ASTANA CALLING

A bi-weekly online publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Issue # 42

Kazakhstan Confirms Commitment to Nuclear Disarmament, Non-Proliferation

Kazakhstan, a country that voluntarily renounced the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal and shut down the largest nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk has been and will continue to be a strong advocate of and active participant in the global non-proliferation process and the efforts to reduce the nuclear threat, the country’s Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on March 5, 2010.

The conference is a multilateral disarmament negotiating forum. It was established in 1979 by the international community for the negotiation of multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements. While the conference is not formally a United Nations (UN) organization, it is linked to the UN through a personal representative of the United Nations Secretary-General who also serves as the secretary general of the conference. Resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly often request the conference to consider specific disarmament matters. In turn, the conference annually reports its activities to the Assembly.

Saudabayev said the year of 2009 was “a momentous year for the disarmament community”. He referred to changes in the non-proliferation and disarmament policies of the USA, including President Obama’s initiative to convene a global summit on nuclear security, his decision to give a new impulse to an early ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. These have been positively received by the international community and have inspired a new hope. The progress in the negotiations between Russia and the United States to conclude a new agreement to replace the START Treaty is of crucial importance, the Kazakh foreign minister stated.

Speaking about the existing mechanisms for the global disarmament process, he referred to the need to upgrade the fundamental instrument in this area that is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Big hopes are pinned on the upcoming NPT Review Conference, scheduled to be held in May, and the Kazakh diplomacy is working to prepare meaningful proposals for the upcoming debates.

Another event, which is of great importance for the international community is the Washington summit on nuclear security, due in a little more than a month. “President Nazarbayev plans to share, at the summit, his vision of further steps to enhance nuclear security. It would not be an exaggeration to note that Kazakhstan offers a model of leadership that is needed to reduce the nuclear threat at the global level,” Saudabayev said. more...

OSCE, Council of Europe to Improve Coordination of Efforts

The OSCE and the Council of Europe work together well, but an even closer co-operation would be beneficial, said OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Secretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev, following a high-level meeting with the Council of Europe Chairmanship and Secretariat in Geneva on March 5, 2010.

OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut also took part in the meeting, while the Council of Europe was represented by Swiss Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey, and Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland. They discussed the priorities of the two Chairmanships for the year, as well as co-operation between the OSCE and the Council of Europe, in particular with respect to field activities in Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus.

“The OSCE and the Council of Europe promote co-operation in priority areas such as fighting terrorism, combating human trafficking, promoting tolerance and non-discrimination and respect for the rights of national minorities - based on the shared values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” Saudabayev said. “It is important that we co-ordinate our work, particularly in our field operations, to avoid unnecessary overlap and ensure that our activities are complementary, effective and beneficial to our states.”

Saudabayev reiterated the strong support of the Kazakh Chairmanship for the Corfu process, the OSCE-anchored dialogue that aims to restore confidence and take forward discussions on wider European security. He added that the Corfu process would be instrumental in preparing the groundwork for an OSCE summit this year, and he invited the Council of Europe to contribute to the agenda of such a summit.

Other fields of co-operation between the two organizations include election observation, legislation reform, Roma and Sinti issues, human rights, democratization and local government. The Council of Europe’s 47 member states are all OSCE participating States.

Following the meeting, the OSCE and Council of Europe issued a joint declaration, in which they reaffirmed their readiness to reinforce collaboration “on the basis of complementarity, while respecting the autonomy, nature, different membership and distinctive tasks of the two organisations”. more...

Kazakhstan Joins European Cultural Convention, Advances on its Path to Europe

Kazakhstan has ratified the European Cultural Convention, and now formally joined the convention as Secretary of State – Minister of Foreign Affairs Kanat Saudabayev presented the accession documents to Council of Europe’s Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland during their March 5 meeting in Geneva.

The main purpose of this document is to encourage multiple forms of interaction between cultures in order to promote mutual understanding between the countries of Europe, the dissemination of knowledge about them and preserve their cultural heritage. As a multicultural country, Kazakhstan is able to make a major contribution to the field of intercultural dialogue, especially given the integration of cultures in a globalizing world.

Culture of the peoples living in the country will be promoted in almost 50 countries in Europe. Kazakh specialists will also be allowed to explore the culture of European countries.

The Convention has been ratified more than fifty years ago in Paris by the Council of Europe. It is the basis for European cooperation in the field of culture, education, youth and sports.

