1. I welcome the esteemed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Ambassador Kanat Tumysh, and all participants at the approval ceremony of the Road Map of the CICA Secretariat for the Implementation of the Chairmanship Priorities (RMS), which has become a good tradition.
The Road Map for the period 2023-2024 was approved on 22 February this year. The RMS is a living document - a regularly updated action plan for the implementation of the rich agenda of priorities of the Kazakh Chairmanship in CICA and all tasks assigned to the Secretariat by the Member States of the organization.
In the first half of the year, the Chairmanship and the Secretariat carried out a large amount of fruitful work in all areas. The moment has come for taking stock of the results of this period and updating the RMS, including plans and algorithms for further actions.
2. One of the key elements of the RMS is the section on the CICA transformation. The Sixth CICA Summit, having launched the transformation process, requested the Chairmanship, with the help of the Secretary General and in consultation with all Member States, to develop a draft road map for transformation (RMT).
The task was successfully completed, and this was the main achievement of the half-year. The draft RMT, which defines the specific directions of future reforms, was agreed upon by all countries at the working level in the SWG on 14 June this year. We expect that the SOC at its meeting on 22 August will approve the draft RMT for its endorsement by the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers this September at an informal meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
3. Great progress has been made in the first half of the year in the work of the CICA permanent institutions – the Youth Council, the Business Council, the Think Tank Forum (TTF).
- The Council of Eminent Persons has not yet started its activity for reasons beyond the control of the Chairmanship and the Secretariat, but consultations on the finalization of its composition are actively continuing. In particular, I raise this issue in the negotiations in the respective capitals.
- Newly established CICA Fund: the Secretariat has done its homework by developing the necessary templates for projects and by circulating among the Member States the call for project proposals and voluntary contributions. The Secretariat constantly raises this issue in negotiations with the Member States.
- Youth Council. The concept paper of the next meeting of the Council has been developed and sent to the Member States, the date of the meeting is pending. Great progress has been made within the framework of the Youth Council in supporting volunteer movements. I will elaborate on this later, in the context of the new initiatives of the Chairmanship.
- A lot of work has been done to prepare the next meeting of the Business Council, which will be held on 14 September in Almaty on the sidelines of the Almaty Investment Forum. The intensive cooperation of the Secretariat with Atameken Chamber of Entrepreneurs and the Akimat of Almaty in the first half of the year now allows us to move on to more detailed aspects of preparations, including to the meeting of the Board of the Business Council in the first half of August.
- For the first time since the institutionalization of the TTF, with the help of the Secretariat, the Member States approved the annual work plan of the TTF for 2023. The work on the substantive part of the TTF activities has been significantly intensified. The next meeting of the Forum will be held in Xining, Qinghai Province, China, on 27-29 August this year.
4. A very important area of the Secretariat's activity is the implementation of the initiatives of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on institutional development, put forward at the CICA Summit. A separate section of the RMS is devoted to this work, which succinctly and briefly reflects the results achieved and further steps.
- In particular, the state bodies of Kazakhstan are finalizing the development of the concept paper of the CICA Council on Sustainable Connectivity (CSC) with the assistance of the Secretariat and in consultation with the CICA Member States. A series of expert meetings will be held to discuss the concept paper and agree on the draft regulations establishing the CSC.
- Work is being completed on the concept paper of institutionalization and the draft regulations of the CICA Finance Summit together with the Chinese side – the initiator of this Forum. The initial draft from China was substantially updated by the Secretariat, supplemented by the draft Regulations of the Finance Summit and sent for approval to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Kazakhstan and to the CAPDF. The next fourth meeting of the Finance Summit is planned to be held in China at the end of this year.
- The development of the concept paper of the CICA High-level Conference on Environmental Issues (HLCE), which will be held in Astana in 2024, has been completed, and consultations have begun with the countries coordinating the work of CICA in the environmental dimension. The main purpose of the HLCE will be to identify urgent environmental problems in the region and develop joint actions of the CICA countries to solve them. The key topics proposed for the Conference are: green transformation, sustainable environment in the CICA region, prospects for the creation of a carbon market and the establishment of the CICA Environmental Council.
- The concept paper of the Partnership Network of Leading Universities of CICA Member States (PNLU), aimed at strengthening cooperation among national education systems in the CICA region, was developed and discussed with interested Member States at the expert level. On the basis of the paper, a draft PNLU memorandum among the participating universities has been prepared for discussion and approval by the CICA Member States and in the future for the voluntary accession of universities.
- The substantive and organizational preparation of the Rally of the Volunteer Movement Leaders of the CICA Member States under the auspices of the Youth Council in 2024 in Astana has successfully begun. A preparatory event was held in the form of a panel session of the International Volunteer Forum on 20 June 2023. The concept paper of the Rally is to be developed.
5. The updated RMS also reflects the results of the work and further actions of the Chairmanship and the Secretariat on the substance and organization of the activities of the CICA governing, working and advisory bodies, mainly a more detailed vision of the issues and documents put on the agenda of the SOC meetings in the second half of the year.
6. The updated RMS also contains other important areas of the organization's daily activities:
- continuous updating of concept papers in the priority areas of the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures and the implementation of the 2023 Plan of Implementation of Confidence Building Measures approved by the CICA Senior Officials Committee,
- strengthening cooperation with external partners, including organizations with CICA observer or partner status, as well as establishing relations with other international organizations,
- raising CICA visibility and strengthening the Secretariat, including successfully conducted and planned sports and cultural events, capacity building and financial stability issues, promotion of ratification of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities and the future headquarters of CICA.
The Secretariat extends its appreciation to the Chairmanship for its continued assistance and will further make every effort to successfully implement the initiatives of the Chairmanship.
