Kazakh Prime Minister pays working visit to US

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ASTANA KAZINFORM From 11th to 14th April, Prime Minister B.Sagintayev paid a working visit to the United States of America by instruction of Kazakhstan President N.Nazarbayev. Meeting with representatives of the world's most innovative companies he discussed the opportunities for joint cooperation as to the 3rd Modernization of Kazakhstan's economy, primeminister.kz reports.


B.Sagintayev arrived in New York at the late night. The flight from Astana took nearly 14 hours.

In New York one of the first items in Sagintayev's schedule was a meeting with representatives of the largest financial institutions of the USA such as Citigroup, Mastercard, Berkley, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, as well as of the global analytical rating agencies: Moody's, Standard & Poor's, Greylock Capital, Guggenheim International, Aliance Bernstein, Public Capital Advisors, Business Council of International Understanding.
 

The attendants discussed the current issues related to development of the world economy and the economic policy of Kazakhstan and the opportunities for implementation of joint projects, investment attraction, financing of infrastructure projects and asset management.

The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan B.Sagintayev met with Head of Chevron Corporation for Eurasia T. Levy.

During the meeting, the negotiating parties discussed issues on further expansion of cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
 

Further, Bakytzhan Sagintayev met with the former Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani.

They discussed the issues of collaboration and cooperation for development of telecommunication infrastructure.
The Prime Minister met with President of Citigroup, James Forese.
 

The parties discussed issues of deepening financial and banking cooperation, as well as investment opportunities in Kazakhstan.

After that, Bakytzhan Sagintayev met with Chairman of W. R. Berkley Insurance Group, B. Berkley, and the Head of Robotti & Company Advisors, LLC, I.Schwartz to discuss the modern mechanisms of insurance and attraction of investments to the banking sector of the country.
 

Then, Kazakh Prime Minister Sagintayev met with M. Bloomberg, Bloomberg Company founder and ex-mayor of New York City.

B.Sagintayev and M.Bloomberg discussed the issues of cooperation for development of Kazakh financial market and Astana International Financial Center and visited the office of Bloomberg Company. The fact that they agreed to open Bloomberg's TV channel and office in Astana was an important result of the meeting.
 

Bakytzhan Sagintayev met with Chief Executive of GE Transportation J. Miller.

During the conversation, the parties discussed the issues of cooperation in the gas industry. It should be noted that successfully using the unique equipment GE Transportation is actively involved in development of the oil and gas sector in Kazakhstan, particularly in Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashagan projects.
 

In New York City Sagintayev also met with the leading US companies: I Scuared Capital, General Electric, Grace, Robotti & Company Advisors, AGCO, AES, OSI Systems, Black and Veatch, Pfizer, American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, Rahal Foods, BCIU. They discussed the issues of attracting investments and new technologies to Kazakh economy. 

Meeting with OSI Systems, Pfizer and GE Transportation they agreed to attract investments for manufacturing production facilities in Kazakhstan. At to Rahal Foods, the company agreed to cooperate in organic food production.

The Prime Minister held a meeting with Executive Vice President of OSI Systems A.Mehra.
 

It is important to note that OSI Systems is a manufacturer of security and video surveillance systems, such as X-ray machines for airport baggage inspection and metal detectors, anesthesia systems, electronic and optical equipment.

The company agreed to equip Astana airport and Kazakh customs stations with Rapiscan scanning systems.
Further, Sagintayev met with Vice President of Pfizer Company, M.Goettler. They came to an accord on construction of a vaccine production plant in Kazakhstan.


Equally important and interesting was his meeting with economist N.Roubini. The parties exchanged the views on global and regional economic development.

Despite a busy schedule, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan arrived in San Francisco, Silicon Valley that evening. He held a number of important meetings.
 

The following morning Sagintayev visited Cisco company office and met with its Chairman of the Board of Directors J. Chambers.

Cisco was founded in 1984 and currently provides a full range of network hardware such as routers, IP telephony products, Ethernet switches, network security devices, Wi-Fi access points, optical switching platforms, ATM switches, etc.

As a part of Digital Kazakhstan program, Zerde and Cisco signed Memorandum of Cooperation there.
 

In San Francisco B.Sagintayev met with a famous economist A. Laffer to discuss the current trends in the global economy and considerations of the modern tax policy.

Later on, the Prime Minister held a meeting with President of Robomatter Inc., Skip Smith. They discussed the possibility to use innovative educational programs of the company in Kazakhstan for teaching and training youth for computer science, programming and robotics.

Then, Bakytzhan Sagintayev visited the office of Tesla Motors and got familiar with the complete production cycle of battery-powered cars based on robotics and programming.


