ASTANA (TCA) — At the Kazakhstan-UAE Business Forum in Astana on May 22, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of the United Arab Emirates and the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan on the creation of a joint business council “United Arab Emirates-Kazakhstan” aimed to intensify trade, economic and investment cooperation between entrepreneurs of the two countries, Atameken reported.
The most promising direction of cooperation between the two countries is the production of agriculture. An especially important market is organic products, the demand for which is constantly growing.
At the forum, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates discussed supply of Kazakhstani products.
“At the moment, the export of live sheep to the UAE is authorized and regulated. The direction for meat products, in general, is one of the most promising. Documents on intentions to purchase Kazakh agricultural products were also signed between Atameken and a number of food holdings of the UAE,” said Nurzhan Altaev, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Atameken.
“Kazakhstan, in the future, can become a halal hub for the Arab countries,” Altaev added. “Halal products market is one of the fastest growing in the world, and the market for meat halal products exceeds 33 billion USD. Today, halal hubs are successfully working in the UAE and Malaysia. By analogy with them we want to create such hubs in Kazakhstan. If our agricultural producers can enter the market of the halal industry, they will have access to foreign markets.”
In 2016, UAE investments in Kazakhstan amounted to $50.7 million.
