Ambassador of Kazakhstan visited Saskatchewan
In Regina, Ambassador Zhigalov was introduced to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan and was received by Her Honour the Honourable Vaughn Solomon Schofield, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan. He also had talks with the Honourable Jeremy Harrison, Minister of the Economy, Ms. Cammy Colpitts, Assistant Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Chris Dekker, President & CEO of the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP) and other representatives of the province. The Ambassador also visited the Global Institute for Food Security based at the University of Saskatchewan and met its representatives and professors, Kazinform has learnt from the Kazakh Embassy in Canada.
In Saskatoon, Ambassador Zhigalov met with Mr. Charlie Clark, Mayor of Saskatoon, and had very productive talks with Mr. Tim Gitzel, President & CEO of Cameco Corporation and other top-managers of the company. The parties expressed satisfaction with the results of long-term, mutually beneficial partnership between Cameco Corporation and Kazatomprom National Company.
It was agreed to continue the joint efforts aimed at preparing and conducting the 2nd meeting of a Kazakhstan - Canada Business Council (KCBC) in June in Astana, given that Mr. Tim Gitzel is a Co-Chair of the KCBC (from Kazakhstan side, Co-Chair is Mr. Askar Zhumagaliyev, CEO of Kazatomprom).
Representatives of Saskatchewan were briefed about the main aspects of the Third Modernization Program of Kazakhstan, five institutional and constitutional reforms, national plan "100 Concrete Steps", the upcoming Astana EXPO-2017 and other initiatives proposed by the leadership of the country.
The visit confirmed the potential of deepening cooperation between Kazakhstan and Canadian provinces, which play an important role in developing Canada's global trade, economic and people-to-people ties. Both parties noted the need to further promote bilateral engagement in the areas of mining, especially the uranium industry, agriculture (machinery and livestock breeding), education and establish new mutually beneficial ties at the level of small and medium business.