Each signatory country aims to preserve the European cultural heritage in its territory, as well as to encourage the study of other cultures on their territories. Kazakhstan became the 49th country to ratify the Convention and the third country, along with the Vatican and Belarus, that is not a member of the Council of Europe.

In addition, the ratification of the European Cultural Convention gives Kazakhstan the right, without special invitation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, to become a party to many of the European treaties.

Among the most important is the European Convention on the General Equivalence of Periods of University Study. According to this document, students in all disciplines could spend periods of study abroad. Tests passed and courses taken by such students during these periods of study could be recognised by their institution of origin. Another convention that the country can join without special invitation is the European Agreement on Continued Payment of Scholarships to Students Studying Abroad. more...

Kazakh Government Outlines US$40 Billion Industrial Programme

The Government of Kazakhstan has adopted a new Programme of Intensified Industrial and Innovation Development for 2010-2014 on February 23.

Three days later, February 26, addressing the Business Council plenary session President Nursultan Nazarbayev said US$8 billion would be allocated annually from the National Fund toward this program, bringing its total to US$40 billion.

By 2014, the program is expected to provide an opportunity to raise the country’s GDP by 50% from its 2008 level, increase productivity in the manufacturing sector by 50%, and reach a 100% growth of several other economic sectors, Minister of Industry and Trade Asset Issekeshev stated at the February 26 meeting.

The participants, including state officials, businesspeople, and economic experts discussed the key questions of interaction between the central government and local authorities in implementing the new program.

According to the program, the share of non-oil and gas export from Kazakhstan is forecast to rise up to 40%, while the GDP’s energy output would be lowered by 10% from its 2008 indices. 

“The program is a unique document designed to boost the Kazakh economy in the upcoming five years. As soon as the program starts operating, all other strategies and projects (and there are 52 of them at the moment) will become unessential and less important,” Issekeshev stressed.

“The program is based on a serious analytical research. We have studied all previous strategies, taking into account which measures had been efficient and which of them not and why. We looked at the real situation of our businesses, the way they were affected by the global economic downturn, and examined their future abilities and prospects,” Issekeshev noted.

The program is to be implemented mainly in provinces. The main criteria for assessing the work of local executive bodies of all levels will include labour productivity, total amount of direct investments, an increase in non-oil and gas exports, the share of dynamic innovative businesses, and the number of new high-performance jobs.

Intensified industrialization will cover seven priority areas, embracing agro-industrial sector, metallurgy, oil refining and power industry, chemistry and pharmaceutics, construction industry, transport and communications. Following the discussions five more directions of further industrial and innovative development were set forth, including mechanical engineering, uranium processing, textile industry, tourism, and space. more...

Kazakhstan Looks to Become a Post-Soviet Leader in Islamic Finance

Of the CIS countries, Kazakhstan is emerging as one of the most proactive and advanced Islamic finance markets. According to foreign Islamic bankers who recently visited Astana, there is a very strong interest in Kazakhstan in developing Islamic finance, the Arab News reports.

According to a leading English language newspaper of the Middle East, a delegation from Malaysia’s International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC), visiting Kazakhstan at the end of January, was very encouraged by the developments in the Islamic finance in Kazakhstan. The visit is important because Kazakhstan has aspirations of becoming the Islamic finance hub for the CIS.

The Kazakh government is a proactive supporter of Islamic finance in a market in which 60 percent of the population is Muslim. President Nazarbayev is keen to develop diversified economic relations with both traditional partners such as Russia and with the West and the Middle East Muslim nations.

The government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev established a working group in 2009 to draw up a roadmap for an Islamic financial system. In February 2009, it introduced principles of Islamic finance into the Kazakh legislation to facilitate various Islamic financial transactions such as Murabaha and Ijarah. The first Islamic bank in Kazakhstan is to be established in the first quarter of 2010 by Al-Hilal Bank of Abu Dhabi.

The Ministry of Finance in Kazakhstan is also hoping to launch the country’s debut sovereign Sukuk, expected to be in the region of $300 million and most likely a Sukuk Al-Ijarah, for benchmark purposes. The challenges for the sukuk market in Kazakhstan are the specific regulatory provisions on Islamic securities. For instance, originators are limited to Islamic banks and national holdings or managing holding companies. Market players would like to see state and privately-owned companies also issue sukuk directly.

Kazakhstan has a longer history in Islamic finance activities than other CIS countries, the newspaper stresses.

The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) established its first regional office in Almaty, the erstwhile capital of Kazakhstan. The Dallah Albaraka Group also established an Islamic bank in Almaty, which was later taken over by Lariba, but which did not really take off. more...

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