CAAS Welcomes Kazakhstan Visitors for U.S. Department of State leadership program

CAAS and USU’s Office of Global Engagement welcomed visitors from Kazakhstan this week as part of a U.S. Department of State leadership program.

The guests traveled to Utah State University’s Logan campus to learn about how the university is involved in rural development through Extension programs and at statewide campuses that provide opportunities for education and building career skills that support local communities and economies. They also learned about how national, state, and local governments can work together to serve people, manage land and other natural resources, and support entrepreneurship and small businesses.

According to the World Bank, Kazakhstan has had substantial economic growth in the past 20 years, making it an upper and middle-income economy. But the country, a former Soviet republic, is the world’s ninth largest country by area and has very low population density, creating inequities in opportunities for people in rural areas.

The guests, hosted by Utah Global Diplomacy, were a mix of people from government ministries involved in managing wildlife and natural resources, leaders in NGO associations, local government administrators and legislators from various regions, small business owners, and agricultural service providers.