.
The acceptable lower temperature
limit for safe swimming is as follows: water, 18 Celsius; air 22 C
– for healthy, strong people. Swimming at such temperatures is dangerous … for children and people
with weakened health,” it warned.
The water in the upper layer
of the Yessil River, which runs
through the capital, is currently
only 15 C, and the temperature
of deeper waters is only 5–7 C.
“When swimming, especially
diving in such water, convulsions, vascular spasms, reflex
contractions of the respiratory
muscles are possible, which can
lead to fainting, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest,” the akimat said.
Last year, 25 people died in the
water around Astana, the Water
Rescue Service of the Astana Department of Emergency Situations
reported, according to the Astana
Akimat. Of these, 16 were swimming in unauthorized areas, and
four had climbed into hydraulic
facilities, they reported. This year,
five deaths have already been reported, including someone who had
climbed over a dam. Two of the
dead so far this year are children.
The akimat reports that up to three
quarters of annual deaths are among
people under 30, and 20–30 percent
are children and adolescents.
ests.’ And he showed that very
simply, without slogans.”
Another speaker was a local man
whose father had been a fighter pilot during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. It is these stories that
Kumar seems passionate about
sharing. “These people live here,
actually, and we don’t know them,
which is really bad,” he said. “I
want to try to bring simple stories
from simple people here.”
And the politicians and high officials he wants to invite – he wants
to reveal them as “simple people,”
as well. An official at Kazakhstan’s
Ministry of Oil and Gas is an avid
fisherman – Kumar wants to invite
him to speak about fishing, just fishing. He hopes to bring a high-ranking executive from KazMunayGas
who is also a well-known dandy to
speak at a planned event about tailoring, formal dress and protocol.
As for the potential controversy in
opening a venue dedicated to free, informal speech, Kumar brushes it off.
“I already attracted attention years
ago with my book, which describes
the period when we moved from Almaty to here,” he said. He criticised
the system, and nothing happened
to him, he said. “It’s more like selfcensorship, or people are afraid of
something like a [boogeyman] from
children’s books.” Just expressing a
point of view is not something anyone has cause to be afraid to do.
“I am for the state, I am for good
governance,” Kumar explained.
“And I know there are many people
in the government, in the system,
who want to change it for the better.”
Astana’s Water Rescue Service
also issued some basic rules for
swimming at public beaches this
summer. They include warnings not to swim beyond designated areas, not to swim while
intoxicated, not to swim or dive
in unfamiliar areas, not to carry
cameras or other objects into the
water while swimming, not to
dive from unauthorised areas and
not to swim from embankments
or dams.
Astana has two outdoor public
pools and one river area designated
for swimming.
United Arab Emirates Embassy Donates Funds to Help
Visually Impaired Children
By Dmitry Lee
The Embassy of the United
Arab Emirates in Kazakhstan provided financial assistance during
the June 1 Children’s Day to the
Ophthalmologist’s Correctional
Centre (OCC) for Visually-Impaired Children located at gymnasium No. 71.
“Having lost their sight under
different circumstances, our children lose hope in their life. And
all the efforts of the teachers in
cooperation with the parents can
give them hope for a bright future.
Creation of such kinds of centres
could help to orient many children
in their life. That is why I would
like to thank the administration of
the city, also the education department in Astana, which supports the
centre and gives the children an op-
portunity for adaptation in a social
environment,” said UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan Suhail Matar
Alketbi in his opening remarks.
“[The] mission of our representation is to establish solid relationships for the [benefit] of our young
generation. We are brotherly nations. That is why we support each
other in all spheres. [That] is [the]
primary goal for both countries!”
he added.
The embassy’s support will help
children access eyeglass lenses
that are used in researching shortsightedness, farsightedness and
squinting, synoptophore used for
squinting diagnostics and treatment, and for remedial orthoptic
exercises. The funds will also purchase medical equipment for the
care of visually impaired and blind
children, according to the UAE
Embassy press release.
The OCC has been operating
since September 2014 and offers
a wide range of professionals,
such as logopedists, defectology
specialists, psychologists, choreographers, exercise therapy
specialists and other caregiving
specialists. The centre’s psychologists also help children’s
parents cope with the challenges they’re facing as parents.
In total, more than 50 children
of pre-school age with speech
and visual impairment undergo
medical checks in the centre free
of charge, based on the state’s
quota.
The Children’s Day event at
the centre event was highlighted
with traditional Kazakh national
dances, folk songs, piano music
and accompanied by colourful
mascots for the children’s entertainment.
UAE Ambassador to Kazakhstan Suhail Matar Al Ketbi (C) with students and teachers at Opthalmologist’s Correctional
Centre No. 2 for Visually-Impaired Children in Astana on June 1.
C
DIALOGUE FOR PEACE
At the iniative of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions was established in 2003 to serve as a platform for open dialogue between nations of different religions across
the globe. This year the Congress themed “The Dialogue of Religious Leaders and Politicians in the Name of Peace and Development” will bring together numerous religious representatives and world politicians. President Nazarbayev
(pictured above) will meet with religious leaders and President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and King of Jordan Abdullah II on June 10-11. Astana is expecting over 500 delegates from
44 countries.
Religious Dialogue Is Needed A Jump Start for Sustained
Peacebuilding
for Peace and Development
By Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
As we look around our troubled
world today, we see more intercultural and interfaith tensions in different parts of the world. Unfortunately,
religious differences are often exaggerated and exploited to incite hatred
and violence.
This practice has become a dangerous weapon in the hands of those
who deliberately distort people’s beliefs for their deceitful ends. That is
the case of the so-called Islamic State
or Daesh that has been skillfully using sectarian rhetoric to justify its violent actions. Regrettably, somehow
ISIS has found the way to capture the
imagination and manipulate the feelings of many youngsters around the
world.
Against this background, the
initiative of the President of the
Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev to host the Congress
of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions has become more
important than ever.
The Congress offers a platform
for frank, inclusive and constructive
dialogue on the most acute issues on
the international agenda. For that
reason the forum has a wide geographic scope and a rich tapestry of
participants. It engages representatives of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism,
Shintoism, Zarathustrianism and
other religions.
It is essential that the forum brings
together not only religious, but also
political leaders, heads of international organizations. Faith leaders
have strong influence, reaching out
to the hearts and minds of the people
especially of the young ones. Sometimes they hold the key to reconciliation and enduring peace; they can be
authentic voices calling for tolerance
while politicians and heads of inter-
national organizations can take practical steps to promote mutual understanding, harmony and cooperation.
Unity in diversity is the principle
that the Congress adheres to. This underlying principle helped our nation
to endure and we seek to transcend it
across sectarian boundaries and divisions. We firmly believe that interaction for the sake of peace, security
and progress for all people regardless
of their religion, race, ethnicity is indispensable.
Today our world is in dire need of
forums that facilitate genuine dialogue stemming from the recognition
of identities and the respect for religious plurality and cultural diversity,
a dialogue where its stakeholders can
listen, hear and talk to each other.
