ASTANA (TCA) — A business forum was held in the Kazakh city of Uralsk for representatives of governments and businesses of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan and Kazakhstan’s West Kazakhstan region. Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, headed the Tatarstan delegation. The Kazakh side was represented by Altai Kulginov, governor of West Kazakhstan region, heads of Kazakh Invest National Company for Investment Support and Promotion, and representatives of the business community of the region, Kazakh Invest reported on September 11.
“Kazakh-Russian relations are traditionally characterized by a high level of strategic partnership. Russia is the largest trade partner of Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Tatarstan makes a significant contribution to the development of these relations,” said Governor Kulginov. “Kazakhstan and Tatarstan are historically and geographically close republics with links in economic, cultural, social and political relations.”
“I am very glad that cooperation at the municipal level begins today. We have outlined several areas of cooperation – cultural, educational, tourist, national, research. In the near future, a tourism delegation from Uralsk will arrive in Tatarstan. We will consider the Kazakh structure of work with investors and the structure of development, organization of tourism for children and youth. For our part, we have outlined several interesting areas in which we will work together,” said Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan.
In his words, first of all projects will be implemented in the trade and economic field, as the markets of Tatarstan in Russia is quite massive and intensive.
“Kazakhstan is one of the leading trade and economic partners of Tatarstan. In 2017, bilateral trade amounted to more than 700 million US dollars. In the first half of 2018, Tatarstan-Kazakhstan trade turnover increased by 67% and amounted to almost 400 million US dollars. Our plans are further development of bilateral cooperation; we intend to bring the foreign trade turnover between the two republics to 1 billion US dollars,” Vasil Shaikhraziyev, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, said during the meeting.
At the business meeting, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Каzakh Invest Marat Birimzhan presented an investment program of West Kazakhstan region. “We have packed 48 investment projects for 2017 and 67 projects in priority sectors of the economy will be additionally packed by the end of the year. Investment teasers, business plans and financial models have been developed for perspective projects in accordance with international standards. At the same time, work is being done to target potential investors according to the profile of the target investor, for each project, as well as through a network of foreign representatives,” he said.
Tatarstan’s President noted Kazakh Invest’s innovative mechanisms of attracting investment in Kazakhstan, and expressed the wish to exchange experience with the Ministry of Investment of Tatarstan.
As part of the business forum a number of agreements on cooperation in trade-economic, scientific-technical, social, cultural, humanitarian, ship-building and tourism sectors were signed. An agreement was also reached on a joint tire recycling project worth 3 million euros.
