ASTANA (TCA) — As part of the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Kazakhstan on December 14, Astana hosted a Kazakhstan-Israel business forum organized by the Ministry for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan and national export and investment agency KAZNEX INVEST with the support of the Embassy of Israel in Kazakhstan, the ministry reported.
The business forum was attended by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan Zhenis Kassymbek, Chairman of the Israel-Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Michael Roee, and Economic Affairs Attache from the Israeli Economy and Industry Ministry Elizabeth Solovyeva.
It was said at the forum that as of 1 November 2016, 254 enterprises with Israeli capital had been registered in Kazakhstan. Direct investments from Israel to Kazakhstan from 2005 to the 1st half of 2016 had amounted to $214 million.
Kazakhstani and Israeli entrepreneurs are successfully cooperating in such sectors as innovations and agro-business. Recently in Kazakhstan in cooperation with Israeli partners seven new projects were implemented for a total amount of $86.5 million in the information and communication technologies – production of printed board assemblies for electronic devices; in finance and insurance – creating of joint commercial bank with Bank Hapoalim; in agro-business – construction of a greenhouse complex in the Almaty region and Astana, introduction of drip irrigation, construction of a broiler plant in North-Kazakhstan region; in infrastructure – a seawater desalination unit in the Mangistau region. The project of creating of a medical insurance system and network — Archimedes Kazakhstan medical centers — is ongoing.
During B2B meetings Kazakh and Israeli entrepreneurs discussed joint projects in the agricultural sector, healthcare, water management, security and green energy.
According to official statistics, trade between Kazakhstan and Israel in 2015 was $306 million. Kazakhstan’s export was $219.1 million and import was $86.9 million. The main items of Kazakhstan’s export to Israel are mineral fuel, oil, salt and sulphur, aircraft, basic metals and grain. The Kazakh-Israeli trade in the first nine months of 2016 was $237 million. Kazakhstan imports from Israel electrical machines and equipment, nuclear reactors, furnaces and mechanical devices, optical instruments and equipment, derived products of vegetables and fertilizers.