It is well-known that prevention is
always better than cure. Peaceful dialogue is more valuable and has longstanding and far-reaching effect than
any military action.
That is why Kazakhstan launched
the interfaith dialogue in Astana as far
back as in 2003. This initiative was a
part of our peaceful solution to tensions and turbulences existing across
the globe. Our country has been an
anchor of stability and security in our
part of the world, a model of interreligious accord. We established the
Assembly of the People of Kazakh-
stan which ensures that different
ethnic groups have their say in the
national Parliament. Building on the
successful experience of interfaith
harmony at home our country seeks
to promote the powerful message
of peace and the virtue of diversity
worldwide.
The upcoming Fifth Congress taking place in Astana on June 10-11,
2015 will discuss many acute issues including the responsibility of
religious leaders and politicians, the
influence of religion on the youth.
We expect that many high-ranking
guests will come again to our capital
and will continue negotiations for the
sake of peace and security.
It is our firm belief that we should
step up efforts to overcome hatred,
prejudices, stereotypes and bias. We
should take into consideration that
other civilizations, cultures, religions
that have no less ancient and important history do exist. And they cannot
be destroyed by any power or will.
Every society is unique and every nation has the right to choose its way of
development with one precondition:
development towards democracy and
progress.
It is worth mentioning the words of
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
“Let us never forget that what divides
us is miniscule compared with what
unites us. Working together, we can
achieve all our goals for peace, prosperity and physical and spiritual wellbeing”.
The author is the Chairman of
the Senate of Kazakhstan and the
Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and
Traditional Religions. He served
as UN Under-Secretary General,
Director-General of the United
Nations Office at Geneva, Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Kazakhstan.
By Rev. Robert Chase
For most Americans, Kazakhstan seems like a faraway place,
indeed. But Americans can be
quite myopic, blind to much of
what goes on in the world beyond its borders. Actually, from
a world perspective, Kazakhstan
is right in the center of things.
Located on the old silk route,
straddling Asia and Europe, Kazakhstan is home to well over
100 ethnic groups, a wide variety of cultural expressions and
religions.
By relinquishing its Soviet
stockpile of nuclear weapons
in 1995, Kazakhstan firmly declared itself as a nation in search
of nuclear non-proliferation and
global peacebuilding, and so it is
a fitting place for gatherings that
promote the things that make for
peace, including cultural diversity and religious pluralism. Under
the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the nation’s
commitment to interreligious
harmony is highlighted every
three years at the Congress of
Leaders of World and Traditional
Religions; the fifth such gathering of which will take place June
10-11 in the capital city, Astana.
Two important things happen at the Congress. First, people from different cultures and
countries come together to seek
concrete ways of building peace,
justice, and understanding across
national borders. Sadly, in a day
when political extremists dominate the headlines, this does not
happen as often as we would
hope. Secondly, people come
together across lines of faith.
Muslims, Christians, and Jews;
Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains;
Zoroastrians and native spiritualists discuss how religious leaders might influence governments
and societies, infusing political
and economic policies with the
ways that promote global security and interreligious understanding.
Cynics may ask: why bother?
Why get together in endless dialogues laced with diplomatic
niceties, where nothing of substance is actually discussed?
How does it benefit you? And
more importantly, how does it
benefit the world?
Two answers come to me: the
first is brief, so simple that it is
often overlooked. As long as we
are talking together, we are not
shooting at each other. As long
as we take the time to get to
know “the other” at a deep level,
it becomes harder to isolate and
aggregate an entire people – a
nationality, a race, a culture, a
religion – and demonize them.
The second answer is drawn
from an actual example of an effort underway among religious
leaders from Pakistan and the
U.S. – two nations not particularly known for their harmonious
relations. Since 2011, multifaith
members of the U.S.-Pakistan Interreligious Consortium (UPIC)
have gathered on four separate
occasions (three times in Pakistan) to build relationships,
shatter stereotypes and, together,
create and implement an action
agenda that seeks to reduce tensions between the two countries.
American-Pakistani relations
are filled with mistrust, misunderstanding, violence and fear,
and yet UPIC has produced positive outcomes. Lasting relationships, educational exchanges
between scholars and students,
studies of ancient texts between
Jews and Muslims, and media
outreach to change public perceptions have been only some of
the outcomes of this project. As
religious leaders gather in June
in Astana, their challenge will
be to experience the Congress
not as an end in itself, but as a
launch pad for sustained change,
using religion – which so many
say is a source of division – as
the instrument that makes for a
lasting peace in our violenceplagued world.
The author is the founding director of Intersections
International. Prior to that,
Chase served as director of
communication for the 1 million member United Church of
Christ. He is an author and an
award-winning video producer/director with more than 100
productions to his credit. Rev.
Chase is an ordained minister
in the United Church of Christ.
This opinion was originally
published by Patheos and other publications.
C2
DIALOGUE FOR PEACE
The Meeting that Leads to Unity
Welcome, Congress!
The head of our state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, defined spiritual
consent as the main goal of our independent state, bringing together
leaders of world religions in Kazakhstan’s capital and turning it
into a symbol of peace and unity.
The upcoming Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will implement these good
intentions.
The event is designed to help
preserve the faith and unity of
our people and the peoples of the
world and their integrity, take lessons from unreasonable actions
that destroy the peace of civilians,
condemn all manifestations of extremism and radicalism using religion as a cover as well as prove to
the world that Islam is a religion of
unity and accord.
I am deeply convinced that the
reasonable judgments and informative presentations of religious
leaders, which will be announced
at the congress, will further
strengthen interfaith harmony
and understanding. The congress,
which is held triennially in our
vast and hospitable country, will
give a new impetus to the work of
the Spiritual Board of Muslims of
Kazakhstan, which brings together
70 percent of the country’s Muslims and manages more than 2,500
mosques, as well as contributes to
the further development and conservation of religious harmony and
stability in our state.
At the second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in 2006, the leader of our
nation, Nursultan Nazarbayev,
raised the issue that is a concern
to us all. The head of state said,
“When the media relish bullying
other confessions and religions’
sacred feelings, it becomes clear
that these journalists will sooner
or later have to face the mockery
of their own beliefs. What is sacred for one cannot be the subject
of ridicule to another. This simple
rule, unfortunately, is infringed not
only by journalists and politicians,
but often by the spiritual shepherds
who refer to other religions in a
perfunctory manner.”
Rapid development of technology has led to global changes in
society and contributes to the development of the era of global
transformation in the consciousness of people. That consecutively
confers a great responsibility on
us, the representatives of the spiritual board.
Currently, the world is going
through an economic crisis and
is faced with the problems of political, national and religious character, too. In the new era, for the
first time humanity is facing religious clashes, ethnic hatred and
global problems unseen before.
We have seen a negative change
of consciousness of young people
as a result of the politicisation of
In June, Astana for the fifth time
will receive the Congress of Leaders
of World and Traditional Religions.
