ASTANA – During his recent visit to Italy, Kazakh Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev met with representatives of several Italian businesses, reviewing entrepreneurship collaboration following the agreements reached by the Presidents of both countries in January, the ministry’s press service reported on March 13.
Photo credit: gov.kz
With Italy’s Senator Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, Shakkaliyev focused on the Road to Kazakhstan project, which entails operating branded trucks across 30 Italian cities and disseminating information about Kazakhstan’s culture, cuisine, tourism opportunities, and more.
Secretary General of the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce Abroad Domenico Mauriello expressed interest in opening a representative office in Kazakhstan to unite Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and form a flagship for joint projects.
QazTrade Center for Trade Policy Development and the association agreed to sign a memorandum on the exchange of SME databases and a shared company register for establishing B2B contacts, as well as to draft a joint action plan.
Shakkaliyev stressed the importance of aligning the chamber’s activities with the concept of “Made in Kazakhstan with Italy,” a project that may become a new vector in cooperation between SMEs of both countries, as noted by Vincenzo Elifani, President of Unionservizi Confapi, the largest confederation uniting over 116,000 Italian SMEs.
Elifani highlighted a shift in Italian companies’ attitudes towards international expansion, particularly Kazakhstan, indicating a genuine interest among entrepreneurs in diversifying beyond borders.
The joint brand can also benefit from the activities of AIСR, an Italian concern that fosters trade, economic, and industrial relations between Central Asian and Southern European countries and facilitates the export of European goods to Eurasian markets.
Shakkaliyev reached this conclusion during negotiations with AIСR Coordinator Olga Gelucie, who was exploring the potential of selecting ten projects for cooperation in various sectors, including the textile, chemical, and food industries.
At a meeting with Alessandra Ricci, CEO of SACE, an Italian insurance-financial group specializing in supporting businesses and the Italian economic fabric, the minister discussed issues of supporting projects aimed at implementing the new trademark.
He met with Francesca De Biasi and Luca Latini, top managers of Speri Kazakhstan, an Italian company engaging in municipal construction and engineering services.
Having several projects executed in Kazakhstan, Speri is now constructing a hospital in the Karagandy Region with funding from the Asian Development Bank. The company is set to open its office in Almaty to design full-cycle facilities and solve environmental issues, planning to attract local professionals.
During a meeting with Antonio Ambrosio, international manager of Carmec srl, Shakkaliyev discussed cooperative projects for milk processing and cheese production, identifying the Almaty, East, North, and West Kazakhstan Regions as the areas with the greatest potential for this purpose.
Reviewing considerable opportunities to establish production at the Central Asia International Centre for Industrial Cooperation, located on the border with Uzbekistan, Ambrosio expressed readiness to explore investment prospects in Kazakhstan-based production facilities.
Carla Sora, general manager at Agro Ittica Lombarda Spa, proposed launching caviar production in Kazakhstan with subsequent export to the Middle East. Shakkaliyev affirmed the country’s readiness to provide Italian businesses with analytics and assist in organizing meetings with large domestic caviar producers.
