A delegation from Kazakhstan’s Pavlodar region headed by akim (governor) Kanat Bozumbayev recently paid a two-day visit to the Omsk region of Russia, resulting in the signing of a protocol on mutually-beneficial cooperation between the Omsk government and the Pavlodar akimat (administration).
Business people of the two regions signed a number of contracts. Over the two days of work the Kazakh delegation visited industrial and agricultural enterprises, met with Omsk entrepreneurs and signed multimillion-dollar contracts.
The negotiations and exchange of contracts between companies were attended by representatives of about 100 enterprises from both sides.
As a result of the contracts, Pavlodar businesses will supply Omsk with coal, power, control and telephone cables and energy saving (LED) lamps. Pavlodar farms and trading companies also held talks about supplying vegetables, meat and dairy products, wheat and flour. For their part, Omsk manufacturers offered products in the food and processing industry, agricultural machinery and accounting equipment for the energy sector. The issues of increasing the cargo flow through the Irtysh River and the development of transit potential for the two countries were also discussed.
The Pavlodar delegation also met with representatives of the ethnic Kazakh and cultural centres. Bozumbayev visited the renovated street named after Chokan Valikhanov.
He also had a meeting with the governor of the Omsk region Viktor Nazarov, which resulted in the signing of a protocol on trade, economic, social, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation between the two regions. A presentation of the economic potential of the region was demonstrated to the Kazakh delegation; in turn, Pavlodar representatives provided members of the Omsk government with the potential of their region.
As Nazarov noted, Kazakhstan is a key partner for Omsk, as the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and hisregion is growing every year. Kazakh partners are actively investing in the economy, establishing more than 150 joint Russian-Kazakh enterprises in the region. In 2013, Kazakh investors provided the economy with $50 million in foreign investment revenue, while foreign trade turnover between the region and Kazakhstan amounted to more than $405 million.
“We have a common goal, which is the development of our territories. I remembered the words of your President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who described the relations between Russia and Kazakhstan as standard integration in the post-Soviet space. We should follow this course in the future. I think that your visit will only strengthen our cooperation,” said Nazarov in addressing the guests.
According to the governor, this cooperation has a huge potential in trade and economic, educational and culturalspheres.
In response, Bozumbayev thanked the governor for the invitation to visit the region and for the warmth with which the delegation was welcomed everywhere. The akim told about the interests of business circles of the Pavlodar region and the signing of the contract to establish a Technopark with a logistics centre in Omsk. Construction will begin this year.
Pavlodar is interested in Omsk oil products, chemical products, tires and elite cereal seeds. In turn, Pavlodar enterprises are willing to sell coal, furniture and energy-saving technologiesand supply lamb and beef to the meat processing plants, especially with regard to the embargo on meat from EU countries.
Bozumbayev spoke positively about the work of the Omsk region’s Ministry of Education, noting Kazakh children who live in the area learn their native language in school. But the akim believes that children need to know Kazakh literature as well. Kazakhstan is ready to provide schools with textbooks.
The Pavlodar delegation visited the refinery and saw the scale of modernisation. They were interested in the modernisation because such transformations are coming soon in the Pavlodar petrochemical plant. A year ago, the Omsk plant completed the first phase of the large-scale modernisation, which was aimed at improving the quality of motor fuel. As a result, the company increased the production of high-octane gasoline to 4.2 million tonnes, of which 3.6 million tonnes correspond to the fifth class of technical regulations. Omsk is ready to share experience.
The Pavlodar delegation, in turn, is willing to provide its neighbours with meat products. According to Nazarov, this niche is opentoday because the Russian retaliatory sanctions on products from Australiahave resulted in a stoppage of supplies of beef and lamb from the country. Pavlodar can fill the voidand through the end of the year the region plans to export about 800 tonnes of meat and meat products.
“The potential of cooperation has not been exhausted and today’s cooperation agreementsrepresent a step towards further integration,” the akim said.
In addition to the signed protocol, several memoranda in various fields were concluded during the visit. The Kazakh delegation invited the Omsk party to the innovation forum Invest 2014, which will be held in October.