Of course, some questions arise
and different opinions are being expressed about its necessity, effectiveness and timeliness. There is a wide
range of views; sometimes they are
diametrically opposite. However, if
we group all opinions and questions,
there will be only two: Do we need
the Congress? Is it important?
I am not a historian, but looking
back for two or three centuries, the
following thing can be observed:
since the French Revolution, the
states rapidly secularised.
The economy was dominated by
the market; therefore there was a
struggle for the possession of resources and sales market. Obviously,
very often it was cloaked in the likeness of concern for “the happiness
of mankind.” However, the religious
factor in confrontations and conflicts
became smaller and smaller. It seems
that the 20th century, at least its first
three quarters, almost buried this
problem. In 1970s-80s, if someone
would say that in the future the era of
conflicts and wars under the guise of
ideological struggle for the truth of
faith will revive, the vast majority of
society would not accept it seriously.
Nevertheless, the end of the 20th and
the beginning of the 21st century
have shown that “he laughs best who
laughs without consequences.”
There are a series of armed conflicts, increasing number of violent
acts and growth of confrontation on
ethnic grounds. Unfortunately, all of
these things happen under the guise
of religious slogans and religious
rhetoric.
Certainly, the vast majority of
people involved into these things
are downright adventurers and plain
gangsters. However, we should not
close our eyes to the fact that in the
mass there are a sufficient number
of people who were deceived by the
false teachers. They believe they kill
for God.
Even more frightening is that some
leaders of the religious communities
are scouring the world in search of
weapons and calling for war.
The fifth congress in Astana is
a meeting of religious leaders and
politicians. It is a dialogue about
responsibility of participants for the
fate and peace of their followers, as
well as humanity as a whole.
The congress serves as a reminder
to each of them, not only about their
personal responsibility, but also
about consolidated responsibility.
This is an attempt to establish very
necessary dialogue. This is an opportunity to hear each other. This is an
opportunity to try to understand each
other. This is an opportunity to stop
the bloodshed.
I do not think that everything will
immediately change for the better by
all means. However, I am sure that
it will not pass without a trace and
some shifts will occur, which is al-
By Yerzhan Hajji Malgazhyuly
religion. In different parts of the
world, there are various dubious
organisations exploiting faith for
political purposes. Radical organisations rejecting traditional religious notions have moved to open
extremist actions.
People advocating the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria sow discord and foment religious
strife. A significant part of their
organisation is young people who
understand religion not as rational
knowledge, but with a false sense.
There is no doubt that those actions
of the insurgents mean an open
confrontation of traditional religion
and have become alien not only to
Muslims, but to all humankind.
When it comes to faith, some
people who lack the knowledge
and misunderstanding in terms of
religion express wrong judgments
and negative conclusions.
The word “religion” is a broad
term and intimate notion. This not
only means the worship of God.
Religion is the perfect model of
lifestyle, the path that leads to happiness in both worlds. Religion is a
great force that creates in people’s
hearts a sense of charity, morality,
faith and nobility and eliminates
the negative action. “How could I
be ignorant if I was called a man,”
said the great Kazakh thinker Abai
Kunanbayev.
In Arabic, “din” (religion) means
“gift,” “solution,” “report,” “punishment,” “Sharia,” “obedience,”
“worship,” “law,” “path,” etc. In
accordance with a terminological
interpretation, religion is a set of
laws and rules that were revealed
by the Creator through His envoys
and prophets governing a system
of lifestyle of humankind, which
is the spiritual pillar of the human
soul. Only the Creator of all the
worlds delivers religion to us. Religion is a huge road, illuminating
the meaning and purpose of human
life, raising a human to worship his
God. Islam specifies the path of
mercy and contentment of the Almighty in both worlds. It governs
the way of life, all the actions of
humanity in the right direction.
The main feature of religion
is its revelation by the Almighty
through His messengers and angels. Humans were created with
the instinct of worship, willing to
testify to the existence of Allah.
These feelings will sooner or later
lead to a belief in the supernatural. A proof of this is history itself.
After all, even if there is a person
without faith, there is no society
without religion. Thus, initially in
the spiritual world the Almighty
Creator planted into the human
soul a sense of faith in the Creator of all the worlds. He took from
us the promise that we will know
Him as the Creator of the universe.
This is the root of all these words
of our ancestors. “We are originally
Muslims,” it is said in the Holy
Qur’an, (The Prophet Muhammad
p.b.u.h.). When your God took from
the loins of the children of Adam
their posterity and made them testify against themselves (by asking a
question), “Am I your God?” they
replied, “Yes (we bear witness that
you are our Lord) and we (God)
have witnessed (your response) to
the Day of Judgment,” you will not
say, “We did not know that.”
Thank God, in our country all
conditions are provided for the
religious needs of believers. Our
head of state in his annual addresses to the nation constantly
focuses on the spiritual life of the
people, strengthening family values, preserving unity and charity
events. Because our main areas of
focus are the spiritual and religious
spheres, we are investing our efforts in the spiritual development
of our people. I firmly believe that
in order to ensure the successful economic development of our
country, we need to develop a spiritual path.
Our country ranks first in the
number of houses of worship
among the countries of Central
Asia. Religious buildings of all
traditional religions are operated
on an equal footing.
Kazakh people consider peace
as the main wealth and exalt and
worship the concept of “mutual
understanding and concordance.”
As history shows, religious figures
chose the path of compliance and
unity. They believed that the unity
of the people is the most precious
gift.
Our Venerable Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) has strengthened the
foundation of the unity of Islam.
The Envoy of Allah showed great
example of rallying tribes and
clans in the name of a common
goal, which is a clear orientation
point for every manager in his administrative work. The congress
of religious leaders also pursues
this goal.
Folk wisdom says, “True wealth
is not in abundance, but in unity.”
Almighty God commands humanity, “Do not go divided!”
Every sensible person realises
that the recognition only of wealth
leads to the aggravation of problems such as the financial crisis,
injustice between people, family
discord and social dislocation. It
means the necessity to put spiritual
values in the first place.
Today, society is increasingly
in need of moral values. In these
times of spiritual crisis, all hopes
rely on religious leaders and intellectuals. Providing care for the
suffering is the obligation of Muslims.
Great
Kazakh
enlightener
Akhmed Baitursynov said, “Today is a child of yesterday and a
father of tomorrow.” Our common
homeland and universal values,
based on the unity and religious
harmony of the people of Kazakhstan, this heritage will shape
our future. These memorable and
light moments, unity of religions,
friendship and peace between the
peoples will be written in golden
letters in our history.
In conclusion, one should note
the agreement and understanding
between the leaders of traditional
religions, as well as delivered addresses and decrees, have opened
new opportunities for the international community in solving common problems.
A major achievement is that authoritative representatives of religions who have participated in
the congress have set a common
goal, common values and common
agreement in the first place.
