Kazakhstan to set up development assistance agency soon

The Government of Kazakhstan has begun the process of setting up a development assistance agency for foreign countries.

Confirming this in an interview to the Astana Times, the country’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rapil Zhoshybayev, said that the agency would be provisionally called KazAID, the Kazakhstan Agency for International Development.

Zhoshbayev said that the creation of KazAID was in line with the recommendation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its Resident Representative in Kazakhstan Stephen Tull.

“The initial step was the development of a concept of efforts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the sphere of official development assistance, which is a comprehensive strategic vision of the development of national policy in the field of financial, technical and other assistance to foreign countries,” he said.

With President Nursultan Nazarbayev giving his approval for its creation in April 2013, the activities of KazAID have focused on implementation of main provisions of the concept document, he added.

Zhoshybayev further revealed that the KazAID roadmap provides a list of specific measures aimed at creating a national system of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).

“Because of the freshness of this field for our young state, first of all, we were faced with the need for the legal definition of the category of ODA and legislative regulation of the respective relations. To this end, we have developed a draft law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On official development assistance,” which is currently in the process of parliamentary approval,” he said.

The minister said that preparations are on to work with parliamentarians to finalise this law.

“I am confident that we will gain their understanding because of the importance of this issue in the context of the complex challenges facing our country in the framework of Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy. The participation of authoritative international partners such as UNDP has allowed us to ensure the best global practices at all stages of the preparation of the draft law,” he said.

He also said that Kazakhstan saw ODA as an effective mechanism for improving the stability and prosperity in the region and the whole world.

“The presence of the national system of international development assistance is one of the essential attributes of the states which seek to become among the most-developed countries of the world. With economic development and growth of the international prestige of the country, the responsibility of Kazakhstan for ensuring international and regional security and stability increases,” he added.

“The establishment of a national system of ODA will be a new phase in the development of Kazakhstan as an established state. No country can develop in isolation and not depend on external conditions,” he concluded.

 

 

 
Source: Ani News

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