Kazakhstan, Astana, October 24/ Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Kazakhstan plans to move away from the status of recipient of free aid from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said at the opening of the 12th Ministerial Conference on Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) on Thursday.
"It should be stressed that in 2013, Kazakhstan made a donation to the Asian Development Fund of over $5 million as part of its cooperation with the Asian Development Bank.
"Currently relations with the ADB are moving to a new qualitative level. Kazakhstan plans to move away from the status of recipient of free aid and to become a partner of ADB on making a contribution towards developing countries. The striking evidence of high trust to Kazakhstan can be the forthcoming 47th annual meeting of the board of governors of the ADB in 2014 in Astana," Serik Akhmetov said.
According to him, the donation will help Kazakhstan to contribute to the development of Asian and Central Asian countries, participate in the process of decision making on the ADB donation. During the opening of the conference it was said that the Asian Development Bank plays an important role in modernising Kazakhstan's economy. During its presence in Kazakhstan, ADB sent over $2.5 billion to the country's economy.
The topic of the conference is 'Integrated transport and trade'.
The partnership within the CAREC brings together 10 countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. ADB has worked as secretariat of CAREC since 2001.