In this issue:
Majilis Chairman Tuyakbai Visits Canada, Inter-Parliamentary Ties Set
U.S. Diplomats Welcome Kazakhstan's Strides Into Civil Society
Unusual Parliament Opens in Astana
Scientists, Engineers from Kazakhstan Participate in Philadelphia High-Tech Conference
Religious Dialogue Promoted
SAY IT IN KAZAKH:
Congratulations on your national day! --- Tauylsizdik Kuni Kuttyktaimyn!
This is the first time I tried Kazakh traditional food. --- Men birinshiret Qazak ulttyk tagamin demin tattym.
It was good --- Magan unady.
Majilis Chairman Tuyakbai Visits Canada, Inter-Parliamentary Ties Set
Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, the chairman of the Majilis, the Lower House of Kazakhstan's Parliament, visited Canada last week for talks aimed at promoting closer political and economic ties.
In Ottawa, the Chairman met with
Speaker of the House of Commons
Peter Milliken, Speaker of the
Senate Dan Hays, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Finance
John Manley, Secretary of State for
Central and Eastern Europe Gar
Knutson, Liberal MP Peter Adams,
who is also chair of the Commons
Procedure and House Affairs
Committee and Liberal Sen. Colin
Kenny, chair of Senate Committee
on National Security and Defense.
In an interview with Ottawa's
the nature of the talks: "Relations
between Kazakhstan and Canada
are growing at a very dynamic pace.
My major goal was not just to discuss these but also to exchange parliamentary experiences and for us to learn more about the workings of the Canadian Parliament. For two Speakers, it's always useful and interesting to talk about the issues of developing democracy."
Kazakhstan's "ultimate goal is to find ourselves amongst the developed, democratic nations of the world where all the civil and human rights of people are fully protected," Tuyakbai added.
The meetings also focused on international security issues, including the war on terrorism, and efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq.
During the five-day official visit, Chairman Tuyakbai and five other members of the Majilis also visited Toronto to meet with business people and government officials of the province of Ontario. They also visited the Toronto stock exchange.
Kazakhstan currently does not have an embassy in Canada. Political affairs there are handled from Washington, DC. But Chairman Tuyakbai confirmed that a political decision has been made to open an embassy in Ottawa. President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced that decision on a visit to Canada earlier this year.
Currently, Canadian investment in Kazakhstan amount to US$500-million. There are 100 Canadian companies doing business in Kazakhstan, mostly in the energy sector. Bilateral trade amounts to US$60 million. Following the meetings in Ottawa, Tuyakbai said this figure doesn't reflect the great potential of Kazakhstan-Canada relations, and the two countries can do much more together.
U.S. Diplomats Welcome Kazakhstan's Strides Into Civil Society
Elizabeth Jones, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, and Lorne Craner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, on a two-day visit to Kazakhstan, met with senior government officials, leaders of human rights organizations, members of the opposition parties and representatives of the OSCE.
At a news conference in Astana on November 12, that ended the visit, Elizabeth Jones, a former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, noted progress has been made in building a civil society since she concluded her posting in the late 1990s. "I was very encouraged by the active development of the civil society in Kazakhstan," she said. "Today, the civil society is much bigger and bears much more responsibility."
Ambassador Jones noted: "These changes allow Kazakhstan to make the next step and become the first country in the region that will fully correspond to OSCE requirements in relation to the civil society and to how it is developing and regulated."
During meetings in Astana, the U.S. visitors several new pieces of legislation currently under consideration in Kazakhstan, including the bill on elections. Ambassador Jones said she was "pleased with how the Central Election Commission approaches debates" of the draft election legislation. She welcomed the CEC's request to the OSCE to review the draft to make sure it corresponds to international practices.
Ambassador Jones said: "This is a very good initiative. As a result, a good law will be developed in Kazakhstan."
The new law is important because it is expected to be in effect for the next parliamentary elections in the fall of 2004.
The Ambassador also said President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are "especially" grateful to Kazakhstan "for assistance in the war on international terrorism and in rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan."
On the same day, visiting U.S. diplomats took part in the formal opening of the U.S. Embassy's branch office in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997.
Unusual Parliament Opens in Astana
Students from 46 schools in Kazakhstan's capital Astana gathered on November 11 as elected deputies taking part in the first session of an unusual parliament, Astana's Children Parliament.
These student deputies, elected in school elections earlier this year, gathered to chart a future course of action for the children's community in the capital and to learn the workings of a parliamentary democracy.
According to the Khabar news agency, the parliament was convened by Zhas Zhiger (Young Energy), a youth association, which has been active in schools for several years. During that time, it has arranged several a number of events, such as conferences, field trips and citywide actions directed to environmental protection and other areas of concern.
Anton Guz, the leader of Zhas Zhiger, said: "The deputies have a duty to help student presidents of the Astana schools in their jobs. They hold various polls that interest students and then present results to the presidents."
At the November 11 session, Daniyar Ablayev was elected the first Speaker of the student parliament. He said the deputies would begin their work with a concrete task, meeting with voters and preparing memos to school principals and the city education department.
