Science-Diplomacy Dialogue

On 11 July 2024, the Institute of Economic Research hosted a Science-Diplomacy Dialogue, organised jointly with the BeNeLux Chamber of Commerce with the support of the Society of Honorary Consuls in Kazakhstan. The event brought together representatives of both the academic and diplomatic communities.

The main purpose of the event was to foster dialogue between the academic and diplomatic communities. The Forum was attended by representatives of 11 embassies: Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Bulgaria, India, Malaysia, Iraq, Israel and Nigeria. Representatives of these diplomatic missions stressed the importance of up-to-date data and the value of science-diplomacy cooperation, noting how informative and useful the event had been.

During the Forum, Mr Ruslan Sultanov, Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Economic Research, highlighted the Institute's significant potential in research and analytics. As one of Kazakhstan's leading think tanks, the Institute presented a wide range of its English-language publications, including analytical, statistical and forecast data updated monthly. It was noted that diplomatic missions accredited in the Republic of Kazakhstan can use the Institute's database as a reference source for their reports and research.

During the meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Board Adil Kusmanov presented the Institute's activities, covering key areas of the country's socio-economic development. In turn, the Institute's research advisers, Dolores Tyulebekova and Aishabibi Nygmet, presented the Institute's information resources designed to promote its analytical materials.

As Anuar Kurzhikayev, General Director of the BeNeLux Chamber of Commerce, noted in his remarks, embassy staff often rely on information from web portals when preparing reports. At the same time, the Institute's analytical base represents a unique and extensive source of analytical information, built both on the Institute's capacity and on tools within its experts' competence.

Thus, the information and analytics ecosystem — presented in the form of the KazEconomy Telegram channel and the economy.kz website — can serve as a resource for event participants as well as other segments of the Kazakh audience.