He met with Chairman of Chevron, John Watson. The parties discussed the situation and forecasts for development of the world petroleum products market, broadening cooperation for Kazakh oil and gas projects and Future Growth Project (FGP) in Kazakhstan.
 

J. Watson said "For all these 25 years Chevron has been growing together with the country, and we don't want only the past of Kazakhstan but intend to make for its future."

The Prime Minister visited IBM Watson West. He viewed the latest developments of the company in artificial intelligence, image identification and analytics, as well as innovative solutions for smart cities.

The trip resulted in signing Memorandum between IBM and the Park of Innovative Technologies (PIT ACF) on establishing a laboratory in Astana for applied research in financial technologies, technologies for Smart City and managing urban construction and operation.
 

Bakytzhan Sagintayev visited the office of Autodesk Company and met with Vice President, David Crane.
The parties discussed the creation of an Autodesk competence center in Kazakhstan. Digital standards in for Building Information Modeling (BIM) will be introduced within the center.
 

A laboratory to test and certify new building materials will be established in Kazakhstan together with Autodesk. As a result of the company's visit, Autodesk and PIT ACF signed Memorandum of Cooperation.

One of the most important events in the schedule of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan was participation in "Project: Collider" Technology Forum. B. Sagintayev has appealed to world companies-leaders in the field of innovations to invest more actively and take part in the process of modernization of Kazakh economy. The full text of the speech is available here.
 

"Project: Collider" Forum is an event that brings together the leading investors, entrepreneurs and statesmen to discuss current trends in technological investments.

This year, it was attended by: Vice President at Citi Ventures, V. Cheng; Founder at Global Catalyst Partners, K. Elahian; CIO and Chief Innovation Officer at Coca-Cola Company, A.Boehme; Investment Director at Intel Capital, S. Dang; Head at Sentient Technologies, B.Hodjat; Head of Google Development Group, D.Field; Chairman of SGS Global Holdings S.Stevanovich; Managing Partner at Learn Capital, R. Hatter; Chief Technology Officer at General Electric D.Bartlett; Managing Director at ABB Technology G. Allen.
Also, within "Project: Collider" Forum B.Sagintayev held a number of meetings with representatives of large IT companies of the United States. 

Thus, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan held a meeting with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bridge West Group, Masi Taebi. As a result of the meeting, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed with Kazakhtelecom JSC for purchasing equipment of the American company with a view to large-scale development of Internet access networks.

A meeting with Managing Partner at Learn Capital G.Mauro took place. A Memorandum of Cooperation with the Information and Analytical Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the development of a pilot project of innovative education in the model of the so-called "charter schools" was signed.

B.Sagintayev met with the Chairman of Soundhound K.Mohajer. The Company can become a potential partner of Kazakhstan in implementation of joint projects for information technologies.

As a part of the visit of Kazakh Prime Minister to the United States, an agreement was signed on opening of Kazakhstan's representative office in Silicon Valley.


The relevant Memorandum was signed between JSC Zerde National Infocommunication Holding, Autonomous Cluster Fund Park of Innovative Technologies (PIT ACF) and Venture Capital Fund GVA Capital.

The Innovative Representation will provide a platform for development of technological start-ups from Kazakhstan in Silicon Valley, access to the best technological ideas and trends for the development of entrepreneurship and science in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the opportunity for large corporations from the Republic of Kazakhstan to participate in innovative interaction at the world level, to access unique information and resources.

Also, B.Sagintayev visited the office of DFJ Company and met with its founder T.Draper.

It was agreed that DFJ will support a number of Kazakh companies. It is worth noting that DFJ Company focuses on investing in projects at the early stages and at the growth stage in the field of technology.

Bakytzhan Sagintayev visited the office of the Innovation Center of Silicon Valley and met with a group of experts and its President A. Kunov.

Sagintayev visited the office of Plug and Play Tech Center.
 

Plug and Play Tech Center is a business accelerator that specializes in the development of start-ups. It unites over 300 start-ups, and being its partners more than 170 investors regularly participate in the selection of companies administered by this incubator.

The Prime Minister visited the office of Jabil Company. It is one of the world's largest manufacturing companies, providing comprehensive services for the design and development of electronics for global technology corporations in a wide variety of industries.

Besides, Bakytzhan Sagintayev visited Google office, got familiar with the latest developments of the company in the IT field and discussed with its employees the projects interesting for Kazakhstan.

Sagintayev met with corporate Vice President of Microsoft Corporation, D.Levin. They discussed the issue of introducing software solutions of the company in small-scale schools of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

This was the end of Kazakh Prime Minister's working trip to the United States of America. The meetings and signed documents will help Kazakhstan to create conditions for development of our country's digital infrastructure, cultivate new industries and integrate elements of Industry 4.0 into the national economy.

 

 

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