Kazakh President Calls For Global Food Crisis Discussions and Increased Economic Cooperation With the Middle East

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May. 20 /PRNewswire/ --

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Economic Forum (WEF) has concluded its plenary session in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The event saw US President George W. Bush and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan among the 12 heads of state attending. King Hussein of Jordan, President Shimon Peres of Israel, Tony Blair, the EC Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, were all welcomed at the 2-day Forum by President Mubarak of Egypt.

In his address to delegates on Sunday, President Nazarbayev spoke on the Forum's theme - Learning from the Future: "The future is in the hands of today's generation," he said. "Financial crisis, expensive oil and sharply-inflated foodstuffs will be defining global politics to a large extent in the nearest future. And whereas the financial crisis is a problem, the food crisis is a tragedy for millions on the planet. Upsurge in prices for wheat, rice, maize has already been encouraging discontent among the populations of a dozen nations. Some have been citing climate change and bio-ethanol productions among the underlying causes. But I believe the major cause is powerful speculative activity...

"Global financial crises have made profiteers draw out huge amounts of funds from the stock markets and invest them into exchange commodities, which for the first time in history comprise not only oil and gold, but also grain and sugar. I support President Mubarak's idea of holding a global economic forum on food crisis," said President Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan is one of the world's largest exporters of hydrocarbons - and a leading producer and exporter of quality grain and flour. "Kazakhstan is capable of substantially expanding areas under grain - and processing the raw grain to manufacture foodstuffs. We are inviting investors into this [the grain/flour] sector of the Kazakh economy," said the President. "Kazakhstan," he continued, "sees Middle East countries as promising partners in the realms of economy, politics and culture. We have managed to establish ties of mutual understanding and cooperation, but we now need active economic partnership."

Kazakhstan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marat Tazhin also addressed the Forum (May 19th) with a speech that underlined Kazakhstan's stability, its unique situation in Central Asia, the development of transport/transit infrastructures, non-extractive sectors, agriculture and the country's profusion of foreign investment opportunities.