Kazakhstan wants to get rid of aid recipient status with ADB

Kazakhstan no longer wants the status of aid recipient with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and plans to become a partner of the bank instead, Tengrinews reports from the 12th ministerial conference of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program of the Asian Development Bank “Kazakhstan plans to step away from its status of a recipient of free-of-charge technical assistance to become a partner of ADB to render support to developing nations,” Prime-Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Akhmetov said in his opening speech in Astana today. “The donor status would enable Kazakhstan to facilitate development of Asian and Central Asian countries and participate in the decision making progresses in ADB,” the Prime-Minister said. He acknowledged the role that ADB had played in modernizing Kazakhstan’s economy: “Over the years of its presence in Kazakhstan, ADB has channeled over $2.5 billion into the country’s economy.” “Our partnership features such large-scaled projects as West Europe – West China transit corridor to be a major route for freight traffic in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is interested in expanding cooperation with trade partners from other countries,” he said. But it is high time to take the cooperation to a new level, the PM believes. And Kazakhstan has already made it first contribution as a donor. “In 2013 Kazakhstan has contributed over $5 million dollars into the Asian Development Fund in the frames of its cooperation with ADB. This testifies that cooperation with ABD is advancing to a new level,” he said. "The fact that the 47th annual meeting of the Asian bank’ Baord of Governors is going to be held in Astana in 2014 is one of the clear manifestations of the high trust to Kazakhstan," PM Akhmetov said. During yesterday’s meeting with the Kazakhstan Prime Minister ADB President Takehiko Nakao said that Kazakhstan “has been the key player in development of regional connections since independence. Thanks to its fast economic growth Kazakhstan will be playing a key role in the future prosperity of the region." The Asian Development Fund is a major instrument of concessional financing for the poorest member countries of the Asian Development Bank. ADB, which has 67 member countries and CAREC partnership includes 10 countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. ADB has been CAREC secretariat since 2001. Kazakhstan is chairing CAREC in 2013. The today’s ministerial conference of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program is dedicated to Integrated Transport and Trade.