Gulbanu ABENOVA
ASTANA, Sept 30 (THE GLOBE)
Under the chairmanship of Nursultan Nazarbaev the interim meeting of the Council of Foreign Investors (CFI) was held on September 30 in Astana.
�Issues regarding improvement of conditions for investments to Kazakhstan and the progress were discussed at the today�s conference of CIF,� Dulat Kuanyshev, the chairman of the Agency of RK on investments, a co-chairman of the working group on the current activity of CFI announced.
According to Mr. Kuanyshev, this meeting is the interim between the two main conferences of the Council (the second one, which was held in June 1999, and the third one to be held in December 1999). �We reported what had been done and what was to be done further. We think, by December 2 we will fulfil all our tasks. Though, there are such tasks as struggle against bureaucracy or to keep foreign investors informed about our investment climate and legislation. These tasks are considered as constant,� the chairman of the Investment Agency stated.
He said that in general the President of the country was satisfied with the work of CFI groups and was interested in their further operations. Foreign investors also affirmed that they were satisfied with CFI departments. In particular a representative of EBRD, which participates in the work of the three similar councils in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, believes that CFI in our country is the most effective organisation. Foreign investors emphasised mutual understanding in co-operation required to settle different problems. In their opinion, the existence of such working groups allows to work out these approaches without any bureaucracy, Mr. Kuanyshev stated.
Otbert E. de Jong, the General Manager ABN AMRO Bank, a co-chairman of the working group on the current activity also remarked that the Kazakhstan President had been satisfied with the condition of the following period. In their own turn, foreign investors expressed their gratefulness to the President of RK for new proposals regarding the transformation of the Council of Foreign Investors to a very significant organisation, which is supposed to support and attract foreign investments and to strengthen the investment image of Kazakhstan.
�Council of Foreign Investors is not an organisation, which may complain. This is an organisation, which has definite objectives to assist to strengthen the investment climate in Kazakhstan,� he resumed.
The co-chairman of the CFI working group emphasised that in general, a definite progress was being observed in the Council�s work concerning the investment climate in Kazakhstan.
BEIJING, Sept 30 (AFP)
Around 500,000 hand-picked soldiers, students and �model citizens� will line up in front of Beijing�s Forbidden City Friday for a patriotic extravaganza to celebrate 50 years of Communist rule.
China has spared no expense on the lavish all-day anniversary spectacle, expected to be beamed worldwide by 117 cameras around Tiananmen Square and 10 satellite feeds, the Beijing Morning Post said.
The festivities will kick off at 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) with a flag raising ceremony over the square, overseen by President Jiang Zemin from atop the Tiananmen rostrum, where Mao Zedong stood 50 years ago to proclaim the founding of the People�s Republic of China.
Taking his cue from former patriarch Deng Xiaoping�s performance at the national day celebrations in 1984, Jiang will review the thousands of troops parading in front of the Forbidden City from a chauffered sedan.
A huge civilian and military parade will march past the rostrum, split into the themes of the �founding of the country�, �the glorious reforms� and �taking off into the new century�.
There will also be separate floats for the Great Helmsman (Mao Zedong), the architect of the reforms Deng Xiaoping, and current party leader Jiang, a spokesman for the National Day Prepatory Committee told AFP.
Each of China�s more than 30 provinces and autonomous regions will have its own distinctive float, while 1,000 ethnic minorities dressed to the nines will be paraded down Beijing�s main thoroughfare.
Thousands of dollars were spent on each of the ethnic costumes to be displayed in the parade, the Morning Post said.
Some 25,000 university students � 10 percent of the total college population across the capital � will take to the streets waving bright red flags, joining an even larger contingent of 100,000 highschool students.
Another 11,000 soldiers from the army, navy and airforce will show the world China�s military might, with 440 tanks and missile-laiden armoured vehicles expected to rumble through the city, the semi-official China News Service reported.
A special army battalian will be paraded in �peony format� � marching in the shape of China�s national flower � with �1,800 pretty girls in the centre,� said the service.
An additional 130 fighter planes and helicopters will cross the sky overhead.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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