Opening Remarks Mr. Karim Massimov, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Opening Remarks
Mr. Karim Massimov, Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan

I am glad to welcome you all here in Astana. First, I would like to thank Mr. Shigeo Katsu, Mrs. Annette Dixon. Mr. Sergei Shatalov and all his team for arranging today’s event in Astana, which is continuation of a series of brainstorming sessions started in Frankfurt last year. We would want to ask making such events traditional, annual, for us to be able to synchronize our watches and consider possible ways forward. Nowadays both the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the republic are going through very important processes which we wanted to discuss with you today.  First of all they are about structural economic reforms, administrative reform, public planning reform and economy diversification. I think that based on today’s discussions we will have a chance to find specific solutions on how to move forward together in the future. I once again thank everybody in this room and give a floor to the World Bank Vice-President Shigeo Katsu.