Scientists, Engineers from Kazakhstan Participate in Philadelphia High-Tech Conference

U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, in a message to the conference, said: "Each of the three nations exhibiting their technologies here -- the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Republic of Kazakhstan -- are important strategic partners of the United States in both economic cooperation and promoting international security in a world challenged by the potential spread of weapons of mass destruction." He added: "The U.S. business community has an unparalleled opportunity to forge important new business relationships, while strengthening the U.S. economy and bolstering our national security."

WASHINGTON, (PRWEB) November 16, 2003 -- Partnership for Prosperity and Security, an international business conference in Philadelphia on November 5 and 6 featured scientists and engineers from 13 private companies, research institutes and a state innovation fund from Kazakhstan. The conference sought to establish business relations with private companies in the U.S. in areas that were previously off limits for such relationships because of national security concerns.

Eduard Burlinski, general director of Ecoras, a private company based in Almaty, participated at the conference calling it "an extremely useful event that allowed us to establish business links that in the past were simply unavailable."

Burlinski, a physicist and inventor with several patents, brought with him one of his inventions -- sprayers with opposite dislodged jets that ensure high-quality combustion of liquid or gaseous fuels. The devices, which can be installed both in rockets and in standard boilers, allow burning fuels with extremely low emission of nitrogen oxide of less than 10-20 vppm, allowing 93-94% efficiency. In comparison compare, the U.S. Department of Energy envisions reaching these levels of nitrogen oxide emission from gaseous fuels by 2020. Burlinski's invention does the same for liquid fuels, technically a harder case, today.

Gennadi Shuvalov, an executive director of Ecoras and a nuclear physicist by training, said, "these technologies would have been used by the Soviet military had the Soviet Union not collapsed." Today, such products and others are offered on commercial basis to U.S. companies and globally.

The two-day conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia featured 140 high technology products from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine ready for commercialization in many industries including nuclear and fossil fuels, hydrogen technology, detection and security technologies, information technologies, advanced materials and nanotechnology, radiopharmaceuticals and medical applications, aerospace and electronics.

In addition to Ecoras, Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center and several research facilities were represented, including the Institute of Physics and Technology, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Institute of Combustion Problems and others.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sponsored the event. It was organized by the United States Industry Coalition (USIC), a non-governmental organization of more than 150 U.S. firms who seek to exploit the potential of the U.S. Government's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP). Early in 2002, under IPP several U.S. companies initiated a unique project with Kazakhstan's Ulba Metallurgical Plant to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and sell the product at a profit. The Ulba plant used to produce uranium for nuclear weapons. This project also created jobs for 50 scientists and experts working at this plant, preventing "brain drain" to potentially dangerous employers.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, in a message to the conference, said: "Each of the three nations exhibiting their technologies here -- the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Republic of Kazakhstan -- are important strategic partners of the United States in both economic cooperation and promoting international security in a world challenged by the potential spread of weapons of mass destruction." He added: "The U.S. business community has an unparalleled opportunity to forge important new business relationships, while strengthening the U.S. economy and bolstering our national security."

The growing ties between Kazakhstan's private companies and certain government entities with U.S. private firms also falls perfectly in line with Astana's goals to develop high-tech industries and lead the country away from over-dependence on oil.

A specially designed program was approved earlier this year in Kazakhstan with goals to develop high tech industries, such as biotechnology, software technology, space technology and peaceful use of atomic energy. Under the this program, known as the Strategy of industrial and innovation development, a number institutions, including the National Innovation Fund, Kazakhstan Investment Fund, and National Engineering and Technology Transfer Center, have been established with specific tasks to provide financial and technological backup to inventors and private companies in many fields. Until the year 2015, this group will lead them from initial design of products to commercialization. A special technology park has also been set up in the outskirts of Almaty to provide on-the-ground facilities and support for private inventors.

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