Nation Peppers President with Questions, Gets Reassured in Its Future
(Nazarbyev fields dozens of questions live, discusses pressing issues)

Public Debates Encouraged on Draft Doctrine of National Unity
(New document elaborated at President’s instructions)

Kazakhstan’s Senator Plays Active Role in OSCE
(Akhmetov works to combat discrimination and intolerance against Muslims)

Bestselling Author’s Book on Kazakhstan Popular with Readers
(Christopher Robbins’ Apples are from Kazakhstan)

Buy Kazakh, Ask for Discount If You See “Made in Kazakhstan” Label
(Customers urged to buy local goods, provided they meet quality standards)

Nation Peppers President with Questions, Gets Reassured in Its Future
Millions of people across Kazakhstan were glued to TV screens last Friday as they watched President Nursultan Nazarbayev field the questions in a live Q&A with the nation.
During the three hours of interacting with the people, broadcast live by several TV and radio channels, the President was peppered with questions on a wide range of issues relating to prospects of economic recovery, business regulations, the future of the construction industry, education and healthcare reforms, inter-ethnic relations, and many others. Foreign policy questions related to Astana’s forthcoming OSCE chairmanship in 2010 and the effects of the Customs Union on international trade and domestic businesses.
Responding to a televised question from Moscow from Yevgeny Primakov, who headed the Russian foreign ministry and the government in the 1990s, President Nazarbayev shared Kazakhstan’s views regarding the OSCE chairmanship.
“Kazakhstan is proud to be the first post-Soviet, Asian or Muslim country to chair such a respected organization, the one we all need… Kazakhstan would work actively on issues of regional security, nuclear disarmament, problems related to Afghanistan, new challenges such as extremism, drug trafficking, etc.,” he said.
“I also propose convening a new OSCE summit, as the organization has not gathered at the top level since the Istanbul summit of 1999. We should meet in order to at least assess the current state of affairs, as the world is changing rapidly, and to work out a joint declaration on our vision for the future. Maybe there could be a new major issue on the agenda, proposed by the leaders of member states,” Nursultan Nazarbayev added.
The President also said the new Customs Union of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus will benefit businesses, including SMEs, involved in cross border trade.
“The Customs Union is going to come into force on January 1, 2010, and we will sign a final agreement on that in Minsk on November 27. There will be direct practical effects. First of all, the Customs Union will create conditions for mutual investments and creating joint enterprises, advancing your businesses. Second, customs tariffs will be simplified. Would it not be good if we transfer dozens of customs checkpoints to the union’s external frontiers? Business people won’t need to spend hours on customs formalities. Third, paying indirect taxes will be simplified. But the main thing is that we are opening a huge market with 170 million people and the GDP of two trillion dollars. This is a dream for any businessperson, finding and opening such markets… In our globalizing world one cannot survive without integration. For a nation to lock itself means cutting its own future,” the President stressed.
Commenting on the state of the economy, Nursultan Nazarbayev highlighted the government’s policies on tackling impact the global recession had on Kazakhstan. He emphasized much work had been done in creating new jobs under the “Roadmap” program and strengthening the prevention of corruption among state officials, especially when it concerned business interests.
The President explained the state’s efforts to support the country’s banking sector and those affected by the crunch in the construction industry. He warned, however, against campaigning for writing off individual debts to the banks on the loans, which people took during the years of cheap credits.
 “People must return credits to banks. The laws say so. Either money or the guarantee should be returned. All law enforcement agencies must ensure the laws are abided by, and credits are returned. If banks don’t get their loans back, how could they have money for crediting our economy, small and medium businesses?” the President asked.
He called the interethnic peace and harmony in Kazakhstan “a golden treasure of ours” and warned against taking it for granted.
“We should not be complacent that this [peace and harmony] is guaranteed to stay with us forever. Everyone should understand this. I had earlier assigned elaborating the Doctrine of National Unity, and I hope as many people as possible will get involved in discussing this document, will know its content. On the basis of that we can develop a Kazakhstan model of living together peacefully for many years to come,” Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
Concluding the conference, the President said he would be glad to face the country’s citizens in such a form more frequently.
A total of 40,000 questions had been received by the specifically designed call and on-line centres ahead of the conference last Friday. While the President answered a total of fifty during the event, other questions are to be answered by government authorities shortly.

