Mrs Roza KARIBZHANOVA
Chairman, Committee of Culture, Ministry of Culture and Sport, Kazakhstan

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

On behalf of myself and the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, I would like to welcome all participants of the Forum and express my sincere gratitude to the Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism, for hospitality and cordiality.

Thanks to Hong Kong for the warm welcome, warm in every sense of the word. Believe me, a person who came from the city of Astana, where last night the temperature was -30 degrees.  

Today's Forum is held for the first time after the pandemic and gives us the opportunity to exchange views on the key issues of cultural development at the present stage.

In my report I will briefly talk about the priorities of the policy of the Government of Kazakhstan in this sector.

The first priority is the preservation of unique material and spiritual heritage.

Territory of our country includes the Great Steppe, which preserves the memory of past nomadic civilizations from the Huns to the Golden Horde.

In the heart of the Great Steppe, near the Ulytau Mountains, lie the ashes of Genghis Khan's eldest son, Jochi.

In the southern Kazakhstan, along the route of the Great Silk Road, there were dozens of settlements that served as crossroads for caravans traveling from China to Europe.

One of the main ones was the city of Yassy, modern Turkestan, on whose hills rises the majestic mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi.This figure is sacred to us because Yasawi brought the deepest knowledge of Islam to the entire Turkic world.   

And today our task is to preserve the evidence of our rich history. We are talking about 25,000 objects of history and culture.

Therefore, the Ministry permanently finances restoration activities. The protection of the most important sites has been strengthened. Archaeological excavations and research are being carried out. 

The second priority is to enrich the cultural capital of our citizens.

In terms of this, our main problem is the so-called “cultural inequality”.

More than 40% of the country's population live in rural areas, and many of them do not have access to modern cultural goods.

This is why digitalization has opened up great opportunities for us. The Government is now implementing a major programme to lay broadband Internet access in rural areas. That means 15 thousand kilometers of fibre-optic lines.

The project will provide rural residents with access to electronic libraries, digital museum tours, and online broadcasts from the country's leading theater, opera, and ballet venues.

The third priority is staffing. In Kazakhstan as in many countries, culture is a subsidized sphere. The basic load of its provision is laid down on the state budget.

Employees of museums, theaters and creative universities are people with low incomes and are not socially protected.

In this regard we took a course on increasing their salaries. This year alone salaries were doubled for several positions.

The fourth priority is the role of culture in the rise of national consciousness.

Kazakhstan was one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. Our independence is only 31 years old.

In 1991, only one third of the country’s population knew their native Kazakh language.   

There were many "white spots" in the public consciousness in understanding the most important historical events: repressions, anti-colonial rebellions, famine and wars. 

That is why today culture plays an enormous role in understanding our past and modernizing public consciousness.

Both high art and popular culture serve for this mission.

And, of course, it is the ministry's task to guide this process, to make it objective and unbiased.

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Dear Colleagues!

For sure, the things I have listed are only a small, but nevertheless very significant part of the policy implemented by the government.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we are always ready for cooperation with our Asian partners. The doors of Kazakhstan are always open.