Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Bodrum, Turkey on June 5. The two Central Asian leaders discussed the future of bilateral relations and the agreements reached during the President of Turkmenistan’s visit to Kazakhstan in 2013. The two leaders also exchanged views on international issues. “The heads of state discussed strengthening economic cooperation in regards to trade, oil and gas, transportation, culture and humanitarian efforts as well as key aspects of cross-border cooperation. Nazarbayev and Berdymukhamedov expressed confidence that the upcoming completion of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway will increase traffic flows in all three countries,” an official statement read.
A South Korean company has been invited to build a new golf club worth more than $100 million at Borovoye, a resort located 250 kilometres north from Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on the shore of Lake Shchuchye, Tengrinews.kz reported. The golf club will have several 18-hole championship golf courses located on an area of 103 hectares. “We have invited an established South Korean company known for its work designing and building golf courses around the world. The project is estimated to cost $106.5 million,” said Sabit Tulegenov, founder of Almaty Stroy-Kontrakt, the project’s general contractor. The recreation complex will also have a four-star hotel designed by a French company, 17 small resort cottages, an indoor tennis court and a beach with a dock and water park. The project will be completed sometime in 2015, according to Tulegenov. The project is another step in the development of the Shchuchinsk-Borovoye Resort in the Burabai region of the Akmola oblast in northern Kazakhstan. Borovoye (Burabai in the Kazakh language) is the name of the district consisting of a large number of lakes of all sizes, as well as lower altitude, densely wooded mountains. The large solid mass file of granite resulted in the formation of an original local microclimate with higher rainfall, lower temperatures in the summer and the best wind protection possible.
Thanks to Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) integration, Kazakhstan will attract new investors, according to Anna Zeitlinger, a member of the Kazakh-Austrian council. “European investors see Kazakhstan as the most promising market right now. In comparing Kazakhstan’s potential and that of the union of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, it is necessary to emphasise Kazakhstan’s advantages,” she said. According to her, World Bank rankings and indices reflect the friendliness of the country and show that Kazakhstan holds one of the leading positions in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). “Thanks to integration and the agreement to be signed today, Kazakhstan has the opportunity to become the main platform for investors from European and other countries in the Eurasian Union,” she noted.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev sent a telegram noting the rightful electoral victory of Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa on June 2. Nazarbayev expressed his confidence that South Africa will soon see great progress in socio-economic development and enhance its credibility in the international arena. “Our country is interested in further deepening its relations with South Africa, bringing bilateral trade and economic and cultural relations to a new level,” Nazarbayev said in a telegram.
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier has sent a letter to Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry on June 3 informing it about the appointment of the country’s diplomat, Madina Jarbussynova as OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. “This is the result of the fruitful cooperation in the organization and our successful chairmanship in 2010,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Jarbussynova was earlier appointed to another important post, OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine in May 2013. She is a career diplomat, having worked in Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry since its foundation. She served as a deputy foreign minister in 1998-1999. Later, she worked for four years as the permanent representative of Kazakhstan to the UN in New York and a non-resident ambassador to Cuba. After returning to Kazakhstan, she took up the post of ambassador-at-large at the country’s foreign ministry and was responsible mainly for the human dimension and human rights issues.
