ASTANA (TCA) — The 4th meeting of the Kazakh-British Intergovernmental Commission for trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation and the 2nd meeting of the Kazakh-British Business Council took place in London on December 11, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

The delegation of Kazakhstan was headed by the Minister for Investments and Development, Zhenis Kassymbek.

Minister Kassymbek in his welcoming speech expressed his gratitude to the UK Government and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna for organizing and hosting the Kazakh-British Business Council, which helps bring together the business circles of the two countries.

He noted that in 2017, Kazakh-British cooperation shows positive dynamics: for the first 9 months of the year, the export from Kazakhstan to Great Britain grew by 8.2% and amounted to $720 million.

Great Britain is one of the six largest investors in Kazakhstan. Over the past 12 years, the inflow of direct investment into Kazakhstan has exceeded $12 billion. There are over 500 joint ventures with the participation of British capital in Kazakhstan.

The main goal of the Kazakh-British Business Council meeting was to share the positive developments taking place in Kazakhstan’s national companies with the international community, as well as to familiarise British companies with the investment opportunities in Kazakhstan, Samruk-Kazyna said.

“Through this event and a number of upcoming bilateral meetings that we intend to organise, we aim to strengthen economic relations between the UK and Kazakhstan and attract more British investment in our country,” said Baljeet Kaur Grewal, Managing Director for Strategy and Portfolio Management of Samruk-Kazyna.

Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Trade Representative of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in Kazakhstan, added: “British financial services and legal advisers are working hard to boost the development of the Astana International Financial Centre, and will continue to do so. London remains the financial centre of Europe, and is willing to work with Kazakhstan to implement its ambitious privatisation programme, which has proved successful so far.”

Erlan Idrissov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Great Britain, noted: “The very fact that this economic event is taking place reflects the strength of the bilateral relationship between our two countries. I am very proud that at the end of the year in which we celebrated the 25th anniversary of relations between the UK and Kazakhstan, we are enjoying this busy day full of economic dialogue.”

ASTANA (TCA) — A strike of coal miners in north-central Kazakhstan has spread to more mines as hundreds of workers are refusing to return to the surface, demanding higher salaries and better benefits, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — On December 11, the issuance in the Kyrgyz language of “Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane,” a book by S. Frederick Starr, the founding chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, was held in Bishkek.

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DUSHANBE (TCA) — With a huge external debt and China being the country’s largest foreign creditor, Tajikistan struggles to make ends meet when planning, and most importantly, fulfilling its state budget, while the over-reliance on external funds and grants, rather than improvement of the domestic economy, may lead to grave economic consequences. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by EurasiaNet.org:

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ASTANA (TCA) — On December 11, a capsule was laid at the site of construction of modern storage facilities which will be built in the territory of Special Economic Zone “Khorgos – Eastern Gates” on the Kazakh-Chinese border until the end of 2018, the press office of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) reported.

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ASHGABAT (TCA) — On December 11, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) conducted a Meeting of Central Asian Foreign Ministers, on the occasion of the Centre’s 10th anniversary and the International Neutrality Day. This meeting, which brought together Ministers and Deputy Ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, provided an opportunity to exchange views on peace and security developments in the region, and agree on ways to enhance regional cooperation, with the support of UNRCCA.

Addressing the meeting, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), Ms. Natalia Gherman underlined that the UN as a whole and the UNRCCA in particular welcomed the increased potential for regional cooperation, and emerging opportunities to further advance preventive diplomacy in Central Asia.

During the meeting, participants expressed their support to the Centre’s fourth Programme of Action for the period 2018-2020, focused on supporting Central Asian states’ efforts to address existing and emerging challenges and threats that the region is facing. Within this framework, Gherman outlined the Centre’s planned activities for 2018, which range from water diplomacy, preventing extremism and countering terrorism, building preventive capacities in the region to supporting integration efforts between Central Asia and Afghanistan.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of a joint Declaration, which welcomes General Assembly resolution 72/7 on the role of UNRCCA and underlines the importance of consolidating regional dialogue and cooperation mechanisms in Central Asia.

Prior to this Ministerial encounter, UNRCCA, together with Central Asian delegates and representatives of international and regional organizations and the diplomatic community attended the International Conference “Neutrality Policy and Preventive Diplomacy in International Relations: Experience of Turkmenistan and its Significance”, held at the Institute of International Relations in Ashgabat. On behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, SRSG Gherman congratulated Turkmenistan with the upcoming International Day of Neutrality on 12 December, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/275, adopted on 2 February 2017, at the initiative of Turkmenistan.

In the past decade, UNRCCA has actively worked to promote preventive diplomacy in the region and to mainstream Central Asian peace and security issues into the UN’s global agenda. In June 2017, the Centre coordinated the visit of Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the region, who encouraged all Central Asian states to closely cooperate in support of peace, security, human rights and development for all in Central Asia.