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Minister from Kyrgyzstan visited the Estonian EXPO pavilion

19.08.2010

Yesterday evening, Kyrgyzstan's minister of economic regulation Emil Umetaliev visited the Estonian pavilion at the Shanghai EXPO. The spontaneous visit took place due to the minister’s good relations with members of the staff of the Estonian pavilion and his personal fondness for Estonia.

Pavilion Director Piret Pihelgas and Programme Director Anneli Vilu from the Estonian pavilion met Emil Umetaliev at the Kyrgyzstan National Day event held at the EXPO and had a warm and friendly talk with the minister regarding the ties between the two countries. Mr Umetaliev stressed the fact that with its reforms over the past two decades, Estonia has become a flagship among the former Eastern Bloc states and added that Kyrgyzstan is trying to follow the Estonian example in solving its economic problems. In the course of the discussion, the minister expressed his regret that his tight schedule would not allow him to participate in any of the events organised at the Estonian pavilion. Ms Pihelgas and Ms Vilu proposed that they pay a short visit to the neighbouring Estonian pavilion right then and the minister agreed at once.

The visit which was initially supposed to last just five minutes stretched on for half an hour: Emil Umetaliev learned about the concept of the Estonian pavilion, showed a lot of interest in the city development topics represented by the piggybanks and finally put his own wish into piggybank number 7, which stands for the topic “Entrepreneurship opportunities for everyone”.

“As a minister of economic regulation, I found this topic to be the most important for me,” commented Mr Umetaliev. “I would like for the people of Kyrgyzstan to actively pursue entrepreneurship opportunities without forgetting their roots and nomadic lifestyle,” said the minister.

The minister also took time to see the exhibition of nature photography and Helje Eelma’s graphic art exhibition “Consecrated Landscapes”, both of which are on display at the pavilion. Toomas Tiivel, Commissioner General of the Estonian pavilion at the EXPO, provided the minister with an overview of Estonia’s IT solutions and reminisced about his numerous visits to Kyrgyzstan.

Upon leaving, the minister made the following entry in Kyrgyz and English in the pavilion’s guestbook: “Thank to all Estonians for the smart contribution to save the world’s nature!”

Mr Umetaliev is a member of the board of governors of the Central Asian Free Market Institute. He has also been a pioneer in the field of developing private enterprise and a proponent of liberal market economy in Kyrgyzstan and the whole of Central Asia since 1990 when Mr Umetaliev founded Kyrgyz Concept, Central Asia’s leading travel agency and event management company.

The theme of EXPO 2010 held in Shanghai, China between 1 May and 31 October 2010 is "Better City – Better Life". The Estonian National Day at the EXPO will be celebrated on 18 October and the pavilion hopes to have a total of 2.5–3 million visitors. Estonia’s participation at the EXPO is organised by Enterprise Estonia.