Ambassador of Kazakhstan Margulan Baimukhan took part in a special meeting of the European Parliament’s Delegation for cooperation with Central Asia and Mongolia (DCAS), El.kz cites MFA.
The heads of diplomatic missions of the Central Asian countries and Mongolia, members and staffers of the European Parliament, political advisers of main party groups, experts from the European External Action Service, as well as journalists accredited by the European Parliament were invited to the event.
In his welcoming speech, new DCAS Chair Tomáš Zdechovský stated that the European Union attaches particular importance to strengthening strategic cooperation with Central Asia. In his opinion, the region is a significant partner for the EU and plays the role of an important link between Europe and Asia.
Noting the unique history of development of the Central Asian countries Zdechovský called on his colleagues to more actively promote political, cultural and people-to-people exchanges between Central Asia and the EU. In this vein, he highlighted the importance of holding the upcoming 20th meeting of the “Republic of Kazakhstan – European Union” Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC), to be held in November 2023 in Brussels.
Standing Rapporteur for Central Asia Karsten Lucke noted that the European Parliament is interested in effectively assessing and strengthening the current EU Strategy for Central Asia to meet new international challenges, as well as taking into account the unique characteristics of each country in the region. He is confident that Central Asia has enormous cultural potential that is of great interest to Europeans. The MEP was especially delighted by his interactions with local youth and students during his visit to Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries in 2023.
During his speech, Ambassador Margulan Baimukhan informed European politicians and experts about the main provisions of the State of the Nation Address “Economic Course of a Just Kazakhstan”. Considering the increased interest of MEPs in the political reforms of the President of Kazakhstan, the Ambassador focused on promoting the concept of “Adal Azamat” in the country as an important process in the formation of “Just and Fair Kazakhstan”.
The efforts of the Kazakh side to develop the domestic IT sector, especially in the field of digitalization of government and banking services, aroused strong interest among the audience. As an example, the Ambassador cited the decision of Mastercard to open a regional hub in Almaty in the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe to develop the consulting area, as well as support programs for business digitalization and assistance to more than 300,000 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises. In this regard, MEPs noted that Kazakhstan’s experience in the field of GovTech could be widely implemented in other Central Asian countries.
The Ambassador also shared with MEP’s information on the current state and prospects for the development of Kazakhstan-EU cooperation in the field of transport, energy, agriculture and critical raw materials (CRMs).
At the end of the event, Ambassador Margulan Baimukhan discussed with the members of the delegation the preparation for the 20th meeting of the Kazakhstan-EU PCC.