The President of Kazakhstan Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the 17th annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Astana on 29 June 2008.

Addressing the forum, the President stressed that the decision to choose Kazakhstan as the venue for 2008 Parliamentary Assembly meeting reflected the recognition of country’s successes in pursuing economic and political reforms and was a practical step to strengthen cooperation between Kazakhstan and OSCE.

Kazakhstan will chair this organization in 2010 and plans to emphasize such aspects of its activity as regional security, inter-faith dialogue, and closer cooperation among different regions of the OSCE. “Path to Europe” program is devised by the Government to address issues of deeper cooperation between Kazakhstan and OSCE member states in energy, transport, technology transfers, and education spheres.

Speaking on current democratic development in Kazakhstan, the President stated the need to proceed with further measures on the basis of the following principles:

  - creation of a mechanism to form the Parliament with at least two political parties represented,
  - more favourable conditions on registration of political parties,
  - further improvements in electoral process,
  - cutting unnecessary bureaucracy barriers administering mass media activities.

During the first day of the session The President held bilateral meetings with the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly Mr. Goran Lennmarker, Head of the US Congress delegation Mr. Alcy Hastings and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Mr. Knut Vollebek.

The inter-parliamentary meeting attended by over 240 parliamentarians from 50 countries is held for first time in Central Asia and will last until 3 July when the Astana Declaration will be adopted.
 

The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the UK