Sustainable development: how Kazakhstan contributes to achieving 17 SDGs
Norimasa Shimomura, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan, underlining the topic of the Forum, recalled of the 17 SDGs adopted by world leaders, including First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, in New York at the United Nations back in 2015. These are the 17 goals that the countries crave to achieve in the next 15 years by 2030.
“I am really grateful that Kazakhstan’s PhD Association and the United Kingdom have taken this initiative to organize this with a number of sponsors and supporters. It is also encouraging to see that many young researchers are interested in this topic which really gives me the confidence that our future is already in the right hands. We, at the United Nations, acknowledge, of course, the importance of intellectuality and the roles they play in the path towards sustainable development. Sustainable development, as you know, means that we try to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of the future generation. So, by definition, sustainable development begins with paying respect to future generations as an important stakeholder of the discussion we have on our future”, he said.
In his speech, he aligns Kazakhstan’s 2050 Strategy and Economic Development Strategy to the Agenda of the SDGs, that is underlining that Kazakhstan already contributes to achieve the SDGs by setting the Astana talks on Syria as an example.
“The sustainability agenda is gaining momentum worldwide, and here in Kazakhstan, we are providing the necessary support to help this country to achieve nationalizing and implementing the sustainable development goals. Kazakhstan is a well place to achieve SDGs because, as you know, national priorities adopted in Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy, also more recently in 2025 Economic Development Strategy, and there are many other national priority documents that are closely aligned at their core to the Agenda of the SDGs. Kazakhstan is already actively implementing SDGs at international scale, and I guess it is no coincidence that we are holding this event here at the site of the International EXPO Astana 2017. And, also you remember, throughout the past years, this country has contributed, for example, through the hosting of Astana talks on Syria, and all of this actually is a sign of contribution of Kazakhstan towards the world’s achievement on the SDGs. Not only at regional and international level, Kazakhstan is actively implementing SDGs at domestic level as well”, Norimasa Shimomura stated.
The speaker recalled that last summer the prime minister of that time (B. Sagintayev – author’s note) issued a resolution announcing the establishment of a nationally led correlation architecture to manage the SDG process in Kazakhstan.
“It is not easy to manage because of many goals we have. Under these 17 goals we have 169 targets to achieve. So, we’ve been always saying that by achieving these 169 targets Kazakhstan will be able to achieve many of the standards that are required to join the OECD, which is also the development aspiration of Kazakhstan. So, based on this resolution issued by the prime minister, it was decided to create a “correlation house” on the SDGs chaired by the deputy prime minister and together with it to create 5 inter-sectorial working groups for five Ps of SDGs”, he said.
According to the speaker, these 17 SDGs are grouped into 5 Ps, they are people, prosperity, planet, peace and partnership promotion.
“As you can see, there are 17 goals in SDGs. 17 is little too many to memorize. So many instances we grouped these goals into five: goals related to or focused on the needs of the people, goals related to those that focus on prosperity, those are the goals related to economic development, other goals related to planet, planet meaning environment, energy, and there are goals related to peace, good governance, rule of law, and then finally the last goal No.17 related to promoting partnership. So, each of these inter-sectorial working groups is chaired by government ministers, and it shows the high level of political commitment and interest of this country in achieving the SDGs. The 2030 Agenda was specifically designed to show the complexity of sustainable development, and also inter-connectiveness of economics, social issues and the environment. The global community now widely accepts that an integrated approach is needed to implement the SDGs”, he said.
Academia, industry, business, government, civil society, parliament, international organizations, students, all of these groups of people are needed to work together to achieve the SDGs, making it clear that business as a usual approach does not take the countries to where they wish to by year 2030. To do so, the countries need to create a broad alliance to achieve the SDGs through a whole-of-the-society approach. Such an alliance must constantly use unconventional and innovative means to work on the SDGs.
“Innovation has become a new buzz word across the world, international organizations, governments, academia, businesses, civil society, industry, all of us think that innovation is an answer to major contemporary challenges. Innovations are alternative solutions to many existing problems emerging in all sectors, including ones in SDGs: electric cars, organic farming, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, use of blockchain, and other new technologies”, Norimasa Shimomura said.
The speaker shared with his excitement to see many young researchers and not only, saying that he is looking forward to constructive discussion and thought-provoking discussion on how to achieve the SGDs in an innovative manner in the coming years.
Having started his speech with greetings, Managing Director of the AIFC Committee on Financial Services Regulation, Mukhtar Bubeyev, underlined the main focuses of the Astana International Financial Center, clearly determining the path of the Center to work on innovations, green energy, sustainable development. According to him, the Center focuses on developing finance in five areas in the region. He also underlined the importance of such a forum for discussing modern trends and scientific achievements.