Participants in the congress are
struggling with problems such as
the use of force in relation to religion and the nation and the division on religious, ethnic and linguistic signs insulting the nation,
as well as the extremist actions.
Opinions and statements do not
remain only in words, but turn into
concrete actions via implementation of documents, concepts and
published addresses.
High-ranking individuals, politicians and presidents of leading
countries supported these initiatives of Kazakhstan. Every year,
the number of members of the
delegation, as well as participants
in the congress, is growing. It is
worth noting that the talks and exchange of views of about 100 representatives from 40 countries at
the same table is good proof of the
maintenance of international security and efficiency of the congress.
We can say with confidence that
the Congress of Leaders of World
and Traditional Religions has
made a huge contribution to interreligious dialogue.
We have witnessed a great responsibility of religious leaders,
the media and politicians on the
way of establishing peace in the
world, which has been the focus of
the congress over the years.
Let our independence be perpetual and our future be pious. Let us
have our prayers accepted and our
intentions clean.
The author is Supreme Mufti
and Chairman of the Spiritual
Board of Muslims of Kazakhstan.
By Bishop Yuri Novgorodov
Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional
Religions Is Sign of Hope for the World
By Archbishop Tomasz Peta
“Kazakhstan, you are the land
of a meeting, you are a bridge between Asia and Europe, between
people of different nationalities
and religions.”
These and other similar words
spoken in Astana fourteen years
ago by Pope John Paul II still resonate in our hearts.
On the one hand, the Pope had
presented to the world a model of
relations between different ethnicities and denominations in our
country. On the other hand, he
urged us to keep going further, saying, “Kazakhstan, you have a mission to be a bridge.”
During his visit, John Paul II was
praying for Kazakhstan and blessed it. Blessing Kazakhstan, the
Pope said, “We stand before you in
a special minute of mankind’s history, at the beginning of the third
millennium, when humanity has a
desire to be one family, but, it nevertheless remains divided, wounded by many conflicts and wars. We
stand in a special place on Earth –
in the centre of Eurasian continent,
in a place where representatives of
many nationalities and religions
live next to each other.”
One can guess that the papal
ideas might have encouraged our
President Nursultan Nazarbayev
to initiate holding the Congress of
Religions in 2003 in Astana and
then the following ones. On the eve
of the First Congress the Vatican
Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo
Sodano spoke in Astana: “Let the
Spirit of Assisi be the spirit of Astana” [referring to the first great interreligious meeting in history, i.e.
the World Day of Prayer for Peace
in Assisi, Italy, on Oct. 27, 1986].
Now, we are looking forward to
the fifth congress, which Astana
will host on June 10-11.
The Palace of Peace and Harmony in Astana is a witness to the fact
that the Kazakh capital has really
turned into an important meeting
place.
I think that the very fact of the
meeting of representatives of all
world religions is a major achievement of the Astana congresses.
From meetings are born acquaintances, mutual understanding, new
ideas, friendship, desire to cooperate in a spirit of truth and love. If
there are no meetings, visible or
invisible walls between people begin to grow. Therefore, the Astana
meeting is an important element in
building trust and hope in contemporary world.
In August 2007, by the invitation
of the Father General of the Order
of Conventual Franciscans the ecclesiastics of Kazakhstan, representatives of Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Lutheranism visited
the Vatican and Italy. Welcoming
us at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI called the visit a “sign of
hope” and noted “dialogue must always take place in truth and love.”
It was another meeting “in the spirit of Assisi and Astana.”
We thank God for the gift of
peace in Kazakhstan. With grati-
tude, we think about sound policy
of leaders of our country led by
our President, policies aimed at
cooperation and accord between
all people of Kazakhstan, regardless of their ethnicity and religion.
We are pleased to witness the
strong will of the Kazakh people
and of all ethnic groups living in
our country to live and work in
peace.
The role of religious communities in the provision of public consent is very important, as belief
in God forms the conscience of a
man. Religion is not just a collection of traditions. Above all, it is a
human meeting with the God, the
action of God in the human heart
and of human life. A person fortified by God, can take responsibility for his or her life, the lives of
families and country. Even in the
midst of difficulties, a believer
can remember that he is in God’s
hands and not lose hope.
Thus, the community of believers help their members to be people
of conscience, as conscience is the
main guardian of public peace and
order.
Thank God that in our country
we have freedom of religion and
conscience. In this way, the con-
ditions exist for everyone to seek
God, to become a person of conscience.
The development of spiritual beginning, which accompanies material development, testifies to the
full development of our society.
Since the bird cannot fly using only
one wing, and one cannot build a
happy life, relying only on material
goods: “Not by bread alone doth
man live.” Our two wings are spiritual and material benefits, prayer
and labour.
The beauty of Kazakhstan is
manifested in the beauty of nature and buildings but even more
in beautiful families where there
is love, respect for the elderly, the
disabled and all those suffering,
respect for every person, including those who still reside under the
mother’s heart.
The Catholics of Kazakhstan
represent a modest group of people
scattered throughout the country,
and they are trying to contribute to
the spiritual and material development of our beloved Kazakhstan.
In the village of Ozernoye in the
North Kazakhstan Oblast, which is
the spiritual centre for the Catholics of Kazakhstan, there is an altar,
“The Star of Kazakhstan,” sitting in
ready a lot. Anyway, it is a chance
which should not be overlooked.
Someone will say, “Yes, it is all
good, but what exactly does it give to
Kazakhstan and to me?” Let us see.
The security of each person and the
country as a whole has always been
and are major concerns of the country’s leader. Of course, that is if he is
a genuine leader. We were lucky; our
President is genuine with a capital
letter. He is not just a politician, he is
also a statesman. I distinguish these
two concepts. A politician is mainly
interested in the following election.
A statesman cares about the interests
of the country. For him, it is a supreme concern.
President Nazarbayev has managed to make Kazakhstan an ambassador of peace and mediator for
the conflicting parties. He made our
country a platform for negotiations.
His brainchild, the Congress of
Religions, is one of these platforms.
A dialogue, even if it is a long, difficult and sometimes unpleasant one, is
the only way to preserve peace for all.
In a few days, a lot of guests will
visit us. For all of us, it is a unique
opportunity to expand knowledge
about the world and make new connections and friends “without leaving home.” This is an opportunity to
see the representatives of religious
communities, see diverse religions’
palettes personally, not from textbooks and to touch it.
I really want our citizens, especially young people, to have an opportunity to contact with the diversity of
spirituality, attend, observe and learn
from the congressional activities and
empathise.
I have an honour, on behalf of the
world community of the Lutheran
Church, to express gratitude to the
people of Kazakhstan and its President Nazarbayev for his relentless
pursuit of peace and say, “The things
you do are important and necessary!”
To me, it is especially pleasant
because it is addressed to my homeland. That is why I say, “Welcome,
Congress!”
I wish peace and prosperity to our
country and all people of Kazakhstan. God bless our country!
