17 March, 2008…

First: Kazakhstan

- Bilateral cooperation between Egypt and Kazakhstan has greatly developed in the last two Years. President Mubarak's visit to Kazakhstan in 7, 8 November 2006, is the Cornerstone towards promoting Egyptian Kazakh relations, after which President Nazarbayev visited Egypt in December 2006 (private), and on March 2007 (official) which has greatly boosted relations between the two countries. This was reflected in the level of visits which followed the Presidential visits, and holding the joint committees between the two countries in February 2007, as well as doubling the volume of trade exchange between both countries, and signing a lot of bilateral agreements, and the increase in the number of Kazakh tourists to Egypt to 15000 tourists in 2007. The Kazakh president also welcomed the President's invitation to attend the World economic forum in Sharm el Sheikh.

1. Visits:

- The Minister of International Cooperation headed the Egyptian side in the meetings of the joint committee 25-27 February 2007.

-  The Minister of Trade visit on 6 May, 2007, heading a great delegation of businessmen.

-  The visit of the Media delegation to witness launching the Egyptian satellite from Bekanor base in 17 April, 2007.

-  The Visit of the Head of the Higher Constitutional court on 30/7 -6/8 /2007.

-  A visit by a Kazakh parliamentary delegation to Egypt in 24 January ,2008 to participate in the fifth round meetings of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Countries, the meetings were followed by an official visit by the delegation .

-  The visit of the Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian affairs during the Period from 30 January until 2 February 2008, during which the fifth round of consultations were held between the Foreign Ministers of both countries . Bilateral meetings were also held between the Ministers of Education, Culture and media, and Deputy Assistant Foreign Ministers, Interior, Health, Trade and industry.

2. Trade Exchange

-  The Trade Exchange between the two countries was greatly boosted during 2007, particularly after more than a transaction to buy wheat from Kazakhstan. The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Kazakhstan increased from 19.7 million dollars on 2006 to 67.2 million dollars on 2007.

Holding a Permanent Exhibition for Egyptian Products

President Nazarbayev suggested holding an exhibition for Egyptian products as a means of promoting Egyptian exports during President Mubarak's visit to Kazakhstan on 7, 8 November 2006. In December 2007 the Kazakh Prime Minister ordered the allocation of a plot of land to Egypt at the Free Zone in Astana after meeting the Egyptian Ambassador to Kazakhstan

Cultural and Technical Cooperation

The development in the Egyptian-Kazakh relations in not limited to the political and economic fields alone, indeed it is extended to the cultural and technical cooperation too. The Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with the Commonwealth, affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, carries on a great role in training the Kazakh cadres in the various specifications. The number of trainees since 1993 up till now exceeds 1400 trainees, in the different fields (taking into consideration that Kazakhstan in no longer a poor country; the Kazakh side affords the airlines tickets for its delegates).

As regards the cultural cooperation between the two countries, Kazakhstan is the only country in central Asia where there is an Egyptian cultural center and university at the same time, in Almaty there exist the Egyptian Cultural Center and Noor Mubarak University for Islamic Studies, where Egypt funds the salaries of the professors staff through Ministry of Awquaf, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and Ministry of Higher Education). The university offers educational and training services for 850 students in a number of specifications: (Islamic Studies, Arabic and English languages, Arabic and translation, and religion).

Egypt offers to the Kazakhstani universities, including Noor Mubarak University, 22 Egyptian professors, and offers 6 scholarships for Egyptian students for the PhD.

Procedures are currently carried on to start the implementation of the second stage of the university buildings, as the embassy is collecting the bids and offers tendered by the contractors and engineering consultant companies to present it to the Ministry of Awquaf in order to choose the best offer. The Kazakhstani side has confirmed its enrollment in 2008 budget.

Egypt also offers Kazakhstan a number of scholarships annually in the Azhar institutes and the Egyptian universities, in addition to a number of students who study on their own expenses. There are about 250 Kazakhstani students who study in Egypt.

The Kazakhstani side has organized a book fair in Bibliotheca Alexandrina during the period from 21/2/2008 to 5/3/2008 entitled: "The Ancient and Modern Cultural Heritage of Kazakhstan".

