Week of Kazakhstan's Economy underway in Germany

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FRANKFURT AM MAIN. KAZINFORM - The Week of Kazakhstan's Economy in Germany kicked off in Frankfurt am Main on Monday and is set to run until November 16, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Kazakhstan's delegation headed by Vice Minister for Investment and Development Mr. Timur Toktabayev is in the business capital of Germany to participate in the event.

On November 13, the Kazakh delegation met with Ottmar Rienhoff-Gembus, managing Director of Possehl Spezialbau Group GmbH, and Rainer Baumann of Baumann Holding to discuss the problems of implementation of meat processing projects in Kazakhstan and development of necessary infrastructure.



Later in the day, the Kazakh delegation took part in the roundtable Kazakhstan's Investment Opportunities together with German business elite. The event was organized by the Kazakh-German Business Council for strategic cooperation with the support of Deutsche Bank.

In attendance at the event were reps of the Ministry for Investment and Cooperation of Kazakhstan, Kazakh Invest Company, the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneur, KazTemirTrans, Kazakh Ambassador to Germany Bolat Nussupov as well as reps of German companies, such as Bilfinger, SAP, BASF, Evonik and Thyssen-Krupp.

At the roundtable, Vice Minister Toktabayev noted that Kazakhstan and Germany traditionally enjoy mutually profitable cooperation in such sphere as engineering, subsurface management, oil refining, energy efficiency, development of transport and logistics infrastructure, and pharmaceuticals.

In his words, over 85% of Germany's trade turnover with all five Central Asian countries falls at Kazakhstan.

"Our country is among top 5 crude oil suppliers to Germany and, thus, plays an important role in ensuring energy security in Germany and Europe," Mr. Toktabayev stressed.

According to the Ministry, over the past 12 years Germany has invested over $4 billion into Kazakhstan's economy (90% of investment into Kazakhstan's non-oil and gas sector).

Toktabayev continued that nowadays German companies can open their manufacturers on the territory of Kazakhstan to gain access to the markets of the EAEU member states, China and the Middle East. The Ministry believes that this win-win situation will benefit both Kazakhstan and Germany. Kazakhstan will get state-of-the-art enterprises and will be able to speed up the process of industrialization and diversification of its economy, whereas the German side will get value-enhancing investments and competitive final product.

The Kazakh Vice Minister reminded the participants of the event of German companies, namely HeidelbergCement, Knauf, FunkeKunststoffe, Henkel, Linde, Boehmer, Isoplus, MetroCash&Carry, that successfully operate in Kazakhstan.

The German side was suggested stepping up cooperation in car manufacturing, processing industry, information technologies, mining sector and agriculture.

Timur Toktabayev also mentioned the benefits of favorable investment climate in Kazakhstan, access to the EAEU market with over 180 million consumers as well as the potential of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) based on the best models of analogous centers in New York, Singapore, London and Dubai.

The Germany businessmen, in turn, highly appreciated Kazakhstan's investment climate and informed the Kazakh delegation of their current projects and the future plans within the framework of the industrialization program.

For instance, Markus Kramer, President of BASF Regional Division Europe, revealed that the company had approved the strategic business development plan in Central Asia that provides for expanded investment activity in the territory of Kazakhstan.

Tom Blades, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bilfinger SE, expressed interest in modernization of industrial facilities in Kazakhstan and participation in the privatization program. To this end, the company's leadership will pay a working visit to Kazakhstan to hold negotiations to discuss deeper cooperation.

Klaus Potthoff, Managing Director at ThyssenKrupp, highlighted the advantages of partnership between Kazakhstan and Germany, adding that the Kazakh-German projects have a long-term basis.

Summing up the results of the meeting, Peter Tils, Co-Chairman of the Kazakh-German Business Council for strategic cooperation and CEO of Central and Eastern Europe Region, Deutsche Bank AG, underscored that economic relations between the two countries ‘have untapped potential'.

It should be noted that the Week of Kazakhstan's Economy filled with presentations and business meetings of the two countries is held ahead of the upcoming visit of Chairman of Germany's Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations Wolfgang Büchele to Astana this December.

 

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