The author is a bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
the Republic of Kazakhstan.
the temple of Queen of Peace. It is
there that through adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament the daily prayer
is delivered for the benefit of our
homeland and peace in the world.
Twelve kilometres away from Ozernoye, at the hill of Akhymbettau
(“The Volyn hill”) there is a cross,
a monument to all the innocent
victims of repression times. The
inscription on the pedestal of the
monument proclaims in four languages (Kazakh, Russian, German
and Polish) the following words:
Glory to God
Peace to People
The Kingdom of Heaven to Martyrs
Gratitude to the
Kazakhstan people
Prosperity to Kazakhstan.
With these words, we ask the
Almighty to let Kazakhstan, under the leadership of our respected
President, to continue on the path
of peace and harmony, and serve as
an example to all nations that the
path of peace can achieve a lot, but
the path of war brings loss of everything.
We are confident that the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Astana will
become permanent and the capital
of Kazakhstan, situated in the heart
of the Eurasian continent, will illuminate more and more the light
of hope and peace in the search for
truth, kindness and beauty.
The author is Roman Catholic
Archbishop of the Metropolitan
Archdiocese of Saint Mary in the
city of Astana.
C3
DIALOGUE FOR PEACE
Congress of Religious Leaders Is Result
of Kazakh President’s Initiative
By Arystanbek Mukhamediuly
It is fair to say that each historical
phase, every new historical epoch
enriches humanity with new social
and spiritual experience. The example of Kazakhstan, which is rightfully seen as a respected international centre for dialogue between
all world and traditional religions
today, proves that.
On June 10-11, Astana will host
the fifth Congress of Leaders of
World and Traditional Religions,
with 112 delegations from 44 countries expected to attend.
The uniqueness of the upcoming
interreligious summit lies in its key
theme – “The Dialogue of Religious
Leaders and Politicians in the Name
of Peace and Development.” The
matter is that the interactive platform of the congress will see for
the first time the meeting of spiritual and political leaders sharing
the same understanding of integrity
of the world and a sense of community in the face of the globalisation
of conflicts and their turning into a
shakeup of the world order.
During the plenary and breakout
sessions of the congress, the participants will have a detailed discussion
of how effective the decisions of religious and political leaders are in
ensuring a conflict-free future; how
sufficient the international community’s tools are for countering
the changing threats to peace; what
the mechanisms are to prevent the
countering of one religious worldview with another which certainly
brings tensions. These and other
questions will be debated at the congress, and the participants will seek
answers to them.
As a whole, convening another
inter-religious summit in Astana
will be another significant contribution by Kazakhstan to the shaping
of a new paradigm of international
security, one that is based on maintaining efficient dialogue between
religious leaders and politicians in
search for a joint response to the
threats and challenges of the globalising world.
All people of good will are expecting that from the very heart of
Eurasia a clear message of strengthening peace and harmony for nations and states will come.
We believe that dialogue among
spiritual hierarchs and politicians
at a new stage of history can be described as the essence of a sort of
anchor point, a crucially important
element to ensure long-term security in a rapidly changing world.
The mandate of the Congress of
Religions is to become an important
link in the chain of international efforts to harmonise relations between
civilisations, societies and people,
rapprochement of cultures and religions on a platform of dialogue for
the future of all humanity.
The congress aims to establish a
direct dialogue between the leaders
of major religions to ensure cooperation between representatives of
different denominations to convert
prevailing hostility and confrontation of the modern world to mutual
understanding and peacefulness.
Moreover, by virtue of the congress,
the real conditions for opening new
horizons of cooperation between
different religious communities are
being created.
For now a dozen years since the
convening of the first congress in
2003, the inter-religious summits
have demonstrated to the world a
true vocation of all religions, common moral and ethical principles,
and their enormous peacekeeping
and humanitarian potential.
In this regard, it is important
to emphasise that the initiative of
convening a congress of spiritual
hierarchy belongs to the President
Nursultan Nazarbayev, who tirelessly stresses the need for intercivilisational and interfaith dialogue at
the highest level.
As recognised by spiritual hierarchs, the Kazakh leader’s global
initiative to create a unique interreligious dialogue platform has
opened a new path to the world
community for a dialogue of civilisations.
In meetings with the leaders
of world and traditional religions
participating in the first congress,
President Nazarbayev noted that the
idea of a dialogue of civilisations is
not something new and the international community has done a lot
of work in this field and made significant contribution to the general
progress of humanity by addressing
the threats for peace and security,
confidence-building at the national,
regional and international levels, as
well as development of common
ethical standards.
The head of our state clearly
outlined the thesis that despite the
importance of the capacity, value
and outcomes of the work that had
previously been done, they couldn’t
stop the ongoing conflicts in the
world on religious matters and had
not achieved the main goal, that is
to halt the slide of the world community into a possible clash of civilisations.
President Nazarbayev drew the
attention of religious leaders to the
fact that the main omission of numerous international forums, various summits, seminars and other
meetings was poor attention to interfaith dialogue, as it is one of the
key aspects for a dialogue of civilisations.
“We believe that leaders of different confessions whose activities
have a direct and diverse impact on
the minds of people will be able to
say the final word on the majority
of current conflicts, which I must
say have mostly religious and ethnic overtones,” the President of Kazakhstan said.
It is time for decisive action, fateful decisions and beginning of a
long and complex process of interfaith dialogue.
The following interfaith summits in 2006, 2009 and 2012 proved
that more than ever it is important
to show the world the spiritual and
moral foundations of the potential
of all religions. It is necessary to prevent the appeals of the prevalence of
immorality about the clash of civilisations and religions, expressed in
contrasting beliefs, further politicisation of theological disputes and
attempts to discredit one religion in
the name of another one.
Our country is doing everything
to make this important platform
of leaders of world and traditional
religions to become the core of cooperation of spiritual hierarchy and
politicians to bring the priority of
moral values and humanistic ideals
back to the heart of the human community, to combat extremism and
terrorism.
As a result of the global initiative
of the Kazakh leader, Astana leads
a cohort of subjects of international
law today, which promotes dialogue
between leaders of different world
and traditional religions and denominations.
These achievements are inseparably associated with the history of
the formation of statehood of our
country when President Nazarbayev
in the result of his hard, daily work
managed to keep balance, peace and
stability in our country.
Our leader proved capable of
deeply understanding the problems
and prospects of the transformation
of society and defining the strategy
of a strong and prosperous state
based on the principle of [the Russian historian and philosopher] Lev
Gumilev’s thesis that “ethnic diversity is the best form of human existence.” President Nazarbayev thus
turned the principle of “ethnic and
confessional diversity,” which was
perhaps considered the major weakness of our country, into a strategic
resource for the development of our
young state.
As result of its success, Kazakhstan has avoided interethnic and
inter-confessional conflicts. The effective result was achieved by virtue
of a consistent and balanced policy
pursued by our country in the religious sphere, modesty, deficiency of
protection from the government in
relation to any religion. In the meantime, inter-religious harmony and
tolerance were always considered
the core values of Kazakh society.
