Kazakhstan praises economic ties with France
By Rasana Gasimova
France is one of Kazakhstan’s key partners in Europe and the cooperation between the two countries is actively developing.
Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin made these remarks while receiving representatives of the France-Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce and Industry headed by its President Gerard Fries on November 8.
During the meeting, Mamin noted that French companies are widely represented in the energy, agricultural, engineering and other sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy.
For the past nine months, trade between Kazakhstan and France increased by more than six percent to reach $3.4 billion. The influx of direct French investment in the Kazakhstan’s economy in the first half of 2019 increased by more than 24 percent, amounting to $537 million.
About 230 enterprises with French capital operate in Kazakhstan in various fields, including such large multinational corporations as Total, Orano, Alstrom, among others. Over the years of independence, French companies have invested in Kazakhstan more than $16.4 billion.
The sides discussed the strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation between the business structures of the two countries and the implementation of new joint investment projects in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministers Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev, Agriculture Minister Saparkhan Omarov, Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural resources Magzum Mirzagaliyev, First Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Kairbek Uskenbayev, and Vice Minister Finance Ruslan Beketaev also attended the meeting.
France and Kazakhstan established diplomatic relations on 25 January 1992. France was the first European nation to recognize Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is France's largest trading partner in Central Asia and France is Kazakhstan's sixth-largest trading partner globally.
France is among the top five countries in terms of direct investment in the Kazakh economy. From 2005 to 2018, the volume of French investments in the economy of Kazakhstan exceeded $15 billion. In 2018, trade turnover grew by 32.5 percent to $4.5 billion.
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