Economic Forum starts in Astana

    By Maria Kniazkova
    The two-day IV Astana Economic Forum “New decade: challenges and perspectives” began in Astana May 3.
    More than 3,500 delegates from 80 countries are scheduled to participate, according to the forum site. Topics include the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis, reform of the currency and financial system, the food crisis, development of alternative economic sectors, and problems of global and regional integration.
    The global economic crisis will end when a balance is struck between the financial sector and the real economy, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in opening the conference.
    Nazarbayev called for a new reserve currency.
    Stabilising the dollar-euro relationship is essential to regulating the international currency market, Robert Mundell, 1999 Nobel economics laureate and Columbia University professor, said.
    Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, lamented the extent of world hunger. Fourteen percent of the world’s population – 925m people – don’t get enough food, he said, adding that 29 countries require urgent food aid. World food yields need to increase to feed the expected 2050 population of 9.5 billion, he warned.
    Food security is an especially serious concern for the Central Asian food-importing countries – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, he added.
    Tourism can be a force in bringing the world together, said Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the UN World Tourism Organisation. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa achieved more in one month than the previous decade had, he said, according to Central Asia Online.