The May 21-23 Astana Economic Forum will not only be a gathering of world economic experts, but a platform to note the anniversaries of significant international finance organisations and events.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) will mark their 50th anniversaries at the forum; the Monetary and Financial Conference of the United Nations of 1944, called the Bretton Woods Conference, will have its 70th.
The UNCTAD was established as a permanent body to deal with trade and development within the UN General Assembly in 1964. The ITC is a joint subsidiary of the World Bank and the UNCTAD and offers technical assistance to the public and private sectors of developing nations to help build their trade potential. The Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 laid the foundations for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. This year, members of the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee will discuss global economic problems and world financial structures.
The Astana Economic Forum, now in its seventh year, brings world leaders, experts and representatives from the business world together in Astana’s Palace of Independence and Palace of Peace and Reconciliation for an international discussion to address global economic and social challenges. This year’s topics are investments, innovations and infrastructure, social and cultural aspects of economic growth, the Kazakhstan 2050 strategy, globalisation and integrational processes,
financial and economic stability, developing trade and competitiveness and energy and ecology. Speakers at this year’s event will include Noble Prize winners and former heads of state, among others.
This year’s Astana Economic Forum will also include the second World Anti-Crisis (WAC) Conference. The WAC Conference will be held within the forum and mark the 70th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference. This is also the second year of using G-Global, the Astana Economic Forum’s web platform initiated by Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev that seeks to offer a way to engage the international community in finding solutions to the world’s problems and to enable global decision-making.
