Asian Games show the world modern Kazakhstan

arena. Our goal is to show the modern face of Kazakhstan, to present it to the world, Michael Grabner, Director General of the Austrian company Rocket Media Communications says.

Rocket Media Communications is an official international TV broadcaster of "AWAGOC", organizing committee of the Asian Winter Games 2011.

Could you tell us of your company's role in the international information space?

The company produces and distributes its programs worldwide through the potential of 500 channels for free. We offer our clients international TV product, for example, the Winter Asian Games. IGBS broadcasts live and sells live programs to the leading world sport channels.

It is true that the West has little notice of your country. Only few people are aware of Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country and the largest landlocked country in the world. Its main dignity is that the people of various ethnics and religions live together amicably. Kazakhstan steers the way to meet the high international standards. This philosophy of peace and accord promises good future not only in your country but also the worldwide. Kazakhstan undertakes the leading role. However we cannot touch upon these issues when a sporting event is live broadcast. We have the advantage for our journalists make programs every day and cover the brightest events. We offer reviews, tell of what is happening around, interviews with officials of Kazakhstan and leadership of sports organizations.

The Asian Games motto "Unity of purposes -unity of spirit" appeals to me. It is important to spread the message all over the world. Problems in many countries arise for the lack of unity and accord in the society. Thanks to our programs the world will see diverse, true and very interesting information about Kazakhstan. The programs will be run till mid March.

I am confident that tolerance and peace of Kazakhstan set the brightest example for the world community. My first visit to your country was in October 2010 when I attended the session of the People's Assembly of Kazakhstan. I was so much impressed by the speeches of the participants on philosophy of friendship that since then I have visited your country five times. I am very glad that I can put a part of my soul into this noble work and help in promoting this philosophy.

What is the potential audience which will know about Kazakhstan after the Winter Asiad?

In our opinion, this figure will make at least 1 bln 500 mln around the world.

Do you think that wide broadcasting will contribute to attraction of the investments to our country since information plays a great role in the modern world?

Yes, I think so. First of all, the point at issue is Kazakhstan's position and transmission of information about your country. This is the first link. For example, Dubai is a former fishermen's village. To date it is a modern large city. As is known, Sheikh Makhtum invested huge funds in the city due to which Dubai turned into one of the best places of the world for investments. Kazakhstan has much bigger territory and has good potential and many interesting investment opportunities. Kazakhstan needs channels to inform the world about it. Our mission here is to drive this information vacuum from the deadlock. I am sure that the level of investments into your country will grow after the Asiad.

Certainly, we work for and on behalf of AWAGOG. We concentrate our efforts around production of such programs which bring rich information loading. Our objective is to catch the viewers' attention both in Astana and Almaty and present Kazakhstan as an attractive territory for development of sport and tourism and for the investors of various nationalities and religions from every corner of the world.

Bright performance of the Chinese sportsmen in Vancouver proves that winter sports are actively developed in our continent too. In this view, how much is Europe interested in Asia?

It is difficult to predict the level of interest in such sports as cross country skiing and alpine skiing because the world leaders in these sports are living in Europe. However, many sports experts and professionals will watch all competitions. Western fans are interested in those sports in which the Asian sportsmen show the best results - freestyle, short track, figure skating. These sports attract a great number of viewers. Of course, we use and switch on our programs and many stories about Kazakhstan.

Besides, western countries are interested in a new Kazakhstan. They understand more and more that your country is located at the intersection of Europe and Asia. To date, after 20 years of independence, your country plays a certain role between the West and the East. This arouses huge interested from the side of western mass media therefore we get airtime on such TV channels as Asia News International, BBC, Channel News Asia, СNN, Press TV, Reuters and other national and international channels.

Thank you for the interview!