Page 69 - BNE_magazine_07_2020

bne July 2020
Opinion 69
utilise new opportunities, such as delivering fresh Atlantic salmon by train to China.
Furthermore, Kazakhstan’s agricultural potential is so significant that it remains one of the few countries in the world with vast untapped agribusiness opportunities. In fact, the arable land area in Kazakhstan is larger than the entire United Kingdom and its livestock sector is a world of opportunity ripe for the taking.
Kazakhstan’s new President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,
elected only a year ago, has kickstarted a massive reform programme designed to make the country even a friendlier place for businesses and foreign investors. The reforms are far- reaching and cover a wide range of areas, from strengthening good governance to further improving business climate. We adopted a new mining code based on the Australian model, which offers companies a clear and reliable pathway to
the fabled mineral wealth of Kazakhstan. We changed our legislation to provide financial incentives for foreign filmmakers willing to share with their viewers the captivating beauty of Kazakhstan’s natural scenery. We continuously improve our renewable energy regulations to turn an oil-producing giant into an international hub of green energy and technologies.
The Kazakh government utilises its mineral riches to finance major programmes, such as Digital Kazakhstan aimed to transform and digitalise the country’s economy. Our Ministry for Digital Technologies is engaged in an active cooperation with the UK’s Government Digital Service, and we would
be happy to embrace British IT businesses looking for new markets and avenues for international growth.
With top positions in global literacy rankings and high scores in the UN’s Human Development Index, Kazakhstan is proud of its high quality human capital. Given that the government has set out on a mission of turning the country into a trilingual nation able to speak English freely and fluently, any British company coming to Kazakhstan would find a more than capable labour force to support local operations.
Indeed, Kazakhstan can offer a lot to UK businesses. And if there is one thing that today’s global crisis has made very clear, it is that international partnerships and cooperation do matter. I firmly believe in the bright future of the strategic partnership between my country and the United Kingdom. And I invite all British friends to share my belief and discover for themselves the many facets of the Kazakh land.
Erlan Idrissov is the ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Representing Kazakhstan as ambassador to the UK since 2017, he has twice been Kazakhstan’s minister of foreign affairs, and served for five years as the country’s ambassador to the United States in 2007-2012.
VISEGRAD BLOG:
The COVID-19 pandemic may actually strengthen Central and Eastern Europe's position in Europe
Marek Belka and Piroska Nagy-Mohácsi of the LSE
T
Belka and Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi (LSE), with Poland being one of the big winners. However, the nationalistic leaders that run several of these countries may use their extra clout to distance themselves further from Europe rather than move closer.
One of the surprising results emerging from the coronacrisis is that the countries of Central Europe have on the whole coped with the pandemic and its economic shock better than most of the more developed markets in Western Europe, the academics claim, and that will accelerate the closing of the gap between old and new Europe.
And this is not just a one-off. In the previous crises the countries of Central Europe have also outperformed. During the 2008 global meltdown Poland won the distinction of being the only country on the Continent that did not go into recession, and earned itself the “glorious title of green island,” says Belka,
who was governor of the Polish central bank between 2010 and 2016.
“The immigration crisis of 2015-16 shook Mediterranean Europe politically and economically, but the spill over into the CEE region was only political – deplorable as it was – and not economic. To the contrary, notwithstanding the anti-immigration rhetoric of the Polish far-right government, in fact it has allowed for a massive inflow of seasonal (and not that seasonal) workers from Ukraine and other emerging economies in the face of emerging labour shortages in Poland,” the authors said in a blog hosted by the London School of Economics (LSE). “Hungary too has welcomed guest workers while maintaining anti-migrant rhetoric.
But migration-related social tensions in Poland are almost non-existent, while the economic advantage is enormous.”
he coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may actually strengthen Central and Eastern Europe in relative
economic terms to the rest of Europe, argue Marek
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