OIC Summit results: Infrastructure integration launched
"It is a truly historic event. The OIC has existed since 1969, and until now many summits addressing political and economic themes have been held. But, the summit dedicated to science and technology was held for the first time in the history of the organization. This is unique," he said in the final briefing.
Bakhyt Batyrshayev highlighted the remarkable thing about holding the Islamic Summit in Kazakhstan. "Today, the Islamic world is experiencing a turbulent period. A lot of problems. The Islamic world is suffering from unending wars, a wave of terrorism and extremism. There are social and economic, and other problems. But, despite these difficulties, and aiming at giving a positive impetus to the Islamic world development, during the OIC Summit in Istanbul in 2016 our President Nursultan Nazarbayev came forward with the initiative to host a summit in Astana in 2017," he said.
This initiative, he said, is intended to head the financial resources, the powerful human and technological potential toward the creativeness and development in the Islamic World.
"Yesterday, during the summit opening, the Head of our state presented a very comprehensive vision of the situation of the Islamic World, spoke about the need for developing it on the path of science and technology, and also told about the contribution the republic is now making to strengthening the peace, progress, and development both globally and within the Islamic Ummah," Bakhyt Batyrshayev said.
He reminded that, within the OIC framework, the President launched the strategic and political initiative of Islamic rapprochement that implies the solution to a conflict in the Islamic world through negotiations, by moving from small problems and finding the common ground to solving more complicated problems. "And as of today, this initiative has been greatly supported. We are now beginning to apply it in the approach to solving various crisis situations in the Islamic world," he clarified.
Kazakhstan's Permanent Representative to the OIC drew attention to the joint initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Islamic Development Bank for the Islamic infrastructure integration.
"It covers the unification of all transport corridors between the Muslim states. That is, in practice it is as though Kazakhstan connects some distant African country. Currently, the interactive map is under preparation, and the study is carried out on. [For instance,] how to deliver goods from Kazakhstan to Djibouti or from Senegal to Afghanistan, i.e. it is such a large-scale project," he summed up.
The next summit on science and technology will be held in Tashkent in 2020.