Second: Kyrgyzstan

- The Egyptian Kyrgyz relations are progressing remarkably in light of the interest which the Egyptian foreign policy pays recently to the Central Asian countries. Kyrgyzstan is looking forward to improve relations with Egypt, as it has a high rank amongst the Kyrgyz officials and people.

-  Politically, Kyrgyzstan supported all Egyptian candidates in the international positions throughout the last three years, such as:

· Electing Egypt to the membership of Human Rights Council from 2007 to 2010.

· Nominating Egypt for the membership of UNESCO World Heritage Committee in the elections which were held on 23 October 2007.

· The Kyrgyz side agreed upon making a transaction of mutual support for nominating Egypt for one of the two seats for Africa in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, in exchange of nominating Kyrgyzstan for the membership of the UN Human Rights Council during the period from 2009 to 2012.

· The Kyrgyz Minister of Culture and Information affirmed their support for the election of Farouk Hosni for the position of director-general of UNESCO, during his meeting with the Egyptian ambassador, on 21 November 2007. The minister also promised to call upon his counterparts from Turkish language spoken countries, during conference in Astana on 20 and 28 November 2007, to support Farouk Hosni's election.

 - The Kyrgyz Minister of Tourism conducted a visit to Egypt during the period from 14 to 21 October 2007, wherein he met with Ministers of International Cooperation, Tourism and Culture.

- The Kyrgyz side paid great interest in the visit of Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs to Kyrgyzstan on 14 and 15 February 2008, during which he held meetings with ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Culture and Information, Health, as well as transportation and communication. He also met with the Chairman of the Tourism National Committee (Minister of Tourism), the Chairman of the National Committee of Mining and Mineral Wealth (Minister of Mining). Ambassador Abdel Mawgoud Habashi, non-resident in Bishkek, attended the meeting and signed a memorandum of understanding with Minister of Culture and Information, in the cultural field which is considered the first document in the bilateral relations history.

- The Kyrgyz Foreign Minister pointed out to the importance of the Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister's visit to Kyrgyzstan, which is regarded as qualitative step in both countries relations. He also expressed his interest in improving the bilateral legal framework, which might the reason behind the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister's interest in signing the consultation mechanism during the visit. On the other hand, Assistant Minister promised to propose to Egypt to sign this mechanism during the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister's upcoming visit to Sharm el Sheikh.

- The Kyrgyz officials expressed their interest to develop the economic and the trade cooperation with Egypt and to benefit from the Egyptian expertise in the field of information technology, that Egypt has made a progress in it, which the Kyrgyz experts, who participated lately in a tour included a visit to the smart village, were satisfied by it.

- The Kyrgyz side presented suggestions for cooperation in the field of common production of medicine in the free zone, and in the field of Electrohydraulic energy, since they are planning to establish an academy for water and energy in Bishkek, particularly that their countries are the most great water countries in the region. 

-  On the cultural and technical level, the Egyptian fund for technical cooperation with commonwealth countries make a great role in training the Kyrgyz cadres in different fields, since Egypt fully endures all the expenses sending the Kyrgyz cadres, since the Egyptian fund has offered more than 165 training course for more than 800 Kyrgyz trainees.

- The Kyrgyz side emphasized the importance of the cultural dimension in the Egyptian-Kyrgyz relations, therefore they were keen to participate in the festivals and cultural activities organized by the Egyptian Cultural Ministry. 

-  Egypt presents 20 annual scholarships for the Kyrgyz students in Al-Azhar.

- The Kyrgyz side suggested the establishment of a museum named President Mubarak in Kyrgyzstan. The Minister of the international cooperation affirmed to the Kyrgyz Minister of tourism, that the Kyrgyz suggestion has been appreciated by President Mubarak, in October 2007, she also presented on the Kyrgyz Minister to benefit from the Egyptian expertise in establishing and organizing museums to establish the proposed museum. The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry stated that a piece of land of 5000 meter cub has been specified for the establishment of the friendship museum house named President Mubarak, in Tokmok, in March 11th 2008.