Public Debates Encouraged on Draft Doctrine of National Unity
When Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, lots of pundits forecast the country’s disintegration and collapse for many reasons, the biggest one of which was a very diverse ethnic composition of the country. After all, out of 17 million people at that time, the Kazakhs, the titular nation, were in the minority in their own country, the Russians were in the majority, and there were a host of other sizeable ethnic groups, including the Uzbeks, the Ukrainians, the Germans, with presumably diverging interests and allegiances lying elsewhere. The Soviet Union had already seen violent ethnic clashes by that time, and there were ample data indicating the same fate should befall Kazakhstan.
Yet, as is well known, those gloomy forecasts did not materialize. Kazakhstan remains one of the very few countries in the former USSR which has managed to avoid any conflict and bloodshed because of reasons of ethnicity or religion. True, the ethnic composition has changed, with many Russians, Ukrainians and Germans migrating to respective countries, and many Kazakhs returning home from emigration (see story in Astana Calling, Issue # 9, November 3, 2009). Now, 18 years after independence, the ethnic composition has more or less stabilized. All non-Kazakhs who wanted to leave the country more or less did so, and all those who chose to build their lives and their children’s lives in Kazakhstan, stayed and became part and parcel of a rich fabric of the country’s society.
What is more, Kazakhstan has been recognized as a model of inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony. Yet, the country’s leadership is not taking peace and accord in a very diverse society for granted.
Last year, President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called for a new Doctrine of National Unity which would provide a blueprint for strengthening the inter-ethnic harmony for years to come. Last week, the Kazakh media published a draft of the doctrine, potentially the principal document on state policy in managing ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity in the country, in order to encourage public debates.
The doctrine should ensure maintaining the multicultural character of the Kazakh society and its consolidation around common values, such as patriotism, tolerance, appreciation of common history and care for future generations.
According to the first lines of the draft, “Securing interethnic and interreligious accord, and civil consolidation is a major condition of Kazakhstan’s further development, its social, economic, economic and political modernization.”
The project proposes further strengthening the authority of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, a unique consultative body established by the Constitution’s Article 44 and designed to represent interests of all ethnic groups in the country. Established in 1995, today it brings together more than 800 ethnic and cultural associations.
The draft underscores high value of a balanced language policy in Kazakhstan. While Kazakh functions as a state language, government bodies also use Russian. At the same time, the state supports studying and communicating in languages of all the country’s ethnic groups.
The years since independence have witnessed a true renaissance of religion in Kazakhstan as the number of religious communities increased six times, from 671 in 1991 to 4,200 in 2009. There are almost 3,200 mosques, churches, synagogues, and other houses of prayer in the country now.
Recognizing this solid foundation for multiculturalism and religious freedom, the draft doctrine strongly warns against complacency in dealing with the delicate issue. Penetration of ethnically motivated and religious extremism from abroad is a serious threat. Under certain circumstances, some local social problems may easily get ethnic undertones. If there is no educational policy, traditional tolerance would also come under risk. All these problems demand high attention from the government and civil society.
The doctrine provides specific recommendations for state institutions, education system, and mass media. The key principle is strict prohibition of any forms of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, language or religion. Preventing activities encouraging racial, interethnic or interreligious hatred is also of paramount importance.
The country also puts an emphasis on the need to promote the Kazakh language as a new factor of national unity in the country. This policy is to be implemented under provision that all constitutional rights of citizens to use other languages in their private and social life are secured.
As a measure to achieve that, the draft doctrine encourages promotion within the public administration system of representatives of ethnic minorities with good command of the Kazakh language. It is also proposed to introduce Kazakh proficiency tests for those applying for Kazakhstan citizenship.
Among other measures proposed by the document, one should mention the introduction of interethnic tolerance classes in school curricula, popularizing positive imaging of all ethnic groups in the country’s mass media, strengthening legal norms securing equal rights of all citizens regardless of race, ethnicity and/or religion, improving mechanisms of early detection of social conflicts and contradictions, which pose a risk of acquiring ethnic character.
The document concludes economic growth, social progress and democratic development are only possible if consolidation and unity of Kazakhstani society is secured.