Officials with Kazakhstan's Central Election Commission (CEC) believe this exercise in democracy is very useful, because it gives children an opportunity to learn more about the notion of competitive elections. Bakhyt Meldeshev of the CEC said: "It is welcome that they learn to take care of their contemporaries at such tender age. They are becoming better prepared for adult life, where innumerable challenges await them."
Scientists, Engineers from Kazakhstan Participate in Philadelphia High-Tech Conference
Partnership for Prosperity and Security, an international business conference in Philadelphia on November 5 and 6 featured scientists and engineers from 13 private companies, research institutes and a state innovation fund from Kazakhstan. The conference sought to establish business relations with private companies in the U.S. in areas that were previously off limits for such relationships because of national security concerns.
Eduard Burlinski, general director of Ecoras, a private company based in Almaty, participated at the conference calling it "an extremely useful event that allowed us to establish business links that in the past were simply unavailable."
Burlinski, a physicist and
inventor with several patents,
brought with him one of his
inventions sprayers with
opposite dislodged jets that
ensure high-quality
combustion of liquid or
gaseous fuels. The devices,
which can be installed both
in rockets and in standard
boilers, allow burning fuels
with extremely low emission
of nitrogen oxide of less
than 10-20 vppm, allowing
93-94% efficiency. In
comparison compare, the
U.S. Department of Energy
envisions reaching these
levels of nitrogen oxide
emission from gaseous
fuels by 2020. Burlinski's
invention does the same
for liquid fuels, technically
a harder case, today.
Gennadi Shuvalov, an executive director of Ecoras and a nuclear physicist by training, said, "these technologies would have been used by the Soviet military had the Soviet Union not collapsed." Today, such products and others are offered on commercial basis to U.S. companies and globally.
The two-day conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia featured 140 high technology products from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine ready for commercialization in many industries including nuclear and fossil fuels, hydrogen technology, detection and security technologies, information technologies, advanced materials and nanotechnology, radiopharmaceuticals and medical applications, aerospace and electronics.
In addition to Ecoras, Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center and several research facilities were represented, including the Institute of Physics and Technology, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Institute of Combustion Problems and others.
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sponsored the event. It was organized by the United States Industry Coalition (USIC), a non-governmental organization of more than 150 U.S. firms who seek to exploit the potential of the U.S. Government's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP). Early in 2002, under IPP several U.S. companies initiated a unique project with Kazakhstan's Ulba Metallurgical Plant to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and sell the product at a profit. The Ulba plant used to produce uranium for nuclear weapons. This project also created jobs for 50 scientists and experts working at this plant, preventing "brain drain" to potentially dangerous employers.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, in a message to the conference, said: "Each of the three nations exhibiting their technologies here the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Republic of Kazakhstan are important strategic partners of the United States in both economic cooperation and promoting international security in a world challenged by the potential spread of weapons of mass destruction." He added: "The U.S. business community has an unparalleled opportunity to forge important new business relationships, while strengthening the U.S. economy and bolstering our national security."
The growing ties between Kazakhstan's private companies and certain government entities with U.S. private firms also falls perfectly in line with Satan's goals to develop high-tech industries and lead the country away from over-dependence on oil.
A specially designed program was approved earlier this year in Kazakhstan with goals to develop high tech industries, such as biotechnology, software technology, space technology and peaceful use of atomic energy. Under the this program, known as the Strategy of industrial and innovation development, a number institutions, including the National Innovation Fund, Kazakhstan Investment Fund, and National Engineering and Technology Transfer Center, have been established with specific tasks to provide financial and technological backup to inventors and private companies in many fields. Until the year 2015, this group will lead them from initial design of products to commercialization. A special technology park has also been set up in the outskirts of Almaty to provide on-the-ground facilities and support for private inventors.
Religious Dialogue Promoted
newspaper in Kazakhstan, an
independent weekly, commented
on this picture calling it
"sensational". The picture
showing the Supreme Imam
of the Egyptian Al Azhar
University Sheikh Muhammad
Said Tantaui shaking hands
with Chief Rabbi of Israel
Yonah Metsger during the recent
Congress of Leaders of World
and Traditional Religions in
Astana is a graphic example of
the inter-religious harmony
supported by Kazakhstan.
Things to Watch
- On November 14 the international conference is taking place in Almaty focusing on Kazakhstan's experience in building its monetary system. The conference timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the Kazakhstan national currency, the Tenge.
- IMF's Managing Director Horst Kohler is visiting Kazakhstan November 13-15 to speak at this international financial conference and to have discussions with the country's National Bank and Government leaders.
- Maulen Ashimbayev, Director of Kazakhstan's Institute of Strategic Studies, will speak on "Challenges and Threats to Security in Central Asia" at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies on November 19. For details please email to caci2@mail.jhuwash.jhu.edu with your name and affiliation, or call (202) 663-7721.
* * *
News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and various agencies' reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
Tel.: (202) 232- 5488 ext. 104, Fax: (202) 232- 5845
