The Foundation organised a seminar on how Kazakhstan has made remarkable progress thanks to a diverse mix of people and cultures. The idea of the seminar was to highlight the fact that diversity - ethnic, cultural or religious - far from weakening a nation actually adds to its vitality and makes it stronger. The main speaker was the Kazakh Ambassador to India, H.E. Dr. Kairat Umarov. Indranil Banerjie, SAPRA Executive Director, gave a brief introductory speech, where he said that India was a unque experiment in nation building. The basis of its nationalism was secularism and the recognition of diversity. This made India strong and resurgent. Yet, there are emerging threats to this diversity from various quarters, he warned. But rather than jettison the principles that make up India's Constitution, Indians must reaffirm their diversity and protect it against all assault. Banerjie said Kazakhstan, a predominantly Muslim nation with a secular and tolerant ethos, had proved that inclusive policies are a far better recipe for progress than exclusivist ones. SAPRA India Foundation vice president, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Shantonu Choudhry, introduced HE Umarov and initiated the discussions.

Speech by H.E. Dr. Kairat Umarov

Dear Mr. Indranil Banerjie,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

Diversity as Advantage

First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Indranil Banerjie and staff of SAPRA India for organizing today’s seminar. He has been one of the strongest advocates for strengthening cooperation between our countries. Having visited Kazakhstan several times, he has first hand information of what prospects we have in terms of raising level of interaction.

I also appreciate everyone who is present here for their interest in developments in Kazakhstan and current status of bilateral relations between our countries.

At the outset, let me refresh what we already know about Kazakhstan. It is a Eurasian country by size almost equal to India. Kazakhstan’s population is 16 million. Located at the crossroads of many civilizations, our nation has developed a tolerant attitude towards representative of different religions and nationalities. There are over 130 ethnic groups with various religious beliefs. Over the years of independence, there have not been any conflict on ethnic or religious lines. Kazakh media speaks 13 languages. All ethnic groups have their cultural centers and schools in Kazakhstan.

Like India, we see diversity of our people as advantage, not as weakness. It is advantage to learn from each other’s culture and look at things from different perspectives. At the same time we are united in preserving peace and stability in our country, which is a key to long-term sustained development. Having seen many ups and downs in the area after the collapse of USSR, our people are weary of instability and disruptions of normalcy. They are patient with the pace of democratic transformations and work for a rapid economic progress, which have shown a success in my country.

We have several initiatives to build a harmonious world of patience and tolerance among the religious and ethnic groups.

In fact there is a Congress of World and Traditional Religions regularly meeting in Astana. Its main aim is to spread the message of peace and mutual understanding through religious leaders all over the world. Indian leaders of Hinduism, Islam and Parsi community are active participants of this process. In 2009, the third Congress of Religions will be held in Kazakhstan under the UN aegis.

Upon the initiative of Kazakhstan, 2010 was declared by the UN as the International Year of Rapprochement of Cultures. In October, Astana hosted the foreign ministerial forum of Western and Islamic countries. As an outcome document, Astana Declaration was adopted, which reaffirms the willingness of participating countries to work together towards improved intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

Kazakhstan will chair OSCE in 2010 and OIC in 2011, which would allow us to build bridges of understanding between different civilizations.

Progress Being Made

Because of political stability, there has been dynamic economic growth over since 90s. If GDP per capita in 1991 was about $400, it is over $7000 now. Over the last 8 years, economic growth rate was 10% at average. Last year it was 8.7% due to international financial slowdown.

So far, Kazakhstan has attracted $70 billion FDI. About 80 percent of foreign investments made in Central Asia is attracted by Kazakhstan. Our economy is $ 120 billion.

We pay a lot of attention to human resources development. There is a Presidential program “Bolashak” (Future) for sending best talents of our country abroad to study at the best universities of the world. We also invite foreign professors to Kazakh higher educational institutions to give our students full exposure to new ideas and international practices.

Having literacy rate of 98%, our focus is on building knowledge economy. To that end, we are shifting from raw materials supply economy to high tech, high value added industry. We have launched a project called “Trinity of Languages”, which means that every child born in Kazakhstan will be taught to have equal high command of three languages – Kazakh as state language, Russian as official language and English as language of international business.

Foreign Policy and Relations with India

Kazakhstan is a peace-loving country. We dismantled our nuclear weapons arsenal, which was the world’s 4^th largest, in the beginning of our independence. In doing so, we proceeded from the viewpoint that we do not have enemies or adversaries against whom the weapons of mass destruction could be used.

We are also a signatory to the Treaty on establishing nuclear weapons free zone in Central Asia, which excludes any possibility of developing nuclear weapons in our region in future.

Our multi-vector foreign policy is meant to develop friendly relations with all the countries, including Russia, China, US, EU, Central Asian countries, India, Middle East and East Asia.

As for our relations with India, we have longstanding friendly ties between our countries. Our civilizational ties date back to the Silk Road era.

At present, we are maintaining mutually beneficial cooperation. We have mechanisms which look after particular spheres such as Inter-Governmental Commission, Foreign Office Consultations, Joint Working Groups on Combating Terrorism, Military and Technical Cooperation, IT, oil and gas, textile and Sub-Committee on Science and Technology.

Our bilateral trade is about $200 million, which more than doubled since 2004 from $80 million. The main reason for the modest volume of trade is lack of direct surface transport routes. Road Zaranj-Delaram in Afghanistan, which has been constructed by Indian enterprises, could connect Central Asia with India through Iran. Another route is through China from Himachal Pradesh of India. In order to study thoroughly this road, we could establish trilateral Joint Working Group on Transport between Kazakhstan, India and China.

We successfully interact within international fora. We support Indian candidacy for the UN SC permanent membership. Kazakhstan strongly supported India’s case at the Nuclear Suppliers Group in September in Vienna. India supports Kazakhstan’s initiative on convening Conference on Interaction and CBMs in Asia (CICA), which unites 20 countries and provides a platform for dialogue on security issues in our continent. Its 3^rd Summit will be held in 2010.

Trade, investment, IT, tourism, space and nuclear cooperation are spheres, where we need to focus on. As you may know, Kazakhstan is the third largest producer of uranium after Canada and Australia. By 2010, Kazakhstan will emerge as the largest supplier of uranium. Kazatomprom National Company not only exports uranium, but also has expertise in participating in construction of nuclear power stations abroad.

Now it is high time for us to elevate bilateral relations to the level of strategic cooperation. There is desire on the part of our leaders to meet regularly and discuss matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation and international affairs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to express hope that today’s deliberations will lead to thought provoking ideas and out of box solutions. Now, we offer for your kind attention a short movie on Kazakhstan. After that, If you have questions, I will be glad to answer them. In fact, we are open to new ideas and suggestions. Today’s seminar will be more meaningful, if we could hear suggestions from the participants about the possible ways of enhancing bilateral relations.

Thank you.