We have to promote the trade and economic cooperation and tourism

Mr. Timur Urazaev graduated the Aktyubin University in Kazakhstan and the Moscow State University of Linguistics.

From 1993 to 2003 he was consul at the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Russia.

Head of the Department for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia, and head of Russia Directorate at the Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since November 2004 he is Charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Sofia.

He is fluent in Russian and English. Married, one son.

The adaptation of the Urazaevs in our country did not take long, as he says, owing to the absence of language and psychological barriers. He is a natural and cordial person because he willingly spoke when I tried to lift the curtain and peep behind the official façade: His favorite sports are football and tennis. When he gets inspiration, he writes verses, but more often official documents.
His wife Asel Urazaeva is a macroeconomics specialist, she is preparing to defend a dissertation on the problems of Kazakhstan’s entrance in the World Trade Organization. Apart from science, she loves the theater and museums (she has already visited most of them in Sofia).
Their son Sagindak Urazaev feels good in Bulgaria.
Asked what he would like his son to be, the Ambassador said that above all he had grow up as a worthy citizen of his young and rapidly progressing state, an honest and decent person, able to easily adapt himself to the modern world and not be afraid of it.
The Urazaevs eagerly anticipate the spring and summer to see the beauties of Bulgaria and get in touch with the ancient culture and the lifestyle of our people.

Mr. Urazaev, on December 1, 2004, a diplomatic mission of Kazakhstan was opened in Sofia. Why did this happen now?
In world practice, the opening of a diplomatic representation is above all an indication of a qualitatively new level of relations between the states, confirmed by willingness to expand the frames of the already existing relations.

It is not accidental that Kazakhstan opened its embassy in Bulgaria now. Both countries are in an active phase of regional and global transformation, they stand on the threshold of big economic and political changes.

I dare say, Kazakhstan has become one of the constructive players in big politics on the Asian continent. On the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) was set up and is successfully functioning. Kazakhstan expressed its readiness to chair the OSCE in 2009, and this is a responsible step towards democratic maturity of the country, which is prepared to take up the burden of such a large-scale regulation.

Bulgaria has just finished its OSCE chairmanship-in-office, it is looking forward to its accession to the European Union, which will determine the future of the country.
We wish success to the brotherly Bulgarian people on this uneasy road.

What are the future efforts of the Kazakhstan state leadership aimed at?
From the moment of gaining independence 13 years ago, Kazakhstan has been a dynamically developing country, sticking to democratic values. I emphasize that for Kazakhstan democracy is not a beautiful dress you wear a la mode.

In his annual address to the people of Kazakhstan, our President stated: “Democracy is our goal and not the beginning of the road… It cannot be enforced by a decree, it has to be suffered.” This outlines precisely the road, which the people has to go, a people who lived for a long time in a totalitarian society.
It is very important that this road be gone bloodlessly and adequately. I think Kazakhstan is doing it worthily. In our country there were no blood-shedding conflicts, division of society, because throughout these years we placed economy first, and only then politics.

We have reached a certain level of modernization of the political system, which is multiparty and exists in the conditions of pluralism. Institutions and structures of civil society have been set up and functioning.

Towards midyear it is important for us to approve a development plan for at least 5-7 clusters in the sectors of tourism, machine-building for oil processing and gas production, the food, wine and tobacco industries, the textile industry, transport-logistic services, metallurgy and building materials. These determine the long-term prospects for the country regarding the sectors not requiring raw materials.
The cooperation with OSCE is very important for our country. We regard our candidature for 2009 chairmanship-in office with full responsibility.
After we gained independence our region again became of world-scale economic importance for the first time in the last 500 years. We are enhancing the transit corridors and becoming suppliers of valuable for the world market goods: oil, gas, ores, agricultural products. The layout of the new oil/gas pipelines, the roads and railways of the 21st C is already outlined. They largely follow the ancient road of the silk.