ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev on August 24 participated in the opening of annual international forum “Eurasian Week” in Astana.
The forum is taking place between August 24 and 26, and was organized by member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia — and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), the executive body of the EEU, with the purpose to discuss topical issues of the EEU development.
The “Eurasian Week” forum includes 30 discussion events in 13 sectors of the economy, including a plenary session, round tables, panel discussions and master classes. The forum is traditionally divided into two parts: business program and exhibition. In the exhibition part, 43 companies from the EEU countries are represented. The forum was designed to become an effective platform for establishing B2B contacts, discussing tools and conditions created for business. Participants from 24 countries are registered at the forum, including from the countries of the EEU and the CIS, South-East and South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and North America, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan reported.
“The scale of the event allows not only to strengthen close cooperation between the public sector and the business community, but allows further strengthen integration processes,” Prime Minister Sagintayev said. “For example, Kazakhstan is represented by about 80 export-oriented companies in various industries. This will help our countries to develop new mutually beneficial contacts. Already today, more than 8,000 joint ventures with the EEU countries work in Kazakhstan. I think that this is a good indicator, the support of the country’s integration by entrepreneurs. We will be glad to further expand this list of enterprises.”
The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan noted that in the first quarter of 2017 the volume of Kazakhstan’s foreign trade increased by 28%. “With a view to removing barriers, negotiations are underway on a free trade zone with Israel, Serbia and Iran. Today, there are 130 joint projects with the EEU in various areas, such as space, ecology, agriculture. This helps to unite the efforts of business, public sector and science. The main purpose of the Forum is to discuss topical economic issues. We hope for constructiveness and achievement of positive results,” Sagintayev emphasized.
Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Tigran Sargsyan said: “For some indicators, we have barriers, restrictions…. First, we need to come to an agreement that these barriers exist. After that, develop a roadmap to remove these barriers.”
“We are negotiating the creation of an agreement on free trade zones with Iran, Israel, India and Serbia. Also, about 50 countries want to cooperate with us on the basis of memorandums. The task for the next 5 years is to deepen integration,” the Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission said.
