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Astana Forum boosts UNCTAD-Kazakhstan cooperation

25 May 2012

Deputy S-G of UNCTAD Petko Draganov met on 23 May, during the Astana Forum, the President of Kazakhstan H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev and the country’s Prime Minister Mr. Karim Massimov, discussing opportunities for strengthening the cooperation between UNCTAD and Kazakhstan.​

 

Mr. Petko Draganov Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD with H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev President of Kazakhstan
Mr. Petko Draganov, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD with
Mr. Karim Massimov, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan

 

Speaking at the Fifth Astana Forum, taking place 22-24 May in Astana, Kazakhstan, President of Kazakhstan H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev presented his ideas for promoting transparency and fairness in international trade and economic systems and in the international financial architecture. These ideas will be further elaborated on by the Kazakhstan delegation at the coming RIO+20 conference.

 

Many of the views expressed by the President echoed the development-centred globalization concept that guided the recently concluded UNCTAD XIII conference. In this regard, Mr. Petko Draganov, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General, delivered to the participants UNCTAD’s assessments the issues of of multilateral trade talks, regional integration, WTO accession, and offered his remarks on the continuing  challenged posed by the global financial crisis.

Mr. Draganov also met the country’s Prime-Minister Mr. Karim Massimov (pictured above), Minister of Economic Development Mr. Sagintaev, who attended UNCTAD XIII, Minister of Economic Integration Ms. Aytzhanova, President of the Eurasian Scientific Club Mr. Kerimsakov, and the Customs D-G Mr. Esenbaev, to discuss opportunities for future collaboration.

This collaboration, it was noted, will help facilitate the accession of Kazakhstan into the WTO, expected to take place by the end of 2012. In particular, Kazakhstan would expect advice from UNCTAD on combining the benefits of the country’s memberships in both the WTO and the EURASEC Customs Union.

Another important area for future cooperation will be the implementation of the New Silk Road Initiative, initiated by President Nazarbayev, which will help facilitate trade and customs procedures, strengthen the country’s transit potential, attract investment, as well as improve international business ratings of the Republic.

The Kazakhstan Government expressed an interest in establishing collaboration between the President’s initiative on the G-GLOBAL electronic community and UNCTADS’s Global Network of Think Tanks/Virtual Institute, with a view to creating a common platform for debate on topical issues of development.

In 2009 President Nazarbaev, in his article “The Fifth Way,” called UNCTAD one of the most reputable international bodies dealing with issues of future financial architecture. The Kazakhstan Government has expressed appreciation of past positive experiences of technical cooperation with UNCTAD, particularly on competition legislation, the WTO accession, and international accounting standards. Kazakhstan is the first transition economy to start donor support to UNCTAD through financing participation of experts from low-income countries in UNCTAD’s meetings.