Adviser Sanjay Srikantiah has served as Trade Specialist at the United States Department of Commerce - BISNIS, where he responded to trade and investment inquiries in reference to Southern Russia, Siberia & Kyrgyzstan. He also ensured timely receipt of commercial news and monthly reports from field representatives and compiled reports on Eurasian trade leads. Sanjay also worked for the American Councils for International Education’s Future Leaders Exchange Program in Yekaterinburg, Russia where he developed budget proposals for each city and established guidelines for future student recruiting cycles.

Sanjay served earlier in Kazakhstan as a Peace Corps volunteer. He worked as an English Language Instructor and a local youth group leader– focusing on environmental awareness, and advised local non-profits and NGOs on improving grant writing and presentation skills. He developed an English language curriculum for second and third-year students at a teachers college and selected twenty education professionals for a U.S. based training seminar. Sanjay received a B.S. in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University.

In 2008, Sanjay joined VEGA to volunteer on the Kazakhstan Public Private Economic Partnership (PPEP) Initiative, a Long Term Business Adviser (LTBA) Project with the support of implementing organization, The Institute for Internal Education (IIE). While in Kazakhstan, he will work with host organization: The American Chamber of Commerce - Kazakhstan.

Goals & Responsibilities

The PPEP Specialist will support the preparation for a Public-Private Economic Partnership Initiative launch event scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2008 in Washington, DC. The job involves extensive research and writing on policy issues related to investment.

The Specialist’s primary responsibilities include:

• Draft position papers for the PPEP initiative launch event,
• Liaise with representatives of the American and the Kazakh private sectors, government agencies, and NGOs,
• Develop an overview of Kazakhstan’s investment climate,
• Examine the Government of Kazakhstan’s (GOK) recently-adopted program, entitled “30 Corporate Leaders” and identify possible areas for involvement of U.S. companies as mentors/partners, the “30 Corporate Partners”,
• Explore and propose specific synergies and linkages between AmCham activities and joint USAID-GOK program for economic development (PED),
• Assist AmCham in its on-going public-private dialogue on trade, energy, WTO and other private sector development issues, and
• Develop a public outreach plan for the PPEP Initiative