Kazakhstan’s Senator Plays Active Role in OSCE
Adil Akhmetov, member of Kazakhstan’s Senate, has been acting as one of the three personal representatives of OSCE Chairman-in-Office to promote tolerance since last spring. His portfolio is combating discrimination and intolerance against Muslims. He works alongside two other personal representatives of the Greek OSCE chairman, Personal Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination (also focusing on intolerance and discrimination against Christians and members of other religions) Mario Mauro and Personal Representative on combating anti-Semitism Rabbi Andrew Baker.
Adil Akhmetov was appointed ntolerance and Discrimination against Muslims in April 2009. Ambassador Akhmetov is secretary of the committee on international relations, defense and security, and a member of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan. His previous positions include first deputy minister of foreign affairs, chairman of the committee on education of the Ministry of education, culture and healthcare, as well as Kazakhstan’s Ambassador in London.
Since appointment to his current position, Akhmetov has participated in several forums held on the issues of human rights, including the Human Dimension Implementation meeting in Warsaw. There he outlined his proposals on how to overcome anti-Islamic sentiments.
Among those proposals is an idea to implement “an intellectual and ethical strategy to avoid political exploitation of issues related to discrimination and intolerance.” He also believes it is necessary to pursue “integration policies which address social and economic needs of Muslims in countries of residence.” Akhmetov also urges “compliance of the fight against terrorism with internationally recognized human rights standards.”
Speaking at the Helsinki Commission hearing in Washington on October 14, Akhmetov said, “It should be acknowledged that intolerance against Muslims is not a problem of a specific minority, but a human rights problem concerning everyone. Governments should support and strengthen the mandates of intergovernmental organizations that are addressing discrimination—like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Fundamental Rights Agency, UN Alliance of Civilizations Initiative and Organization of Islamic Conference — including by encouraging such organizations to raise the capacity of and train police, prosecutors, and judges, as well as other official bodies and civil society groups to combat violent hate crimes.”
Asked by the Indo-Asian News Service about the role Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in the OSCE can play in achieving tolerance, Akhmetov explained: “We are a good model to lead the OSCE because we are a multi-ethnic country, and the OSCE is the largest (security-related group) after the UN.”
He also noted the importance of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions taking place in Astana every three years. “This conference is not a game. We practice tolerance,” Akhmetov said.
At a recent OSCE meeting with all three representatives on tolerance and non-discrimination at the organization’s headquarters in Vienna, US chargé d’affaires Carol Fuller thanked them for their work and expressed hope Kazakhstan will extend the mandates of all representatives.
“The United States strongly supports the efforts of the Personal Representatives. Their work is at the very heart of the OSCE’s principles and commitments. The promotion of tolerance, understanding and non-discrimination empowers healthy societies and fosters respect among different communities, in turn allowing states to become more stable, secure and prosperous… We strongly encourage the incoming Chairmanship to continue the mandate of the Personal Representatives for Tolerance, and we know it is the full intention of the government of Kazakhstan to do so,” Fuller said.

