Kazakhstan’s contemporary culture introduced to foreign media

ASTANA. KAZINFORM A group of foreign journalists arrived in Kazakhstan to get acquainted with modern Kazakh culture. The week-long press tour organised jointly by the Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Culture and Sports, includes visits to Astana, Almaty, Shymkent and Turkestan, MFA press service reports.

The tour involves more than twenty journalists and bloggers specialising in culture and art from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain and the United States.

As Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov explained during the meeting with the participants of the press tour, Kazakhstan this year started the implementing a major programme initiated by President Nursultan Nazarbayev under the title of "Modernization of Kazakhstan's Identity," which includes the intensification of efforts to promote modern Kazakh culture internationally. The press tour will help the journalists get a broad view of Kazakhstan's cultural diversity and potential.

In Astana, the journalists familiarised themselves with the activities and expositions of the National Museum and the Kazakh pavilion at the EXPO 2017. Kazakh writers and scholars - Umitkhan Munalbayeva, Tursyn Zhurtbai, Bolat Komekov, Alimzhan Bayangali, Turzhan Onaygul and Ulyqbek Yesdaulet - addressed the press tour participants at the National Academic Library. Meetings were also held with Prof. Adil Akhmetov and a patron and traveler Sapar Iskakov. At the Astana Opera theatre, foreign media representatives attended the opening night of the Carmen opera.

Tours to the ancient city of Otrar, the mausoleums of Arystanbab and Khoja Ahmed Yassawi and the Azret Sultan State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve were organised jointly with the Akimat (governor's office) of the South Kazakhstan region.

The tour to Almaty was made possible with the support of the city Akimat and includes visits to the Abylkhan Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, the Esentai Gallery, Platforma Theatre Centre, the Multimedia Centre for Traditional Music, the Qazaq-Oner Crafts Centre and a meeting with aspiring young Kazakh poets among other events.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry arranges press tours for foreign journalists to cover political and economic events in Kazakhstan on a regular basis. The current press tour within the "Contemporary Kazakh culture in the global world" project, the first of its kind, is also designed to enhance tourism development and Kazakhstan's overall positive image as a dynamically developing nation.