Kazakh Gov’t wants Almaty as International Diplomacy Hub, mulls KazAid

    Kazakhstan has ambitions to turn Almaty into an international diplomacy hub and to establish a ‘KazAid’ international assistance agency, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov told the heads of the United Nations agencies' offices in Kazakhstan in Astana on June 10.
    "After gaining its independence, Kazakhstan has been vigorously developing fruitful cooperation with the United Nations... Since February 1992, some 19 specialised agencies, funds and programs under the UN system have established an active presence in Kazakhstan. Since the early days, there has been full-scale cooperation with all UN institutions," the minister told the group in a meeting at the Foreign Ministry. "The UN family has significantly contributed to the Kazakhstan's state-building and the adaptation of economic and social system to market economy conditions," he emphasised.
    According to a press statement from the Kazakh MFA, Kazykhanov highlighted the considerable intensification in contacts on all fronts between Kazakhstan and the UN in recent years.
    As an illustration, he mentioned two visits by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Kazakhstan in 2010, visits by Under-Secretary-General, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, Executive Secretary of UNESCAP Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UNECE Jan Kubis, FAO Director General Jacques Diouf and UNWTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli in 2011, as well as the recent appointment of Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, former Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan and one of Kazykhanov's predecessors, as Under-Secretary-General, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva.
    "Kazakhstan, which has been playing an ever more important role over the years as a regional donor and providing significant assistance to the neighboring countries, is working on the establishment of KazAID, Kazakhstan's international aid agency. The United Nations Country Office could provide invaluable expertise and technical assistance for the practical implementation of the idea," the foreign minister stressed, according to Gazeta.kz.