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Honorable Prof. Mushirul Hasan,
Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia
Distinguished Prof. Qamar Ghaffar,
Head of Department of Persian, JMI,
Dear Friends,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the very outset, I would like to express our deep gratitude to
Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Vice-Chancellor of JMI, for his crucial support
for the idea of establishing the Centre for Kazakh Language and
Studies. Our special thanks is also due to Prof. Qamar Ghaffar, Head
of the Department of Persian, who backed the initiative to launch
Kazakh language course in JMI. I should acknowledge the contribution
of Prof. Mansura Haidar, who first initiated this project and has
kindly arranged for a Kazakh teacher through her cooperative ties with
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty.
Kazakh language will be taught here by Ms. Anel Nalibayeva who has
an excellent command of Kazakh, Russian, English, Hindi and Urdu and
is currently doing her MPhil in international relations. I am also
grateful to Dr. Bulat Sultanov, Director, Kazakhstan Institute for
Strategic Studies from Almaty for his kind presence at this august
event.
Today is a special day, because it is for the fist time that the
Centre of Kazakh Language and Studies is established in India. At the
initial stage, only the Kazakh language will be taught here. As it
evolves, we would like to see Professors from Kazakhstan and Indian
universities teaching the contemporary affairs of fast developing
Kazakhstan here at this Centre.
Today, Kazakhstan is one of a few countries which are showing double
digit growth. Since 2000, Kazakhstan’s GDP growth has been 10% at
average. It is a country which strive to enter the club of 50 most
competitive nations in the world. Recently, Kazakhstan has been
elected to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), which indicates the international recognition of its
achievements in development and democracy.
In his address to the nation 2008 “Growth of Wellbeing of Kazakhstan’s
Citizens is the Primary Goal of National Policy”, President Nursultan
Nazarbayev described the Kazakh language as the language that “unites
the entire society” of Kazakhstan. As you know, the people of my
country is multiethnic and is composed of 130 different ethnic groups.
Kazakh is the state language of Kazakhstan.
The President himself set the task to “develop and introduce the most
advanced programs and techniques for teaching Kazakh”. So, I hope that
studying language here would be exciting for students who will become
familiar with rapidly growing economy and interesting facts about my
country, Kazakhstan.
To encourage the students, we would be working with Kazakh
universities to put into place students exchange program so that
Indian students studying Kazakhstan could visit my country to get the
real feeling of it.
In Kazakhstan, there are several Centers of Indian Studies and Hindi
is taught in Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty. In
Kazakhstan more and more students are pursuing Indian studies as their
area of interest. It is my sincere hope that Kazakh and Indian
students who have completed these programs will become bridges
connecting our nations.
Thank you.
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