German businessmen investing in Kazakhstan’s non-resource sector
"Germany is an industrialized, high-technology, innovative and export-oriented country. This fact puts our active cooperation for industrial production and technology transfer on a good footing. Now, over 90 percent of German investment is used for the non-resource sector of the economy of Kazakhstan, i.e. the real sector comprising manufacturing industry, chemical industry, production of construction materials, mechanical engineering,
agribusiness industry and agriculture. This, as you can see, is in line with the goals of the State Program of Innovative and Industrial Development of Kazakhstan and "Nurly Zhol" new economic policy," the ambassador told a briefing in the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
In addition, according to him, Kazakhstan is the fourth largest crude oil supplier for Germany and, therefore, plays a key role in ensuring the energy security of Germany and Europe. In turn, Germany is a strategic partner of Kazakhstan in energy efficiency and saving, as well as developing the system of dual technical and vocational education in our country.
According to German statistics, mutual sales turnover between Kazakhstan and Germany in 2016 amounted to EUR 4 billion, while within just 5 months of this year it has increased 36pct over the same period of the last year reaching EUR 2.1 billion. "We expect that at the end of this year the growth of turnover between our countries will amount to 45pct, and we will succeed to return to the record figure of foreign trade achieved in 2013 when it exceeded EUR 6.5 billion," the ambassador said.
He also said that Kazakhstan remains a key trade partner of Germany in the Central Asia region. In 2016, nearly 85 percent of Germany's sales turnover with five countries of Central Asia accrued to Kazakhstan alone. The structure of the mutual turnover remains conventional over the years. Over 91pct of the Kazakh exports are mineral resources, whereas other exported products are ferrous metals (2.4%), inorganic chemicals (2.2%), nonferrous metals (1.7%), fish (0.7%), oil-bearing and plant crops (0.6%), etc.
"In general, despite the downturn in prices for major source materials, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Germany shows stability," Nussupov emphasized.
The diplomat noticed that Germany is a federative state where the lands have exclusive rights in terms of economy. Therefore, he said that the utmost practical importance is given to the direct cooperation with the federal lands. "The hidden potential of cooperation, the so-called ‘hidden champions' of the economy are exactly there," he believes.
The transport logistics cooperation is dynamically developing as the cargo transportation by container trains from China to Europe has grown almost 5 times over the last 2 years.