CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 03/2016

LE MONDE KAZAKHSTAN | INTERVIEW
H.E. Kairat Sarybay
“Kazakhstan will join the club of the 30 most developed countries by 2050.“
The Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan points out the many
political and economic reforms the world‘s 9th largest country has
achieved in only 25 years of independence.
Interview: Rainer Himmelfreundpointner
CD: Your Excellency, which personal impression of
Austria have you gathered since you became
Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of
the Republic of Kazakhstan in Austria and as
Permanent Representative to the international
organizations in Vienna in February 2014?
Kairat Sarybay: My acquaintance with
Austria has started in a very unusual way. I
used to visit Montafon resort area in Vorarlberg
even before I became Ambassador. So I
met the Austrians from public and business
circles in Montafon and the connections
I acquired were very helpful later in Vienna.
In my opinion, Austria is a country of
friends. People here greet you with an open
heart and I am really happy to have made
friends in every Federal State of Austria.
Can you please outline the history and status of
the bilateral relations between Kazakhstan and
Austria on the political and economic level?
The history of Kazakh-Austrian bilateral
relations started 1992. In 1995 Kazakhstan
opened its Embassy in Vienna and in
2007 Austria opened its Embassy in Astana.
From the moment of the establishment
of diplomatic relations in 1992, the President
of Kazakhstan H.E. Mr. Nursultan
Nazarbayev has visited Austria four times
(in 1993, 2000, 2004, 2012), while former
Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky visited
Kazakhstan two times (1991, 1993) and
former Federal President of Austria H.E.
Mr. Heinz Fischer only once (in December,
2010), followed by numerous visits on the
ministerial and parliamentary levels. Even
more, there is a circle of Friends of Kazakhstan
in Austria, which frequently meets
for dinner here in our Embassy.
What about our economic ties?
Austria is among the leading trade
partners of Kazakhstan, ranking the 4th
among EU countries in terms of bilateral
trade. In turn, Kazakhstan is the second
largest trade partner for Austria among
the CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent
States) after the Russian Federation.
As per Austrian statistics, the bilateral
trade turnover in 2015 equaled 1,085
million euros. Last year Kazakh-Austrian
intergovernmental commission has adopted
the updated list of 36 priority projects
worth of 360 mln.euros. These include the
projects of the companies, like Kapsch,
Strabag,Bertsch, Doppelmayr, Sanlas Holding
and etc.
What kind of projects?
Plenty. Kazakhstan has a very ambitious
development policy framework. Our longterm
strategy ”Kazakhstan-2050“ sets the
goal to enter the club of 30 most developed
countries in the world by 2050. Based on
this there are many development initiatives.
I would like to name the Industrial-
Innovative development programme for
2015-2019, the Comprehensive privatization
plan for 2016-2020 or the New Economic
Policy ”Nurly Zhol“ for 2015-2017,
which is aimed at development of transport,
industrial and energy infrastructure.
For that purpose, 9 billion dollars will be
allocated from the National Fund from
2015 to 2017 and another 9 billion dollars
from our development partners World
Bank, ADB, EBRD and IDB. All these initiatives
and projects imply funding and cooperation
with foreign partners. In general,
the outlook is very positive for Austrian
companies. The largest investors in Kazakhstan
are OMV and Raiffeisen Leasing.
The companies like Herz Armaturen, Takeda,
ILF, Frauscher Sensortechnik, Frey
Wille and many others successfully operate
in Kazakhstan. There are around 50 subsidiaries
of Austrian companies already registered
in Kazakhstan.
FOTOS: XYXXYXYXY
PHOTO: RALPH MANFREDA
KAIRAT SARYBAY
Born in Almaty in 1966, Mr Sarybay finished his
studies of linguistics and orientalistics at the
Leningrad University in 1988. He held various state
positions including a service as Deputy Minister of
Foreign Affairs from 1998-1999. Since February 2014,
he serves as Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria.
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Cercle Diplomatique 3/2016
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