Today is the beginning of the 3rd Astana Economic Forum, the reason why I am here. Economic conferences are not the most exciting thing to film, but you do meet interesting people. I didn't get to meet him personally this time, but did film Nursultan Nazerbayev, President of Kazakhstan. I met him the first time in 1991, just a few weeks before the coup d'etat which saw the end of communism. At the time, he was not well known outside Kazakhstan and we did a portrait of him, filming him playing tennis and with his family at his datcha (summer house).
Today, he is president of the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He has made enormous changes for Kazakhstan. The system may
not be the most democratic here, but if the strong man improves life for most of the people, it might not be so bad, especially for a young country. He made 3 suggestions in his speech. First, that the world needs a new world currency. Second, we need a world-wide Maastricht agreement (world-wide monetary union and currency). Third, he wants to build a highway from China to Europe. The man has many ideas and he is one who realises them!
We also interviewed Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada. He is a good speaker and made the crowd laugh. He also said he was no longer in politics but if anyone wanted him to come to speak at their gathering, he was available.
This last shot is of сыр чечел (Syr Chechel), a Ukranian speciality we had tonight in Astana's row of international restaurants which looks a bit like a culinary Epcot center. All the buildings are built differently, for instance, like an Uzbek Madrasa or a Ukrainian windmill, etc. Anyway Syr Chechel are strips of baked cheese... very good!
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