Deputy Prime Minster and Minister of Finance of Kazakhstan Bakhyt Sultanov held a meeting with Minister of Finance of China Lou Jiwei within the 47th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The sides discussed bilateral cooperation. “China is one of the biggest trade partners of Kazakhstan,” Sultanov noted, adding that the trade turnover between the countries had increased by 15 times over recent years. They also discussed the ADB’s activity. Lou noted the increasing role of the ADB as a source of investment for infrastructure projects. “It is especially important now because the complicated economic situation in the world dictates the necessity of investments globally,” he said. Ending the meeting, Sultanov invited his Chinese colleague to take part in the work of the seventhAstana Economic Forum on May 21-24 this year.
President Barack Obama has picked four longtime public servants to be his new ambassadors to South Korea, Honduras, Qatar and Kazakhstan, the Times Colonist reported on May 1. In particular, Obama is asking Ambassador George Krol, currently the American ambassador to Uzbekistan, to relocate to Kazakhstan. All of the positions require Senate confirmation.
State Secretary of Russia Gregory Rapota avowed that cooperation with the Skolkovo Fund conducted within the Common Economic Space (CES) gives scientists access to grants for conducting research and other opportunities. “Without doubt, this experience can be used also for settling some problems particular to the development of some spheres. I think that thanks to the tools created and now available within the various programmes, we can create innovative products now,” he said. According to him, currently, federal target programmes are being implemented. “We have many talented scientists. Our weakness is commercialisation of scientific and technical products; the promotion of a product to the market. It would be good to know what is done in this sphere in the CES and the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States]. I have no doubts that the issue of innovation will be raised more and more often in the CES,” he added.
In late April, the aviation authorities of Kazakhstan and Turkey reached an agreement to perform eight flights each between Antalya and Almaty, Antalya and Astana and Antalya and Karaganda, the press service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan reported. The decision was made based on the results of monitoring of tourist transportation from Kazakhstan to Turkey conducted by the ministry and Kazakh tourism companies, the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, the Kazakhstan Tourism Association and the Committee of the Tourism Industry of Kazakhstan. “We have discussed the opportunities for performing flights between the countries with our Turkish colleagues many times. Taking into consideration the popularity of these flights with our people, the decision to open 16 additional flights per week for the summer season was made. The flights will be performed on a regular basis,” Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakhstan Beken Seidakhmetov said.
On April 28, the Bolashak Alumni Relations Office (BARO) of the Centre of International Programmes organised a meeting of Bolashak Programme alumni with representatives of Hewlett Packard Kazakhstan to help the alumni to find jobs. Over 50 graduates of the programme who had studied in engineering took part in the meeting. At the meeting, Hewlett Packard Kazakhstan representatives presented 10 vacancies for IT specialists, project managers, economists, masters of business administration managers and graduates with technical backgrounds. They also told meeting participants about the company’s activities and opportunities available for prospective employees. The BARO organises meetings and job fairs with the participation of employers to help them recruit professional personnel and help Bolashak graduates find jobs. At the end of the meeting, BARO and Hewlett Packard Kazakhstan reached an agreement on further cooperation.