It is important to note these circumstances as Kazakhstan has historically formed as a multi-ethnic
and multi-faith country with a rich
religious landscape. Islam and Orthodox Christianity in our country
are the religions that form the backbone of our culture. They determine
the traditional life of the people and
significantly contribute to spiritual
development of society.
The government recognises the
first day of Kurban Ait (Eid al-Adha) and Orthodox Christmas as official days off in Kazakhstan.
The established effective model
of relations between the state and religious organisations in our country
is based on democratic principles,
respect for the rights and freedom
of believers, on partnership and an
effort for mutual understanding, tolerance and careful attention to the
feelings of believers.
The preservation and protection
of identity, culture, language and
Kazakhstan Provides Unique Opportunities
for Religious and Cultural Communities
By Metropolitan Alexander
On June 10-11, Astana hosts
the fifth Congress of Leaders of
World and Traditional Religions.
Three years ago, I had an opportunity to take part in the fourth
forum attended by 85 delegations
from 40 countries. That time, the
participants of the congress were
very impressed by the speech of
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev and His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
Kirill.
At the congress in 2012, there
were a lot of discussions about
the most pressing challenges of
our time – terrorism and extremism under the flag of religion. His
Holiness the Patriarch said: “Inhumane acts, whose victims are innocent civilians – is not only the
result of the evil intentions of the
bandits, which we condemn. This
is the consequence of a religious
vacuum, lack of a faithful picture of the religious tradition. The
states fight terrorism, destroy hostile fanatics and it is right because
society has the right to defend itself. Nevertheless, it is necessary
to solve the problem at its root:
to give people the opportunity to
peacefully practice their ancestral
faith, develop their national culture embodied through the dispensation of a family and participation
in construction of social relations.”
Unfortunately, we see that over
the years the danger has seriously
increased. The absence of a traditional religious education leads
to the development of aggression
and display of the darkest human
passions. The Middle East rages.
We have a deep compassion for
Christians and members of other
religious movements of Syria and
Iraq, where a horrific genocide
takes place.
For centuries, Muslims and
Christians peacefully coexisted in
the Middle East. The history demonstrates that in traditional education, the presence of different
religious communities promotes
spiritual development of tolerance,
lays good relations between Muslims, Christians and members of
other religions living side by side
in the same environment. In order to respect your neighbour, you
should know him well. Unawareness and lack of communication
provokes suspicion and speculation.
There are terrible figures, for example, in the Iraqi city of Mosul
there were 45 Christian churches.
Today there is not a single one.
More than 400 Christian churches
were destroyed in Syria over the
past four years. If this continues
in the Middle East, soon there will
be no Christian presence in the region. The ancient Patriarchate of
Antioch, which survived the most
difficult times of the Middle Ages
may cease to exist in the 21century. On a regular basis, we hear different information about massive
killings of Christians in Nigeria,
Pakistan and North Africa.
In such circumstances, the value
of forums like the one in Astana
cannot be overstated. It is noteworthy that the capital of Kazakhstan, the state that provides unique
opportunities for the communities
of many religions and cultures, becomes the venue for the religious
summit once again.
Kazakhstan perceives this diversity, which is a source of endless divisions and internal strife in
many countries, as its advantage
and wealth.
“In my view, multiculturalism,
ethnic and religious diversity are
not challenges to society, but huge
advantages. In the 21 century, tolerance becomes a key factor of
development and growth of an innovative economy. We should not
ignore the fact that over the last
30 years, countries that have different ethnic and cultural diversity
achieved the greatest success. Today’s world needs a synthesis and
development of such experience.
In this regard, the congress could
act as a leading interactive platform aimed at the ideological and
spiritual construction of fair world
order foundations in the 21 century,” President Nazarbayev said.
The central theme of the fourth
congress was “Peace and harmony
as the choice of mankind.” In its
framework, a significant historical
event, such as the first meeting of
the Council of Religious Leaders
took place. It was created on the
initiative of President Nazarbayev
and unanimously supported by the
leaders of world and traditional religions. The council consists of 14
prominent religious leaders of the
world. The aim of the council is to
define priorities and mechanisms
for dialogue and cooperation with
other forums and international
organisations, whose work is focused on the dialogue of cultures
and economic interaction.
Also historically significant was
the fact that the participants of the
fourth congress visited the opening ceremony of the monument
to the victims of hunger, visited
the museum-memorial complex
ALZHIR, where they prayed for
the souls of the innocent people
who were tortured there. A newly
established Alley Rouhani Zharasym – Spiritual Harmony near the
grand arch Mangilik El – Eternal
nation in the capital became the
memory of the congress.
The fifth Congress of Leaders of
World and Traditional Religions
will be devoted to the dialogue of
religious leaders and politicians in
the name of peace and development. We expect that the forum
will be a significant milestone in
bringing together all the healthy
forces of the world community in
combating the threat of terrorism,
in opposition to the lack of spirituality and moral vices.
Christianity in Central Asia has
historical roots. The first mention
about the presence of Christians
here, namely, in the city of Merv
on the territory of today’s Turkmenistan belongs to the scholar
Biruni. According to his report,
there was a Christian community
founded in the beginning of the
third century. At the beginning of
the fourth century, the Nestorian
church archdiocese was based in
the capital of the Sogd kingdom
Samarkand.
The new Christian presence on
the territory of Kazakhstan is connected with Russian settlements,
which arise as a result Kazakhstan’s becoming part of the Russian Empire.
In 1854, on the territory of Zhetysu, in the place of one of the
Kazakh settlements, was founded
Fort Vernyi with the church on its
territory. In 1866, the first churches and prayer houses were opened
in Turkestan and Shymkent.
Turkestan Eparchy was formed in
1871 with the centre in Vernyi. It
consisted of 26 churches. The first
priests arrived in Zhetysu from
Russia on a voluntary basis.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, 391,000 Orthodox Christians lived in Central Asia and 306
churches were acting here. Movement of Orthodox immigrants to
Kazakhstan had several waves over
the past two centuries. Among the
immigrants were: military, Cossacks, artisans and farmers of the
second half of the 19 century; peasants of Stolypin reforms; deported
and exiled citizens of the atheistic
Soviet Union and developers of the
Virgin Lands of the post-war era.
All of them found a shelter and salvation from starvation in the hospitality of Kazakh families.
However, it should be noted that
those Orthodox workers, who arrived to the expanses of Zhetysu
and Saryarka, often tried to find
here not a temporary shelter, but
a second home – a beloved fatherland, where strength, skills and talents were needed. The monuments
of selfless work and inspiration of
Orthodox settlers in Kazakhstan
became a miracle of architecture.
For example, St. Ascension Cathedral in Almaty, industrial plants,
construction sites, universities and
theatres.
In 2016, the Orthodox Church of
Kazakhstan will celebrate its 50th
anniversary since the repose of St.
