Cultural and Humanitarian Cooperation
The Memorandum of Cooperation, which was signed in 1992, serves as the basis for cooperation between Kazakhstan and Austria in the spheres of culture and humanities. Every year, the Austrian side holds seminars and courses on market economics, marketing, and banking, and organizes internships for Kazakh professionals at the Joint Vienna Institute under the auspices of the World Bank.
Every year, diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and graduate students from the Institute of Diplomacy and the President's Academy of Public Policy take courses at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna.
In 1997 the Kazakh Government University of International Relations and Languages (Almaty) acted on a proposal made by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and opened an "Austrian Library", which as of today holds more than four thousand books.
On March 12, 2010 Vienna hosted the 2nd Bologna Policy Forum of Ministers of Education of the member countries of the Bologna Process. Kazakhstan’s delegation of the country’s leading university provosts was headed by the Minister of Education and Science Z.Tuymebayev.
The main outcome of the participation of the Kazakh delegation in this forum was that Kazakhstan joined the Bologna Process as the 47th full member, which gives the nation’s universities the opportunity to bring educational programs and curriculums up to European standards.
Within the framework of the forum, Minister Z.Tuymebayev met with the Austrian Federal Minister of Science and Research B.Carl.
In May 2008 the first issue of the Kazakh-Austrian magazine Goldenen Tore has been published in the German, Kazakh, and Russian languages. The main purpose of this magazine is to introduce the Austrian public to the open, dynamically-developing, culturally-rich, civilized, multinational and multiconfessional country that is Kazakhstan.
A major political, social, and cultural event took place on January 13, 2010 in the Hofburg Palace, where the Kazakh Chairmanship of the OSCE held a gala concern in honor of its assumption of the Organization’s presidency.
An interesting cultural and athletic event in the life of Austria’s capital took place in the Hofburg Palace at the end of January 2010, when riders from the Kazakh cycling team “Team Astana” were presented to an audience. Among the biking world’s superstars were Alexander Vinokourov and Alberto Contador.
In May 2010 a concert was held at one of the most prestigious concert halls of Europe – the “Musikverein Golden Hall”. The Kazakh National Academy’s youth symphony orchestra and the National Artist of Kazakhstan Aiman Musakhadjayeva beautifully performed before an audience of Viennese music lovers.
On April 22, 2010, in honor of the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Embassy presented a “Memory Book” dedicated to the memory of Kazakh soldiers who died on Austrian territory during the war. In the same vein, a memorial plaque was formally erected on May 9th on the territory of the former concentration camp Mauthausen.
