Georgia To Support Kazakhstan's OSCE Chairmanship Bid

Addressing reporters after talks with Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev, Burjanadze said Kazakhstan could play an important role in helping the OSCE shift efforts eastward, including on former Soviet countries.

Burjanadze on 19 January held economic talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said that he wants Kazakhstan to replace Russia as his country's leading foreign investor.

Kazakhstan's Bank TuranAlem said on 13 January that it had plans to invest into the construction of hotel facilities in Tbilisi and the autonomous republic of Ajara. The bank also said it was considering participating in the construction of an oil refinery and several hydroelectric plants in Georgia.

(Novosti-Gruziya, Civil Georgia, Bank TuranAlem statement)