Sebastian of Karaganda, the saint
whose name is dear to the entire
Orthodox world. He was the one
who most clearly expressed with
his life the attitude of Russian immigrants to a new homeland.
Interfaith peace and harmony
in society require tireless efforts
of leaders and representatives of
various religious faiths. In this
regard, an outstanding role of the
first President of independent Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev,
the spiritual traditions of citizens at
the state level will create a unique
Kazakh model of interethnic and
interreligious harmony. Its progressive nature lies in the fact that the
government constantly strives to
ensure social peace in the country,
which allows citizens to live with
dignity, work and accumulate positive experiences in the field of human relations.
Today, looking back we can definitely say that the balanced implementation of the key provisions
such as respect and support to the
best traditions of world and traditional religions, the creation of conditions for the development and free
use of the languages of all ethnic
groups, the preservation of their cultures and traditions, have allowed
the President of Kazakhstan to consolidate and unite citizens of our
country into a single community.
Kazakhstan by its own example
clearly has demonstrated that the dialogue and peaceful coexistence of
different ethnic groups and religions
is possible. The best tool for this is
a painstaking and accurate work of
the country’s leadership to harmonise the various interests of all the
people of Kazakhstan.
International politicians and experts commend our model of interethnic and inter-confessional accord and consider it a valuable case
to study for implementation in the
public life of other countries, including highly developed countries
too.
We look forward to the start of the
fifth Congress of Leaders of World
and Traditional Religions, the paradigm of which was clearly noted by
President Nazarbayev: “Religious
leaders should encourage politicians to take the road of peace and
harmony. The wealth of this world
created by God must be present at
all levels of the global political system.”
I am sure the Astana congress of
spiritual hierarchs, a product of the
global initiative by Kazakh President Nazarbayev will provide a new
impetus, new breath to the benefit
of all societies and nations of our
planet.
The author is Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan.
who consistently pursues a policy
aimed at ensuring peaceful labour
of citizens of all nationalities and
religions for more than twenty
years, should be highlighted.
“Traditional Islam and Christianity are the two wings of the
Kazakhstan bird that is flying over
the expanses of Central Asia,” the
President said during his visit to
the Cathedral of the Dormition
(Moscow) on Christmas holiday
in 2012.
The full revival of the Orthodox
Church in Kazakhstan is reflected
in the following figures: if in 1956
only 55 parishes were operating in
Kazakhstan, at the beginning of
1999 there were 212 parishes and
eight monasteries. Over the past
decade, these positive statistics
have improved further.
The Orthodox feast of Christmas (Jan. 7) became one of the
officially recognised holidays in
Kazakhstan.
In May 2003, the Holy Synod
of the Russian Orthodox Church
decided to establish the Metropolitan District in Kazakhstan of
a new special form of dioceses’
association in order to coordinate
religious education, publishing,
social and other public activities of
dioceses in Kazakhstan.
Today, Christianity is the second largest religious direction in
Kazakhstan. Almost all churches
and chapels have Sunday schools,
which educate both children and
adults.
The Orthodox believers in Kazakhstan look at the future with optimism and hope. They are aware
of the blessed land, their homeland
that was abundantly covered with
the blood of martyrs and confessors of the 20th century, where by
God’s providence they were destined to carry out their mission.
We believe the activities of the
congress of Leaders of World and
Traditional Religions in Astana
will certainly have a positive effect
on the further development of the
spiritual life of our citizens.
The author is the Metropolitan
of Astana and Kazakhstan of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
C4
DIALOGUE FOR PEACE
Congress of Leaders of World and
Dialogue Is The
Traditional Religions: New Horizons Way Forward
By Dr. Kala Acharya
To know the religion of another
person means identifying oneself with the other person’s sense
of being a Hindu, Muslim, Jew,
Christian or whatever faith the
person belongs to. It requires that
we empty ourselves completely
so that we receive from others.
Thus, the first step consists in getting acquainted with others’ faith.
Then, from acquaintance we have
to move into the second step that
is appreciation of what is beautiful
in other’s faith: charity in Christianity, brotherhood in Islam, open
mindedness in Hinduism! From
appreciation we go into the third
step, which is respect and from respect we move towards harmony.
It is like the natural growth of a
plant that comes from the nothingness of the seed, like the empty
mind and sprouts into a huge tree
with so many branches, no branch
inferior and no branch superior.
What makes us indifferent about
others’ faith is our ego and our insensitivity. We have lived on this
earth for more or less a million
years; yet we are as primitive as we
were before. We kill one another,
try to snatch power and we use religion to serve selfish ends and not
for our yearning to experience God
in our hearts and in His creation.
If such hostilities were to break
out over and again in our global
village, the world that we inhabit
today, we would be destroying others without realising that thereby
we would be destroying ourselves
too. If each religion is up in arms
against another, all religions would
disappear and what will remain
would be sheer materialism.
Against this background can we
learn to recognise the enormous
potential of religion to refine man,
to make him more considerate,
kind and sympathetic towards others?
The answer is yes, depending
on what aspect of religion attracts
us. There is nothing wrong with
focusing on theological or ritual
discussions, however, if we miss
the moral precepts, the manner
and the spirit in which the masters
of a religion lived, we miss the
core of religion. Mahatma Gandhi
said, “Ours has become an age of
hypocrisy and insincerity. Men,
to whatever religion they belong,
care only for the external aspects
of religion, and give the go-by to
all its fundamental principles. In
their lust for accumulation, they
forget that they cause, or are likely to cause, harm to others.” And
what is the sum total of moral precepts in world religions? Mahatma
Gandhi says, “A moral rule is a
statement of a condition of social
welfare and the highest moral law
is that we should work unremittingly for the good of mankind.”
An interfaith dialogue, through
congress or summit, is one of the
ways to find out once again the
true spirit of each religion. But
this should not remain a theoretical task. It also needs action. Reformation of religion is a debatable
issue. However, instead of pointing
out lapses in others’ religion, one
can recognise the virtue in them.
One should not at least condemn
others’ religion. The reverence to
various forms of worship must be
shown at the right time and right
place. We all know that coexistence is not a subject to be merely
talked about; it is something that
needs to be practiced. And while
we over-emphasise religious freedom, we must not forget the words
of Victor Hugo: “The liberty of
one individual ends where the liberty of another individual begins.”
An ideal person is not one who
can but one who does act on
what he believes. Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is the one who
does. He has held the Congress of
Religions and opened a new page
in the history of mankind. He has
also established the Council of
Religious Leaders. His initiatives
have created an atmosphere of
goodwill amongst religious leaders. Now, the question that lingers
in the minds of all of us is: What
next?
