President Nursultan Nazarbayev has held an annual meeting with foreign diplomats accredited in Kazakhstan.
"This year Kazakhstan marks the 27th anniversary of its independence. We also celebrated the 20th jubilee of our capital Astana. Presently, Kazakhstan conducts a number of important large-scale historical reforms. $4 billion will be spent on fulfillment of the instructions outlined in my latest Address to the Nation. We will monitor the course of their implementation," said the Head of State. The President reminded of his instruction to raise wages of 1.3 million public sector employees. "Alongside, we are going to launch certain measures of human capital development and improvement of law-enforcement system. ‘7-20-25', Nurly Zhol and Nurly Zher programmes are aimed at increasing people's wellbeing," noted the President. He reminded that Kazakhstan's economy reached 4% growth in 2017 and exceeded worldwide average. "We plan to retain or increase this indicator this year. The inflow of direct investments attracted in the years of the country's independence hit $300 billion. Our goal is to join the club of 30 developed countries of the world by 2050," said the President.
Nazarbayev assured Kazakhstan will continue its peaceful foreign policy.
"To date Kazakhstan has established diplomatic relations with 184 countries and unveiled 57 embassies. Nowadays we have 98 embassies and representative offices under international organizations. We will continue our multi-vector peaceful foreign policy," said Nazarbayev. The Kazakh leader continued by telling foreign diplomats about the relations between Kazakhstan and its closest neighbors. "We have been developing friendly relations within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union with Russia. We've recently held inter-regional cooperation forum in Petropavlovsk," said Nazarbayev, adding that Kazakhstan will further develop strategic partnership with China. The President also pointed out that the republic will continue strengthening economic cooperation with the U.S. "I paid the official visit to Washington in January. During negotiations with Donald Trump we have achieved agreements on expanded strategic partnership in the 21st century. We will further continue to cement our economic cooperation. U.S. Secretary of Commerce has recently visited Astana and all issues regarding our commercial cooperation have been thoroughly discussed," the Head of State stressed.
At the same time President Nazarbayev noted that Central Asian region, its economic prosperity, inter-regional security and stability remain Kazakhstan's key priority.
Reported by Kazinform.
