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Kazakhstan Ambassador Visits Wales
Wales is currently preparing to welcome His Excellency Mr. Erlan Idrissov, the Kazakhstan Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The prestigious visit is expected to strengthen links between Kazakhstan and Wales and contribute to the further economic development of Kazakhstan. It is hoped that recent educational reforms and the extension of government funded scholarships for Kazakh students will mean that talented Kazakhstan scholars will study in Wales in the immediate future.
The visit is being organised by Mr. Doug Townsend, the Kazakhstan Honorary Consul to Wales, and the Wales International Consortium (WIC), an organisation representing higher education and responsible for attracting students from all over the world to Wales.
Doug Townsend, a business consultant to Central Asia and former diplomat, is keen for the Ambassador to experience a wide range of activities in Wales. The Ambassador’s itinerary includes a meeting with Rhodri Morgan A.M, First Minister, and meetings with senior figures in business and education, to further collaboration between Wales and Kazakhstan.
The development of Kazakhstan has been inspired by President Nursultan Nazarbayev who established the prestigious Bolashak scholarship programme. The programme realises Kazakhstan’s vision of educating its most talented young students at excellent universities worldwide, enabling them to acquire the necessary skills to lead the country towards a prosperous future.
With support from the British Council and the Kazakhstan Ministry for Education, WIC recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre for International Programmes, which administers the Bolashak scholarships in Kazakhstan. This will smooth the path for Bolashak scholars from Kazakhstan to study in the best university departments in Wales and benefit from the expertise and world famous research available here.
There is currently only one student from Kazakhstan in Wales, studying Accounting and Banking at the University of Wales Bangor. As a result of the new agreement, the University of Wales Bangor hopes to welcome Bolashak scholars in a range of subject areas such as Agriculture and Forestry, Economics, Business Studies and Organismal Biosciences.
Many of these subject areas are reflected across other university institutions in Wales including Cardiff University and the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education (NEWI). Cardiff University offers further areas of expertise such as Anatomy and Physiology, Medicine and Education with other designated
universities such as University of Wales Swansea and the University of Glamorgan offering expertise in Engineering and Computer Science.
The University of Wales Aberystwyth and the University of Wales Bangor will both be offering Bolashak scholars the opportunity to study politics and international relations, enabling Kazakh students to develop careers as political leaders in the new Kazakhstan democracy.
Professor Noel Lloyd, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Wales Aberystwyth said “We’re delighted that through the work of the Wales International Consortium we may be able to play an important role in the educational reform and sectoral development of Kazakhstan. This is precisely what education is about – improving the social and economic well-being of people around the world”
The government of Kazakhstan is also committed to developing the social infrastructure of Kazakhstan whilst maintaining and promoting traditional cultural practices. Areas ear-marked for collaboration include the Arts, Literature and Music, all of which are reflected in the expert programmes offered in Wales. Both the University of Wales Newport and the University of Wales Institute Cardiff have been designated as universities to receive Bolashak scholars within the area of Art and Design.
President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan is himself a recognised literary figure and is highly acclaimed for his visionary thinking. As part of Ambassador Idrissov’s visit to Wales, the Ambassador will formally present the collected works of President Nazarbayev to the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth. The Ambassador’s visit will lay the diplomatic foundations for President Nazarbayev’s intended state visit to the UK in October this year.
The Ambassador’s itinerary in Wales will include a lunch meeting with Prof. Noel Lloyd, followed by visits to the acclaimed International Politics Department at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and the world famous Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER). The Ambassador will be introduced to the research programmes at IGER which focus on grassland-agriculture, production, environment and biodiversity.
By collaborating with Wales, Kazakhstan will be able to benefit from the range of research expertise in Wales and develop key industries such as agriculture, production, extraction processes for minerals and tourism.
The Wales International Consortium (WIC) has been actively involved with Kazakhstan for over a year. In March 2005 the first WIC mission went to Kazakhstan to promote the research expertise available in Wales and to attract Kazakhstan scholars to study in Wales.
This year, WIC welcomed a delegation of educational agents from Russia and Kazakhstan who were keen to visit the university institutions of Wales and gain first-hand experience of the research expertise, teaching excellence and technological resources available to students studying in Wales. It is anticipated that Kazakhstan will become a valuable market for Wales with increasing numbers of scholarship students coming to study in Wales over the next few years.