Ambassadors of Central Asian States, Austria, Jordan Republic of Korea attended the launching ceremony; author presents her book to the Kyrgyz ambassador
Ansar M Bhatti
ISLAMABAD: Marina Bakanov’s book The Kyrgyz launching ceremony took place at the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan. Ambassadors of Central Asian States, Austria, Jordan Republic of Korea attended the launching ceremony. The author presented her book to the Kyrgyz ambassador. This event was organized on the frame of the celebration of 30 years of independence August 31, 1991.
Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan while speaking on the occasion praised the work of the author and termed it highly productive and informative. He congratulated Marina with another achievement in her second career in the field of literature and science, first certainly being an excellent doctor.
The ambassador said, he was glad to note that the book was launched this year, when Kyrgyzstan was celebrating its 30th anniversary of Independence.’ Taking this opportunity let me share with you some thoughts about the historical path of my people on the way to independent state. Although history of Kyrgyz nation dates back as early as III century B.C., when the name Kyrgyz was first mentioned in Chinese chronicles, our people passed through a long and difficult way to fulfill its dream and form its own modern state only after dissolution of Soviet Union. On August 31, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan adopted a law on the “Declaration on State Independence of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan”, he added.
Ambassador Erik further said, he was glad to note that Kyrgyzstan enjoys excellent bilateral relations with Pakistan since establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992. During last 30 years our countries exchanged presidential visits twice, Kyrgyz Prime Ministers visited Pakistan twice, Pakistani Prime Ministers came to Kyrgyzstan four times, Speakers of the Kyrgyz parliament visited Pakistan twice and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of our countries exchanged visits.
In June 2019, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan met his Kyrgyz counterpart on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in our capital Bishkek. During conversation, they reviewed bilateral relations and agreed to hold Joint Ministerial Commission and Bilateral Political Consultations, to comprehensively upgrade mutual cooperation in diverse fields and strengthen the land and air connectivity between the two countries, to enhance people-to-people contacts and boost tourism cooperation through friendly visa regimes. Prime Minister Imran Khan invited Kyrgyz President to visit Pakistan.
Cooperation in the field of education is developing actively. About 7,000 Pakistani students are studying in Kyrgyzstan mostly in medical universities. In February this year, Kyrgyz Minister of education and science A. Beishenaliev visited.
Talking about trade the ambassador said, the existing trade volume between Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan is not up to the actual potential that exists and both countries should work towards increasing it.
In order to promote trade and economic relations Intergovernmental Kyrgyz-Pakistani commission was established in 1994, which held its third meeting on 11-12 January 2017 in Islamabad. Now we are expecting the Pakistani delegation to come to my country for the next meeting of the commission.
There are several priority areas for economic cooperation between our countries, which may include electricity production and supply, mining industry, light and food industries, medicine and pharmaceuticals, IT technologies.
Kyrgyzstan is rich in water resources, which are used for electricity production by a number of hydropower stations. My country is a member of the project CASA-1000, which is aimed of brining surplus electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hydropower stations in summer times to Pakistan through the territory of Afghanistan.
Kyrgyzstan is interested in development of short transportation links through its territory between Central Asia and China and Pakistan with access to Gwadar and Karachi ports using railway and automobile roads, which are being constructed in the framework of CPEC.
Pakistani and Kyrgyz businessmen may open joint ventures on textile production as Kyrgyzstan is already a major supplier of textile goods to Russia and Kazakhstan and Pakistan is one of the world’s top textile producers.
Of course, agriculture and livestock are dynamic sectors, where both sides can explore opportunities of opening joint ventures on agricultural products processing to increase exports to Eurasian Economic Union, European Union or Arab world.
