KIMEP is pleased to announce the establishment of a new student exchange program with Utrecht University, one of the leading higher education institutions in the Netherlands. The exchange was launched at the initiative of the Central Asian Tax Research Centre, which will host its first participant for the spring 2012 semester.

The idea for the exchange originated with Daan vam Alem, an Economics bachelor’s student at Utrecht. Daan first met Professor Tomas Balco, CATRC’s director, at the 2011 Ljubljana Summer School in Slovenia. At the summer school, Professor Balco organized the First Adriatic International Tax Forum, which gave tax specialists from around the region the chance to exchange ideas and discuss common challenges. Daan was very impressed by Professor Balco’s knowledge and initiative, and decided that he would like to have the opportunity to study at CATRC. Professor Balco agreed that establishing a partnership between the two institutions would be mutually beneficial, and thanks to their persistence, it is now a reality.

Said Daan: “I really enjoyed the conference that Professor Balco organized in Ljubljana. I hope to be involved in more of his activities.”

Commenting on how Daan’s determination the effort to launch the partnership, Professor Balco noted that:

“There are various types of personalities – there are those that wait that something will happen for them and they end up waiting and giving up at the end. And there is those who realize that they have do work hard to move forward and they start working on achieving their dreams and fulfilling their ideas. I am excited to welcome Daan to join us at CATRC.”

Discussing his excitement at coming to CATRC, Daan, who arrives on Thursday January 12, said that:

“The main goal of my time at KIMEP is to do research at CATRC. I plan to study the relationship between corporate taxation legislation and FDI inflow in CIS-countries. This study will be thesis for my bachelor’s degree at Utrecht University. I also look forward to supporting Professor Balco in his projects. I hope that I can contribute to CATRC through my enthusiasm, my web-design skills and my knowledge in economics. I really hope to add value to Centre, and I really am excited about joining the team.”

This new partnership is the latest in many established by KIMEP. These partnerships give KIMEP students the chance to have opportunities abroad, as well as giving foreign students the chance to come to KIMEP and Kazakhstan. As of the fall 2011 semester, 98 different international agreements had been signed by KIMEP, and more are expected for the near future

By Xeniya Yeroshenko

Source: http://bulletin.kimep.kz/blog/2012/01/11/catrc-opens-exchange-partnership-with-utrecht-university/