“The Astana International Financial Center has been functioning since 2018 and we mainly focus on developing finance here in Kazakhstan and in Central Asia in a number of areas. First is the securities market, the International Astana Exchange has been created here involving NASDAQ and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Developing asset management is second, which is not well developed in Kazakhstan. We hope we create a hub to this end. Third is Islamic finance, which has a great potential in the region for further development. The fourth area is financial technologies. I would like to note that financial technologies and innovations are largely promoted thanks to such forums. The final area is green finance and sustainable development as a whole”, he said.
He called for political decisions to be made to ensure sustainable and long-term development.
“The AIFC is a newly established institution, a great deal of things still remains unclear. Political decisions must be taken. To make these decisions politically valid, the best strategy is to hold a scientific discussion on how to develop right and make sure this development is sustainable and long-term”, he concluded.
Deputy Chairman of the AIFC Board Yernur Rysmagambetov welcomed everyone on behalf of the Bureau for Continued Professional Development. The Bureau was set up two years ago at the initiative of AIFC Governor, Kairat Kelimbetov, to contribute to the development of human resources in the country. According to him, the AIFC has 140 resident companies, aiming to bring this number to 500 by 2020.
“The main goal is to re-train specialists in finance justice, audit, HR, IT, FinTech, aiming at re-training 5 thousand specialists in Kazakhstan. Over 5 years, 2 thousand persons were re-trained that led to a community of professional now including 5 thousand persons. Over the last couple of years, we focused on re-training, our strategy can be described as “local to global” and “global to local”. “Local to global” implies that we want to give local specialists an opportunity to work in global companies based in the AIFC or its partners. The number of the AIFC’s resident companies amounts to 140 and we hope this figure to reach 500 companies by 2020. The “global to local” strategy implies that there is the most advanced knowledge, we work almost with all the international certification programs such as CFA, ACCA, SIMA, which are international professional programs and professional communities, and we work to implement them for specialists and work with higher education institutions to help them change their programs or make their programs maximally close to the things the modern employer requires”, he said.
He also shared with some projects for the present year, which are mainly focus on training highly skilled specialists.
“This year we have several projects, the first called the Astana International Campus that is a space [where we are sitting right now], which carries an idea of a house for professional development and to carry out research. These days we collaborate with a number of foreign universities, 10 local universities and our global partners. Then, within the Bureau for Continued Professional Development, we launched a Research Center engaging it in doing research in an area of competences needed for a future specialist. We want to begin with the finance sphere to figure out what skills and competences are needed for modern Kazakhstanis who wish to be globally successful”, the speaker concluded.
Edmund Marler, Director of the Department for International Trade in Kazakhstan came to participate in the Forum on behalf of his Ambassador who was not present at the event.
“The broad scope of this Forum could be more important both in Central Asia and globally. There is a huge potential for close cooperation between business and academia and support sustainable development. But they also need support such as that provided by the eco-system of Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park to develop new partnerships and bring innovative solutions to market. Within the UK, our Intellectual Property Office also seeks to facilitate collaboration between industry and academia to research development and commercialize innovative products”, he said.
Edmund Marler outlined the partnership between the UK and Kazakhstan, as well as Nursultan Nazarbayev’s decision to use English Common Law to cope with disputes within the AIFC.
“Innovative thinking and academic excellence are areas in which the UK excels. And I believe that there is a very exciting match to be made between British capability and the needs of Central Asia as it develops ideas and technology and seeks to attract investment to bring it to market. We set here, within the AIFC, one example of the UK partnership with Kazakhstan. Only four years ago, First President Nazarbayev announced his intention to create the International Financial Center in the heart of Eurasia to stimulate investment and develop Kazakhstan’s financial services area. The UK has been closely involved in its development. Thanks to Nazarbayev’s decision to amend the Constitution. The AIFC Court, for example, uses English Common Law to resolve disputes”, he said.
According to his words, the UK remains committed to helping the AIFC develop wider capabilities, for instance, in green finance, capital markets, asset management, Fin-Tech and financial education and training. The UK’s nearly US $3bn bilateral trade with Kazakhstan fixes on extracting oil and gas. There are huge opportunities to facilitate wide collaboration between the two countries, including supporting digitalization in the mining sector under the Digital Kazakhstan Program aiming at brining innovation to Kazakhstan’s mining sector in order to drive efficiency.
It should be noted that with the 1st Central Asian Scientific Forum on Sustainable Development and Innovations held in Loughborough, the 2nd Forum took place in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan. The Forum was organized by the Kazakhstan PhD Association in Great Britain together with the AIFC and the Foundation of the First President of Kazakhstan to stimulate the projects on the SDGs.
Adlet Seilkhanov
