Mr. Sergey Terechshenko Former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan

        Honorable Chairman,
        Distinguished Guests,
        Ladies and Gentlemen,

       As we all know, the last decade of the 20th Century witnessed evolving globalization in both economics and politics circles, and the trend became every more powerful in the new millennium. I am not going to say whether globalization is good or bad, and I would like to emphasize that, no matter how hard anti-globalization activists are resisting, globalization has become an irreversible trend and the trend will not change by human wills. We have to accept it and adapt to it.

       Experiences worldwide showed that regions with highly integrated economic activities and sound cooperation can always enjoy benefits from globalization, and I strongly believe that this Euro-Asia Economic Forum, jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific as well as the China Development Bank, has significant meanings. I believe this forum will be held on a regular basis to become an important platform and a solid foundation for development of regional economic cooperation, which will provide strong support for member countries to better handle globalization.

       The Euro-Asia Economic Forum is particularly meaningful for young central Asian and Commonwealth of Independent States countries because it offers an unlocked future for them to accelerate economic cooperation with other Asian countries. These countries have different resources and conditions with unique resources, for which complimentary economic cooperation has enormous potential to develop.

       For instance, Kazakhstan has achieved impressive economic growth following independence to become a respectable country in the world community, which should be attributed to effective state economic policies. The average annual GDP growth rate of Kazakhstan was between 8-10% in the last decade.

       In my opinion, the external and internal economic policies of Kazakhstan have played a key role in our success. Kazakhstan has been proactively developing peaceful and amiable neighborhood and robust economic cooperation with surrounding countries, including China. In the year 2004, the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and China has reached US$391 million, and the trade turnover between the two countries is expected to jump to US$5.0 billion in the year 2005. We plan to increase bilateral trade turnover to US$10 billion in coming two or three years. The transportation growth between Kazakhstan and China is also impressive with cargo transport through the Dostik-Alashan Railway Port surging to 70 million tons in 2004 from the 600,000 tons in 1994. China National Petroleum Corp entered Kazakhstan in 1997, and now CNPC is the controlling shareholder of Aktyube Oil Company, one of the largest Kazakhstan oil companies. Recently, CNPC purchased PetroKazakhstan successfully.

       Talking about bilateral cooperation, I cannot avoid mentioning the two countries’ top leaders, the Kazakhstan president Nazarbayev and the Chinese President Hu Jintao, because they are always caring about the bilateral cooperation. When President Nazarbayev visited China in May 2004, the two countries reached the agreement on building up a 1,000-km oil pipeline from Atasu to Alashan, which is scheduled to start operation on December 16 this year. Kazakhstan and China agreed to set up a free trade zone at the Huoerguosi Port when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Kazakhstan in July this year, and the agreement is now in implementation.

       Dear representatives, I would like to remind you of the increasingly important role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in promoting regional economic cooperation. As you may know, the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in July in Astana, and the head-of-state summit of the organization was recently held in Moscow. Country leaders stressed on these meetings that huge potential shall be made into tangible fruits through increasing mutual investments and seeking proper cooperation models. The agreement on a Kazakhstan-China-Russia science and technology park is one of the most significant achievements in these explorations.

       I would also like to ask your attention for the following issues on this Euro-Asia Economic Forum because these issues are very important in developing regional trade and economic cooperation.

       First of all, I think we should develop more high-level economic cooperation because now most of the cooperation between business circles is simply in form of trade. Why companies in this region cannot carry out mutual investment in manufacturing and technology-intense sectors?

       For instance, energy consumption by both industrial companies and residents in Kazakhstan is increasing quickly with the overall economic growth, and Kazakhstan has attached great importance on building up small-scaled hydro-power stations in recent years. In the same time, we are also eying non-traditional energies to build up wind-power plants, and we are studying bio-ethanol and bio-diesel oil plants. We believe it is fully possible for other countries, including China, to invest into these projects and to share returns.

       In the end, I want to thank the organizers for their warm accommodation and holding such a wonderful forum. I would like to thank Mr. Chen Yuan, the China Development Bank president, Mr. Zhang Deguang, the secretary general of Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as leaders from Shaanxi Province and Xi’an City. We are so happy being here today.

       Thank you.