WEEKLY REVIEW: Kazakhstan is preparing for the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty‘s entry into force and finalizing negotiations to join the WTO

On Monday, June 30, the President Nursultan Nazarbayev received Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov. Y.Idrissov reported to the President on the main outcomes of the Foreign Ministry in the first half of 2014. He also spoke about the ongoing work on the implementation of the agreements reached at the highest level.

Foreign Minister Mr. Idrissov reported on the prospects of Kazakhstan's candidacy for non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-18 years, as well as the implementation of other foreign policy priorities. On Tuesday, July 1, Deputy Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Timur Zhaksylykov at the 10th meeting of the Eurasian Club of Berlin said that negotiations on Kazakhstan's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) can be completed before the end of 2014. The Ministry finalized the bilateral negotiations on access of products and services to the market with 30 countries. Corresponding protocols were signed On Wednesday, July 2, Minister of Economy and Budget Planning Yerbolat Dossayev announced that Kazakhstan will attract some KZT 6.6 trillion ($36 billion) for the implementation of the second five-year stage of the State Program of Forced Industrial and Innovative Development speaking at a meeting on the implementation of the state program with the participation of the President. The budget funding will be equal to around KZT 650 billion and some KZT 1 trillion will be allocated from the National Fund. He stated that the 'financial leverage' method, envisaging attracting at least four tenge of private investments for each tenge of public investments, will be implemented.

On Thursday, July 3, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has visited the construction site of exhibition complex "Astana EXPO-2017". Head of State discussed progress of the object's construction with contractors and government agencies. He had a meeting with management of the following companies and government agencies: Sembol, Mabetex, BI-Group, Basis A, SAEM, Mega Management, Astana Innovation, and the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Astana administration and "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy "NC". On Friday, July 4, Astana hosted a regular meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of Commonwealth of Independent States. The meeting was attended by delegations from the defense ministries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The round table considered about 20 questions on various aspects of multilateral military cooperation between the defense ministries of the CIS. Vice Minister of Industry and New Technologies Nurlan Sauranbayev on Friday attended the national forum and exhibition on local content development "National Brand 2014". He said that over the past three years, the proportion of local content in goods, works and services has grown considerably - from 48.2 percent in 2010 to 63.3 percent in 2013 As noted by N.Sauranbayev, to develop local content and support domestic manufacturers there have been worked out about 100 instruments the main of which are the so-called "conditional discount" and "long-term contract".