Kazakh delegation begins participation in UN General Assembly

Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov also held a number of bilateral meetings with his counterparts and senior international officials on the sidelines, the Kazakhstan MFA reports.

Among the first actions during the session, the Minister addressed the High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control, which is taking place on September 19 through 20.

"Kazakhstan is highly committed to the Action Plan of the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2008-2013 for implementing the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases. We support the efforts of the WHO to cooperate with its international partners to ensure the monitoring of non-communicable diseases at the national, regional and global levels. The efforts of the WHO in scientific research and data collection have made it possible to significantly raise the standard of non-communicable disease control," Kazykhanov highlighted in his remarks.

"The government of Kazakhstan continues to give high priority to the control of non-communicable diseases in our national plans through strengthening the health care system. Significant measures have been taken for greater vigilance and control over tobacco products and lowering excessive alcohol consumption, and promoting physical activities and healthy eating habits. Our country has achieved success in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. We have also adopted the Code on Health and Health Care, and launched a large-scale national programme titled "Salamatty Kazakhstan - 2010" (Healthy Kazakhstan - 2010) aimed at promoting a healthy way of life. Our health care system has adequate financing at the level of 3.2 per cent of the GDP. In 2013, we plan to introduce a unified national health care system which will provide a new model of financing for a guaranteed volume of free and result-oriented medical help," he added.

Apart from participation in the high-level meeting, Yerzhan Kazykhanov held a number of bilateral meetings on the session's sidelines.

At a meeting with Cheick Sidi Diarra, Under-Secretary-General - Special Advisor on Africa and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, the parties discussed the work of the Office of the High Representative in furthering interests of land-locked developing countries. They noted the progress made over past years in the implementation of the Almaty Action Programme which will be 10 years old in 2013.

As the world's largest land-locked country, Kazakhstan is particularly interested in finding new approaches to solutions to problems of free access to external markets, Kazykhanov said.

One of these tasks was the development of transport infrastructure of the Central Asian region and allocation of funds and rendering of technical assistance. In this regard, Kazykhanov expressed his high appreciation of the active work of UN ESCAP and UN EEC in implementing large-scale projects aimed at improvement of transport infrastructure in Eurasia. Much work has also been done by Kazakhstan at the national level to develop its trade and transport potential, including through the creation of the Customs Union with Russia and Belarus, as well as the construction of the Western Europe - Western China international road corridor.

At the meeting with Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the parties expressed satisfaction with the implementation of joint plans to further develop OIC. They discussed the agenda of the annual Coordination meeting of OIC foreign ministers to take place in New York later this month. They also discussed the issues of Palestine, the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Kazykhanov had productive meetings with UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova and foreign ministers of Sri Lanka, Greece, Italy, and Egypt.

At the meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, Kazykhanov discussed prospects of trade and economic cooperation between two countries and noted the importance to further develop constructive political dialogue and legal basis for the cooperation. The first step in this direction should become the signing of the Memorandum on understanding and consultations.

At the meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Kamel Ali Amr, Kazykhanov expressed appreciation for the support of Kazakh initiatives, including the CICA process. He also invited Egypt to join the Cooperative approach on implementation of the CICA confidence-building measures as a coordinator or joint coordinator of some confidence-building measures.

Speaking of the interaction between the two countries within the OIC, ministers agreed on the necessity to modernise intra-Islamic relations, and develop new programme tasks to collectively counteract emerging challenges and threats to the Muslin world.

Kazykhanov and Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis' meeting underscored the high level interaction between Kazakhstan and Greece in trade and economic sphere. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached US$ one billion last year. To further expand cooperation, Kazykhanov came forward with a proposal to set up joint ventures in agriculture, metallurgy, food and light industry as well as other spheres.