Today, in many countries, we
find a few youngsters who genuinely and sincerely practice their
religion. However, on average,
youth today are neutral about religious issues, getting absorbed by
the materialistic and consumerist
society. In some cases, a few of
them are obsessed by the superiority of their religion and the obsession may give rise to fundamentalism. Some may even fall prey to the
extremists’ agenda and join camps
where they get military training
for carrying out acts of violence
in other countries. Politicians and
religious leaders coming together
should make an effort to dissuade
the youth from taking such suicidal step. It is also absolutely necessary to put an end to such trainings
in all parts of the world. The politicians should ban such trainings
and the religious leaders should
use their influence to discourage
such unruly youth from treading
the path from which there is hardly
any return. This should be the outcome of the Council of Religious
Leaders, Congress of Leaders of
World and Traditional Religions
and the sincere engagement of
President Nazarbayev.
The desire for a deep unity and
for a right understanding of religion is expressed in the following
verse of the Shvetasvatara Upanishad, the Hindu scripture (4.1):
“He who is one, and who dispenses the inherent needs of all peoples
and all times, who is the beginning
and the end of all things, may He
unite us with the bond.”
The author is the Director of
K. J. Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham, India.
Ever since the second congress in 2006, the event has been hosted by the Palace of Peace and Harmony (the Pyramid), gathering religious leaders at its famous round
table signifying the equality of all participants. Follow the latest updates under the hashtag #AstanaCongress.
By Dr. Abdullah Fahad Allheedan
In 2003, President of Kazakhstan
Nursultan Nazarbayev introduced
his initiative for dialogue of religious
leaders. In 2008, the late Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz
called for the need to have dialogue
among Muslims, Christians and
Jews.
These two calls came at a time
when peace initiatives stalled and
the tension in the whole world escalated. Both initiatives are inspired
by Islamic principles and reflect the
desire of Muslims to live in peaceful
coexistence and positive interaction
with the followers of other religions
and different cultures. These calls
are based on the support of senior
clerics and imams in Saudi Arabia
and Kazakhstan, which represent
an indispensable support in Muslim societies that believe that the
decisions of their rulers are based
on Islamic principles. Those principles state that all heavenly messages came down to guide people to
worship God in the manner enacted
by the Almighty and to remove the
scourge of poverty, injustice and
racial discrimination as it called to
uphold human values that promote
social justice.
These initiatives for a dialogue of
cultures and religions are based on
key principles:
A. Rejection of apartheid and
abandoning the idea that there is one
race superior to another. All people
are equal and enjoy the same degree of humanity; that is, they do not
claim to be superior to each other by
race, colour or sex.
B. The diversity and differences
in ethnic and human communities
are normal and should result in
an understanding and cooperation
among them.
C. The variation and diversity of human communities according to their
origin or religion is allowed by the
Almighty and it is therefore necessary
for the owners of wisdom and reason,
in spite of their differences, to strive to
find a common ground through which
they can achieve mutual respect and
happiness for mankind.
D. The need to face common social challenges in a world deluged
in material life that suffers from the
disintegration of family relationships
and the breakup of ethical values and
call for cooperation to alleviate those
problems by sharing experiences that
may contribute to finding effective
solutions.
The initiatives for a dialogue of
cultures and religions have been
met with desirability and welcomed
by all world leaders. In the speech
delivered by President Barack Obama in Cairo, the U.S. president said,
“Faith should bring us together and
this is why we have established service projects in America to bring
together Christians, Jews and Muslims and for that we welcome the
efforts of the Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosques King Abdullah to
establish a dialogue between religions.”
A statement of Rabbi David
Rosen, Director of Interreligious
Affairs of the American Jewish
Committee who previously served
as chief rabbi of Ireland, affirmed
the importance of dialogue between
religions.“Religion is mostly the
problem, so it should be the key to
the solution, or at least part of it,
and I think that the reason for the
failure of many initiatives to find a
political peace is that they ignored
the religious dimension,” he said.
It has been 12 years since President Nazarbayev introduced his initiative for dialogue of religious leaders
and eight years since the late King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia started another needed initiative for dialogue
to overcome extremism in the world.
Still, waves of extremism continue
to plague our world, as shown in the
atrocities recently committed by IS
extremists against Saudis. Yet, the
only solution we see is to continue
fighting back extremism with dialogue .In this regard, I highly praise
the courageous step by Kazakhstan
for deciding to include political leaders in the fifth Congress of Leaders
of World and Traditional Religions,
a decision to expand rather than decrease the level of dialogue.
Further and in light of the Islamic
ideals of peace, justice and realism,
we can suggest a set of means that
help the international community
to pass through this crisis and other
problems that face humanity. These
means are:
1. To give religious organisations
the proper place and increase cooperation between international organisations and religious organisations and
encourage more tolerance, participation and consultation to contain the
attempts of some elements that are
trying to blow up the global struggle.
2. To continue the dialogue and
follow the example of the Prophet
(PBUH), the four caliphs and those
who follow the way of Islamic history like Nour Elddin and Saladin,
who defeated the Crusader racism
with mind, tolerance and compassion, not with spear and sword.
3. We should acknowledge that
violations of international law, human rights and infringements on the
rights of peoples and its holy values
and incompliance with UN resolutions create an environment that
encourages terrorism. The result is
more serious, as these international
delinquent behaviours are used as an
excuse by groups of extremism and
violence to justify their actions. We
must recognise that in our time, the
influence of each country on the others has increased and grown and that
the behaviours of a country affects
directly and indirectly on the internal situation in many other countries.
The world has actually reached the
stage of the global village, where
some of its parts are affected by what
is happening in any other part.
4. Violence and extremism phenomenon has become a cross-border
global dilemma and not specific
to some people or race or religion
and this entails that all states should
come together to siege and fight it
according with the Islamic principle (help one another in Al-Birr and
At-Taqwâ [virtue, righteousness and
piety], but do not help one another in
sin and transgression [Al-Mâ’idah]).
The more justice, fairness, tolerance
and dialogue are expanded in the
states, institutions and individuals’
behaviours, the more extremism is
narrowed.
The efforts of Islamic institutions
in Saudi Arabia against extremist
ideas have become a well-known
experience, as the initiatives and the
support of the Government of the
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz
and Crown Prince Muhammad bin
Nayef bin Abdul Aziz have the greatest impact on the success achieved
in the country against terrorism and
extremism and to spread the values
of tolerance, dialogue and peace.
The Council of Senior Religious
Scholars in the Kingdom has issued
many statements that condemn violence and terrorism and urge solving
international problems in the light of
the principles of peace and justice
ordered by Islam. The Ministry of
Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawa
and Guidance also exert huge efforts
to combat extremism and promote
moderation and to clarify the true
image of Islam as a religion of love,
peace and justice.
Our world today is divided into
two worlds, one for the extremists
both in Muslim and non-Muslim societies who want to destroy the pluralistic nature of our beautiful world
and one for the moderates who want
to live and let live. Fortunately, the
world of moderates still has enlightened, wise and courageous leaders
such as those of Saudi Arabia and
Kazakhstan who are interested in
spreading peace, development and
solving all international problems
through dialogue and cooperation.
The author is a Supervisor of
the Knowledge Exchange Programme and Consultant to the
Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Dawa and Guidance
of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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