Participants and keynote speakers will include Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantin Zhigalov, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Azat Bekturov, Goran Svilanovic, the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, and Kozy-Korpesh Karbuzov, the Chairman of the Customs Committee of Kazakhstan.
Hong Wang, Principal Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Co-ordinator, Central and West Asia Department at the Asian Development Bank and Mohammad Mirzaei Kahagh, a Director at the Economic Co-operation Organization, will also take part.
The Astana meeting launches the 18th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum process and precedes the first part of the Forum which will take place in Vienna in February 2010. The second part of the Forum process will start with the Second Preparatory Conference, to be held in mid-March. The concluding part of the Forum will take place in Prague in May 2010.