As part of the working visit of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to New York, AIFC held “Investing in Women’s Economic Empowerment” event
As part of the working visit of the Head of State to U.S. to participate in the session of the U.N. General Assembly, the Astana International Financial Centre, together with the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations and the Council of Businesswomen of “Atameken”, held an event on“Investing in Women’s Economic Empowerment”.
Lazzat Ramazanova, Deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in a welcome video address noted the progress of Kazakhstan in the World Economic Forum’s ranking and highlighted high level of women representation in entrepreneurship sector.
Katrina Fotovat, Senior Official, Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State noted that the U.S. leverages diverse resources and expertise of the federal government to support women’s businesses in Kazakhstan. One example of that is the project of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs. Fotovat emphasized that she is especially pleased that the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan has chosen the Astana International Financial Centre as an implementation partner this year, thereby one hundred women from the southern regions of Kazakhstan will become U.S. Government programs alumni.
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations Magzhan Ilyassov noted that the expansion of women’s economic opportunities requires constant investment. Increasing women’s access to economic resources and decision-making will increase their participation in peace and security, political, social, economic, judicial, scientific, technological and cultural processes. Separately, the adoption by Kazakhstan of the first National Plan on of the U.N. Security Council resolution 1325 “Women, Peace, Security” was highlighted.
Saadia Zahidi, Head of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the New Economy and Society, noted that the pandemic had a negative impact on progress made on the gender equality. Two years ago it would have taken 100 years to achieve gender parity, but now that figure has increased to 132 years. At the same time, Saadia Zahidi emphasized that in just one year since the launch of the WEF Closing the Gender Gap accelerator in Kazakhstan, the country’s ranking went up by 15 positions. The speaker urged to follow this example.
Closing the event, the Chairman of the Management Board of the AIFC Authority, Yernur Rysmagambetov, highlighted that, as part of its activities, the AIFC supports state and international initiatives to expand women’s economic opportunities, since investing in women’s education and entrepreneurship can become one of the key factors in the sustainable development of the financial centre.
Kazakhstan became the first country in Eurasia to launch the Closing the Gender Gap accelerator of the World Economic Forum. The program aims to improve gender indicators in key areas of political, economic and social life through public and private partnerships. Kazakhstan joined the programme at the initiative of the Women’s Economic Empowerment, Education, and Entrepreneurship (W4E) Center of the Astana International Financial Centre.
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The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is an independent jurisdiction that started operations in 2018. In accordance with the Development Strategy until 2025, the key focus of the AIFC is to consolidate as a universal platform connecting the countries of the EAEU, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