Bestselling Author’s Book on Kazakhstan Popular with Readers
 “Magnificent... a consummate and classic portrait of one of the great picturesque personalities of the twentieth century,” wrote Simon Callow in The Guardian.
“A complete delight,” agreed William Boyd from The Daily Telegraph.
“Hilarious and unexpectedly moving,” noted The Times.
This is all praise for a book by Christopher Robbins, Apples are from Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared, one of the popular books sold by Borders, one of London’s largest book chain stores.
Robbins is a prominent writer and journalist. He is the author of Air America, a bestseller on which a movie with Mel Gibson was based. Robins is also the winner of the prestigious literary award Sara, and a regular author for The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Guardian.
He does not claim to be an expert on Kazakhstan or Central Asia, nothing of that kind. Before starting the book, he himself knew nothing about the country. But he was truly amazed by the fact that Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe yet known so little that few people can find it on a map.
“Journalists, politicians - those who consider themselves masters of the world - also do not know anything about Kazakhstan. So for a writer this country is a real Klondike of ideas and information,” Robbins said in an interview for the Russian web-edition “E-xecutive”.
So Robbins set out on a fascinating journey in order to discover Kazakhstan, its traditions, culture and people for himself. According to his first impressions, “people are very friendly - they are grateful and open to all who are sincerely interested in their country and their lives.”
“Kazakhstanis - and most of them prefer to be called that because it implies a unity of all ethnic groups living in the country, not just the ethnic Kazakhs - are very proud of the country they had gained after independence. Their patriotism is extremely positive, not militant. I think their main goal now is to be open around the world and improve relations with Europe,” he said in an interview.
As he worked on the book, he had a possibility to interview President Nursultan Nazarbayev and accompany him on the campaign trail.
“Nazarbayev is a politician of a global level. When I received his agreement to being interviewed, I expected many restrictions and total control. But there was not a single trace of that! I think Kazakhstan is lucky to have such a president,” Robbins said.
Asked about the country’s role in global politics, Robbins noted: “Kazakhstan has no enemies and has good relations with Russia, China, its southern neighbors, as well as Iran and the United States. In this regard, Kazakhstan has special capabilities: it can become a bridge between the countries on issues where their relationship is far from ideal.”
The book appeared in 2008 as paperback from Profile Books and was published under the title “In Search of Kazakhstan: the Land that Disappeared”. The hard cover version by Atlas & Co came later the same year under a slightly changed and rather intriguing new title, “Apples are from Kazakhstan”, which is also the name of book’s first chapter. The latter version served as a basis for the book’s translation into Russian. Judging by reviews available online, the book was welcomed by its main heroes, the people of Kazakhstan.

Buy Kazakh, Ask for Discount If You See “Made in Kazakhstan” Label
Buy Kazakh, a campaign under this name, has been launched across the country this month to tackle the problem domestic producers have faced for years, which is that the markets are saturated with foreign made goods and that Kazakhs mostly them, rather than local products. 
According to Mirzhan Maykenov, managing director of KAZNEX Corporation for Export Development and Promotion, domestic production accounts for only 25 percent of domestic sales. The figure is less than satisfying, especially in comparison with Western industrial economies, where the same rate comes up to 60-70 percent.
In an effort to promote domestic production and restore consumer trust a campaign was launched, calling on the people to buy products and goods, made in Kazakhstan. On November 1, the campaign was launched in five major cities in the country. Twelve major hypermarkets in Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, Atyrau and Karaganda are participating , offering consumers a 15 percent discount for all Kazakh goods.
As this is the first time an event of this kind has been organized in the country, it will proceed during November only, Maykenov announced. To get a discount, one should spend no less than 2,500 tenge (US$1 = 150 KZT) for any ‘made in Kazakhstan’ products. Sales during that period are expected to go up by 10 to 15 percent.
Tackling the problem of increasing exports in the face of global recession is said to be a major step on the way to recovery of the manufacturing sector in Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, the government has been making various efforts to minimize the negative effects of the international crisis.
A lot depends, however, on the people in Kazakhstan, deputy head of the Almaty business and industry administration Maksat Rakhmetov noted. Today, people’s confidence in the quality and their desire to buy local goods are of paramount importance for Kazakh manufacturers.
According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Buy Kazakh campaign is a pilot project, challenging Kazakh manufacturers and consumers to pool their efforts and reach the desired effect. If it proves effective, similar events will be organized in the future regularly, involving more supermarkets across the country.

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