Opening session on 9 June 2009: Arman O. Kyrykbayev, Chairman of the Culture Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan, delivering the opening address. Seated, from left: Dr. Hans Koechler, President of the International Progress Organization; Olzhas O. Suleimenov, Permanent Delegate of the Republic of Kazakhstan to UNESCO.

Presiding table, from left: Dr. Hans Koechler, President of the International Progress Organization; Olzhas O. Suleimenov, Permanent Delegate of the Republic of Kazakhstan to UNESCO; Sergey I. Smetanyuk, Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Law and State Building Committee, State Duma of the Russian Federation; Erlan B. Sairov, Director of the Institute for Cultural Policy and Art Studies (Kazakhstan); Arman O. Kyrykbayev, Chairman of the Culture Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Vladimir I. Kulikov, Executive Secretary of the World Public Forum "Dialogue of Civilizations."