Competition Reviews Innovations in East Kazakhstan

UST-KAMENOGORSK – A group of professionals organised under the auspices of a project initiated by the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies and the National Agency for Technological Development (NATD) visited the East Kazakhstan region recently to select the best business ideas in the region. This event was an additional incentive for local manufacturers to produce competitive world-level goods.

The project was implemented in the framework of the annual national competition of innovative business plans, NIF $50K. The exhibition of ideas and developments in the Altai Technological Park demonstrated the big innovative potential of the region.

Anatoly Kovshik, head of the Vibromash CC LLP, presented to the visitors new-generation refrigerators that do not require energy. In winter, they accumulate cold and in summer, they emit cold. The units operate on the principle of the heat pipe; the minimum temperature inside is minus 40 degrees and they can store cold up to eight months.

An aircraft equipped with helicopter propellers, the invention of Victor Ovseychuk, aroused the special interest of the visitors. Galym Alkenov and Alimzhan Amangeldy, eighth grade students from the secondary school in the Ulan district, presented a small, three-coulter drill and a plant sprayer.

An engine with the power potential of tens of megawatts, the invention of Vladimir Kotov, a scientist from Kurchatov, not long ago caused great interest among world-renowned scientists, including Nobel laureates at the Oskemen EXPO 2014 There is every reason to believe that in the future this very promising project will be financially supported by the state.

Members of the NATD working group organised a regional workshop for businessmen. Vladimir Aksenov, Director General of the city’s condenser plant, held a master class for the participants and shared their experiences in creating an export-oriented enterprise.

The opportunities of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) open up great prospects for manufacturers, said Aksenov, the head of one of the leading companies in the country. According to Aksenov, economic unification and consolidation of laws and standards for technical regulation will contribute to the development of contacts and give significant impetus to the economies of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus.

“The EEU solves a lot of problems of domestic export-oriented businesses such as ours, where 80 percent of production is exported. Actually it will contribute to their further development,” he said.

“However, technologically we have strongly outstripped our Russian colleagues and today we compete mainly with European manufacturers of condensers, such as BMI and Siemens Vishay, which have been involved long and deep in this production,” said the director of the plant, while noting that it is practically impossible to break into the European market.

According to him, they “formalised” everything there and created numerous barriers to protect their market.

But at the same time, said Aksenov, the competition within the common market “helps find exclusives and advanced innovations.”

“Actually, without competition there is no stimulus for investment in the cheapening of technology and quality. Over the past five years our enterprise almost completely modernised production and updated nomenclature by about 90 percent. I am sure that the EEU will give Kazakhstan strong economic growth in the near future,” he concluded.

According to the East Kazakhstan innovators, participation in training workshops and business courses organised by NATD will help them in the future to avoid errors in preparing and submitting the necessary documents for participation in the republican contest. Moreover, they got a lot of useful information in terms of opportunities in connection with the signing of the EEU treaty.


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