ASTANA – Chairman of the KAZNEX INVEST National Agency for Export and Investment Borisbiy Zhangurazov called on enterprises to develop promising export destinations during a recent press conference at the Central Communications Service.
“Today, we have more than 20 different commodity items demanded on the Chinese market, including pastry, rice, soft drinks, turkey meat as well as metallurgy products,” said Zhangurazov.
He also noted that China is an important importer for Kazakhstan in many positions.
“China imports vegetable oil products worth more than $100 billion annually. Kazakhstan also has great potential to grow oilseeds. If we organise the processing and production base to produce high-quality products, the country will be able to succeed,” the chairman added.
It was mentioned that Kazakh sweets are very popular in China.
“Our confectionery products, which have a particular production culture, have great potential. The Rakhat sweets are of a high demand in China. There are also other producers, which can improve their production capacity after certain modernisation in order to start exporting confectioneries to China,” said Zhangurazov.
The export potential of meat should be also increased. China is capable of importing much greater volumes of lamb and mutton from Kazakhstan. According to the speaker, some sanitary barriers should be removed and the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture is already working on it.
Zhangurazov also reminded that Kazakhstan is an important exporter of metallurgy, chemistry and uranium products to China.
“During the first 11 months of the past year, the total volume of sales of the processed products to China amounted to $2.7 billion, which is 16 percent higher than in the same period of 2014,” he concluded.
It was also recalled that Minister of Investment and Development Asset Issekeshev met with representatives of major Chinese enterprises, while he was in Beijing from Jan. 26-28. Today’s cooperation between the two states is carried out on the base of the industrial and investment programme, supported by China’s State Committee for Development and Reform.
“In the frames of this programme, we have 52 projects worth $24 billion for agriculture, chemical industry and mechanical engineering. In general, this programme will create about 19,000 jobs. It is also aimed to attract transnational corporations based in China,” said Zhangurazov.
Concerning the financial projects, a Silk Road Fund as a department of Central Bank of China was mentioned. Under this agreement, KAZNEX INVEST will primarily develop projects, but the final funding will be provided by the Chinese side. The total capitalisation of the fund is $2 billion. It is planned to involve all regions and various sectors of the economy in the project.
