KAZAKHSTAN IS MORE

COMPETITIVE THAN TURKEY AND BRAZIL

Astana, 3rd June: Kazakhstan has been acknowledged as one of the most competitive countries at the post-Soviet space, says Dina Shazhenova, Executive Secretary of Kazakh Ministry of Economy & Budget Planning.

“In this year’s rating Kazakhstan is ahead of such states as Turkey (ranked 47th), Brazil (ranked 40th), Mexico and Russia (joint 51st position)” said Ms Shazhenova.

The World Competitiveness Center at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, has compared performances of the 57 most competitive countries in the world and ranked their economies from the most to the least competitive. Kazakhstan has been ranked 36th: this is a whole three positions up from the previous year despite the on-going financial crisis across the globe.

IMD’s definition of competitiveness is based upon “how nations and businesses are managing the totality of their competencies to achieve greater prosperity”. Competitiveness is not just about growth or economic performance, but also take into consideration the “soft factors” of competitiveness, such as the environment, quality of life, technology, knowledge, etc.. It is also about how countries can resist adversity and show resilience to weather storms.

For this competitiveness analysis IMD used more than 25 thousand indicators. And when putting together the ratings it took into consideration four main criteria:

·        general condition of the economy

·        efficiency of the government

·        efficiency of business

·        condition of infrastructure.

In addition to collecting statistic data, Swiss researchers and their Kazakh colleagues from the Institute of Economics under the Ministry of Economy & Budget Planning held a poll at 119 Kazakh companies (most of these were subsidiaries of national holdings). Results of this research formed the basis for the eventual rating.

KAZAKHSTAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER

IN THE HAGUE FOR IMPORTANT TALKS

Astana, June 3rd: Kazakhstan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marat Tazhin, visits the Hague today and tomorrow (June 3-4) for talks with the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Maxime Verhagen, as well as for talks with representatives from other Dutch ministries…

High on this week’s agenda are bilateral interaction between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, Kazakhstan’s priorities for the forthcoming chairmanship of the OSCE (2010) and exchanges on key aspects of international policy.

The parties will pay special attention to the economic-environmental and humanitarian dimensions in the OSCE interaction process, and will focus also on the prevention of further crisis and emergency situations in the OSCE space.

POLITICAL COOPERATION

Diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands were established in September 1992. The milestone first official visit of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to the Netherlands - on the invitation of Queen Beatrix - took place in November 2002.

TRADE & ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Foreign trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands reached nearly $5 billion in 2008 (export - $4.6 billion / import - $0.3 billion) compared with approximately $2.8 billion in 2007 (export - $2.5 billion / import - $0.4 billion). Today, the Netherlands is the leading European investor into Kazakhstan’s economy. The total volume of investment from the Netherlands was $45.2 billion for the period 1993-2008.  According to data from the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the total volume of investment by Kazakhstan into Netherlands reached $4.8 billion as of December 2008.

CULTURAL & HUMANITARIAN COOPERATION

Cooperation in the education field is deepening; contacts with the Universities in Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht and agricultural universities in Vaheningen are currently being strengthened. Today, twelve ’Bolashak’ scholars (recipients of the Kazakh government scholarship programme for foreign study) are students at the Technical University of Delft, at the Erasmus Rotterdam University, Amsterdam Business School and the Maastricht School of Management .The recent appointment of Kazakh musician Alan Buribayev as Principal Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and just a few weeks later, Chief Conductor of The Brabants Philharmonic Orchestra also evidences  the ever-growing links between the countries.

KAZAKHSTAN SHOULD SHARE

ITS EXPERIENCE WITH OSCE STATES

Astana, 3rd June: “Kazakhstan should share its experience of solving problems regarding multilingualism and representation of ethnic minorities with other OSCE member states” said Knut Vollebaek, OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities on the occasion of his visit to Kazakhstan last week.

