Nazarbayev's interview to Russian TV Channel

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has talked to Russia-24 TV Channel, Tengrinews reports citing the press office of Akorda.

Answering questions of Evelina Zakamskaya, Nazarbayev told about the programs currently being implemented in Kazakhstan, named the key areas of further development of Kazakhstan and most promising areas of its cooperation with the other Eurasian Economic Union member-countries. The interview also touched upon important aspects of the global economic development and Kazakhstan's plans to strengthen its bilateral ties with foreign countries.

Nazarbayev emphasized the importance of development of infrastructure for land-locked Kazakhstan. This issues was also discussed in detail at this year’s Astana Economic Forum.

Kazakhstan has reached the level of development where it needs to come up with new approached to make further progress. “In this context, modernization of infrastructure is not only about building new roads, but about generating a multiplied effect: enterprises have enough orders, new communities emerge, people are getting jobs and a source of income, budget is getting revenues. We believe that it will help Kazakhstan maintain an economic growth," he said.

The Kazakh President noted that Kazakhstan was availing from its geographic location next biggest neighbors – Russia and China. In particular, Kazakhstan was about to join China’s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative that envisages construction of new highways and railroads through the territory of Kazakhstan. In this context, he emphasised that creation of the Asian Bank of Infrastructure Development provided huge opportunities for Kazakhstan, Russia and the entire Eurasian Economic Union.

When speaking about the increasing Chinese influence on Kazakhstan’s economy, Nazarbayev called it imaginary fears, adding that Kazakhstan and China were preparing to sign a number of bilateral agreements.

He added that China and Russia’s joint implementation of large-scale projects in oil development and road construction would help link the Asian region to the Russian economy, with may of the links going trough Kazakhstan, which would also positively affects the entire region.

According to Nazarbayev, the reciprocal sanctions between Russia and the West were a result of mixing politics and economy and the worst part of it was that not only Russia, but other countries were suffering from this standoff.

Nursultan Nazarbayev also added that he made every effort to contribute to the settlement of the situation in Ukraine. “When I am asked to be a mediator, I do not spare my time or efforts. I am holding meetings, calling upon the sides to negotiate. In this situation, the countries’ leaders can always find a common ground through compromises. I do not see any unsolvable problems there. Both Russia and Ukraine are nearing the point when this issue must be settled by overcoming the existing disagreements. This should happen as soon as possible. This is what the European leaders want as well. It is high time to make this step,” Nazarbayev said.

Speaking about the current financial problems around the world, Nazarbayev said that they were cause by the outdated world’s currency system. He pointed out that dependence of the world's financial structure on the reserve currency of a single issuer posed a big risk for the other countries.

Currently, Latin America and the Arab world are discussing the establishment of their regional currencies, which reflects the desire to reduce the impact of the dollar. However, the dollar remains the world's dominant currency to date with the United States being the world's largest economy, said.

In this context, the international dialog platforms like the Astana Economic Forum created conditions for international institutions and organizations to cooperate in financial issues, he emphasised.

He also reminded about the large-scale projects that Kazakhstan was implementing. The much-expected one was the EXPO-2017, that would be followed by creation of a financial center in Astana that would create exceptional conditions and even have a court system based on the British standards.

Speaking about Kazakhstan's plans to make it education more competitive by making it trilingual, the President stressed that in the future science will be taught in English in Kazakhstan’s high schools and universities.

Kazakhstan's President also marked the importance of the five institutional reforms that he announced during his election campaign in April. Nazarbayev said that the major transformations to be achieved through those reforms were widely supported in Kazakhstan.

Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina