Opening the reception, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Daulet Batrashev congratulated the guests with Kazakhstan's Independence Day, and stressed that this year our country set forth large-scale reforms in accordance with the Addresses of the Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev to the people of Kazakhstan “New opportunities under the fourth industrial revolution" and “Growing welfare of Kazakh citizens: increase in income and quality of life", the Program of modernization of national identity “Ruhani Zhangyru" and the article “Seven facets of the Great Steppe" which aroused interest of the participants.

The Kazakh diplomat emphasized that in 2018 our country earned appreciation of the international community by implementation of major international initiatives such as the chairmanship in the UN Security Council, Astana Economic Forum, VI Council of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, and the launch of the Astana International Financial Centre, International Centre for Green Technologies and Investment Projects, Astana International IT-startup Hub and many others.

In her turn, Deputy Prime-Minister of Romania Ana Birchall congratulated all Kazakh people with the Independence Day and pointed out that Kazakhstan remains a key partner for Romania in Central Asia, stressing the growing bilateral trade (1.27 bln. USD after 9 months 2018). The Romanian politician emphasized that bilateral cooperation continued to develop dynamically in 2018 based on bilateral visits of state institutions and the 14th meeting of the Intergovernmental commission. She expressed hope for new opportunities of interaction in bilateral and multilateral spheres in the coming year.

A documentary film “Astana – Capital of the Great Steppe" was shown at the reception, produced by the prominent Romanian newsperson Dana Deac during her visit to the celebrations of Astana's 20th anniversary as a capital, which describes the modern technological and cultural development of the city. Photo expositions “Astana – Capital of the Great Steppe" and “Undiscovered Kazakhstan", performance by Kazakh folk musicians, national cuisine and a Kazakh yurt were offered to the attention of the guests.

Celebration of the 27th anniversary of Kazakhstan's Independence continued on 11 and 12 December with the 4th Kazakh Film Festival organized by the Embassy with support from the “Kazakhfilm" named after Shaken Aimanov and “KMG Intertnational" company.

Recent but widely known Kazakh movies such as “Amre" by Jeff Vespa, “Aruakh" by Huat Akhmetov and “Talan" by Bolat Kalymbetov were presented at the event. At the opening ceremony, Ambassador D.Batrashev said that the demonstration of Kazakh films aims at expanding the knowledge of Romanian spectators about Kazakh nation's history and achievements of Kazakhstan's movie industry in the framework of “Ruhani Zhangyru" program – “Modern Kazakh culture in the global world".

Popular Kazakh actor Sanjar Madi who took part in the festival told spectators about the shooting of “Amre" and held a Q&A session with the movie aficionados. He also informed the audience about the prospects of development of the Kazakh cinema industry.

The festival was enthusiastically received by spectators among whom was the prominent Romanian movie critic Irina Margareta Nistor who highly appreciated Kazakh cinema output.

The cultural and humanitarian cooperation is an important part of Kazakhstan and Romania's bilateral relations. Just in 2018 a number of events was held in Romania, including celebrations of Nowruz and Astana's Day, inauguration of a Kazakh literature section in the National library of Romania, inauguration of a memorial to Soviet soldiers from Kazakhstan who died in Romania during World War II, movie festivals in the Romanian capital and two largest cities Cluj-Napoca and Constanta, exposition by the famous Kazakh painter Leila Mahat, and several photo exhibitions about Kazakhstan.