He added that “all 56 OSCE member-states, including the Vatican, are polyethnic, multinational states… Kazakhstan’s experience in social integration and the mechanisms that the country is using to achieve its goal [of complete inter-ethnic accord] are of great significance for ensuring stability.”

The OSCE High Commissioner was visiting Kazakhstan ahead of its chairmanship of the OSCE in 2010. He attended a seminar on integration that took place at the Kazakh Foreign Ministry in Astana.

Mr Vollebaek emphasized that during the meeting with Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister, Marat Tazhin, he had an excellent opportunity to discuss ideas and thoughts concerning priorities that Kazakhstan is setting fourth during its chairmanship of the OSCE.

OSCE representatives are studying the experience of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan -  an entity that has the right to delegate its representative to the country’s Parliament.

The Assembly of People of Kazakhstan was created by a presidential decree in March 1995. It consists of representatives of government bodies, national, cultural and other social associations, opinion leaders, etc.

The Assembly’s goals are to promote interethnic and cross-confessional accord and stability in Kazakh society; to elaborate proposals on national policies facilitating development of friendly relations between representatives of ethnic groups ; to shape political traditions and the culture of citizens on the basis of civil and democratic norms - and to ensure that national interests of ethnic groups are taken into consideration by the State.

KAZAKHSTAN TO ATTRACT FOREIGN PARTNERS

TO DEVELOP 3.5 MILLION HECTARES OF AGRICULTURAL LAND

Astana, May 20: Speaking at the Kazakh-Saudi Business Forum in Astana this week (May 18), the Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Arman Yevniev, said that Kazakhstan hopes to attract foreign partners into the production of crops in the country. “The Ministry has performed an analysis of farm lands in the country” said Mr. Yevniev, “and discovered that over 3.5 million hectares are not part of the agricultural processes. They are fit for production of staple crops - or could be used for fodder supplies. Today, we are ready to offer this potential to our foreign partners -  to give them the opportunity to either create their own enterprises on these lands, or establish joint ventures, or, indeed, to invest into already existing companies to develop the land. At present, these proposals are being discussed in detail with foreign partners – in particular, companies from Saudi Arabia.”

PLACEMENT OF NUCLEAR BANK IN KAZAKHSTAN

Astana, May 19: Yesterday (May 18), during the international conference on Remediation of Radioactively Contaminated Sites in Astana, Timur Zhantikin, Chairman of the Nuclear Energy Committee of the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources, said that the project to place the proposed Nuclear Fuel Bank in Kazakhstan territory is “at the stage of analysis. We are now working out technical details and considering the possibilities and location of the Fuel Bank, since at present we have several options. If findings are positive, Kazakhstan will apply to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the proposal to place the bank at its territory.”

Mr Zhantikin said that the Kazakh national company KazAtomProm and the National Nuclear Center are involved in development and the placement of the Fuel Bank should be linked to the technological capacity of the country. “Why is Kazakhstan so favored as a place for the Nuclear Fuel Bank?” asked Mr Zhantikin. “Because Kazakhstan has a very positive non-proliferation image. After all, we have a well-developed nuclear industry - and this project is an image-making one that will allow Kazakhstan its say, as well as strengthen its standing in the international arena. There are no direct commercial benefits for the country” he added.

Mr Zhantikin further explained that the environmental security of Kazakhstan is one of the top priorities: “If this project goes ahead, the indispensable condition is to study and evaluate its influence on the environment. If its influence is found to be negative, the project will not be implemented. But we don’t expect the [creation of the bank] to entail any ecological problems, because we are already processing similar materials. The Ulba Plant, for example, has been working with such materials for 50 years already” he said.

In April this year, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan said that “If a nuclear fuel bank is created, we would consider hosting it here - in a country which has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and voluntarily renounced nuclear weapons.”

An international fuel bank under the auspices of the IAEA and supported by the US administration, would provide a global repository which would allow countries to tap into their reserves to fuel their nuclear plants without the need to develop their own nuclear enrichment capability.