17:31, 20 April 2009 | GMT +5
Almaty to host summit of ISAF founder-countries
ASTANA. April 20. KAZINFORM /Kurmat Samarkhan/ On April 28 Almaty will host a summit of the founder-states of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS).

As Press Secretary of the Kazakh MFA Ilyas Omarov informed, the summit will focus on the issues connected with the Fund?s work, formation of a new composition of the charter bodies of the IFAS, (board, executive committee and revision commission) and activation of cooperation with the international organizations, financial structures and donors.
Last autumn in conformity with a decision of the Presidents ? founders of the ISAF, Kazakhstan was elected chairman of the Fund for the forthcoming three years (2009-2011). As is known, in December of 2008 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on giving the ISAF an observer status in the Assembly.
This allows the ISAF founder-states to launch necessary activities for informing the world community of the Aral Sea problems, attraction of donor funds for mitigation of the ecological situation and supporting the local population, I. Omarov noted.
The ISAF was established in 1993 in accordance with a decision of the heads of the Central Asian states for financing of joint actions and perspective programs on the Aral rescue, ecological improvement of the Aral Sea basin. The founders of the Fund are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.