Kazakhtan's Nazarbayev Centre Keen to Learn About 1Malaysia Brand

By Santhia Thevi Panjanadan KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 (Bernama) -- Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev Centre is keen to learn about the objective and development of the 1Malaysia brand and identity initiated by Prime Minister Najib Razak, as the Central Asian republic has placed national cohesion as a priority. "We are interested to learn from Malaysia's success and accumulated experiences in building the 1Malaysia brand and identity. "Kazakhstan too is a diversified multi-ethnic society, therefore building national cohesion is a priority for us now," Deputy Director Roman Vasilenko told Bernama recently. The Nazarbayev Centre was established early this year by President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Decree in order to study and promote the history of statehood of the country on the basis of the Presidential Cultural Centre and the Library of the First President of Kazakhstan - the Leader of the Nation, which is under construction. Vasilenko said the centre is keen to establish partnerships with Malaysia's leaderhip institutes to learn from their experiences and seek opportunities for cooperation. "Well, the centre is in the process of establishing itself as we are still new and we want to explore similar experiences in other countries and come up with proposals," he said. He said the centre's goal is to be an institution that not only conducts research into the country's history of statehood but also develops educational programmes and produces a new generation of leaders, as Malaysia has done. "That's what we want to learn as Malaysia started much earlier than us. So, we will look into your experiences and hope to establish cooperation in leadership as well as any other potential areas," he said. The Nazarbayev Centre is located in the new and modern city of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. It is a well planned, functional and aesthetically pleasing city with tall, gleaming modern buildings, centralised government ministry buildings and wide boulevards that serve as arteries, making it a centre for diversified foreign investments. He said Astana is very much similar to Putrajaya in terms of centralised government administrative buildings with modern architecture and infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Deputy Mayor of Astana, Kanat Sultanbekov, said Astana is booming with rapid developments, bringing the promise of a city with free Wifi service for all closer to reality. He said Astana, with a population of close to 800,000, aspires to be a smart city with free economic zones offering tremenduous growth potential for investors with the oil and gas industry being the backbone of the country's economy. -- BERNAMA