қаз/рус

The Forum was attended by the Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Ministry for Investments and Development, Yerlan Khairov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to France Zhan Galiyev, Ambassador of France to Kazakhstan Philippe Martine, Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest, Saparbek Tuyakbaev, and representatives of the French and Kazakh business communities.

At the opening of the forum, the participants noted that French companies are interested in investing in Kazakhstan, which is a strategic corridor linking the Eurasian continent.

Ambassador Zhan Galiyev briefed the French forum participants on some points of the speech of the President of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev at the Astana Economic Forum, his Address "New Opportunities Under the Fourth Industrial Revolution" and the Five Social Initiatives.

The Chairman of the Investment Committee of the MID, Yerlan Khairov, said that last year about one-fourth of foreign investments in Kazakhstan were allocated to the manufacturing industry.

"This shows that Kazakhstan is becoming attractive not only in the oil industry. We comply with the international standards, and last year Kazakhstan joined the OECD Investment Committee," Khairov noted.

Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne also stressed the importance of strategic partnership with Kazakhstan.

"I can say that strategic partnership with Kazakhstan is a great reality. We need to breathe a new life into this partnership and strengthen it, taking into account the economic and political peculiarities. Kazakhstan’s privatization program is very interesting. I think France has the expertise and competence to contribute to establishment of the proposed cooperation with Kazakhstan," Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said.

Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest, Saparbek Tuyakbaev, noted that about 2/3 of GDP investments of the Central Asian countries are in Kazakhstan, which ranks first among the CIS countries in terms of attracted investments per capita. S. Tuyakbaev also talked about the current foreign investors support measures, including a wide range of financial instruments of the Astana International Financial Center.

According to Kazakh Invest, world companies operating in Kazakhstan have access to a market of more than 500 million people. The multi-modal Eurasian transport corridor passes through Kazakhstan, including 5 railway and 6 automobile international routes, as well as the modern transcontinental road "Western Europe — Western China."

"Our transport corridors allow delivering cargo from Asia (Lianyungang port, China) to Europe (Duisburg port, Germany) or back in about 10-15 days, which is 2-3 times faster than by the sea. I can say that container transportation volume has grown twofold," Tuyakbaev noted.

50 niche projects in priority sectors of the economy in accordance with the National Investment Strategy were presented to French businessmen. These investment proposals were developed jointly with Deloitte.

The forum also included a discussion at such sessions as "Kazakhstan as a platform for investment and export on the New Silk Road", "Tools for attracting foreign investment in Kazakhstan" and "Digitization of the economy".

In addition, Memorandums of Understanding and Cooperation were signed between ECM Technologies and Kazatomprom as part of the Investment Forum.

For reference: France currently ranks 5th in the list of Kazakhstan's leading trade partners, and French companies are among the largest investors in the economy of our country. More than 130 companies with the participation of French capital successfully operate in Kazakhstan, including such large companies as Total, Areva, Danone, Vicat, Peugeot, Alstom, etc., which implement high-tech projects. The volume of French investment in Kazakhstan in the period from 2005 to September 2017 reached 13.9 billion dollars. The inflow of direct investments from Kazakhstan to France for the same period amounted to 29.6 million dollars.

Since the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement between Kazakhstan and France (2008), the volume of trade between the two countries has exceeded 43 billion dollars. The main items of Kazakhstan's export are oil, metals and metal products, as well as chemical products. Kazakhstan imports electrical, electronic and mechanical equipment, consumer goods, medicines and cosmetics, automobiles, food products and building materials from France.

Source: primeminister.kz