Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The volume of Kazakh direct investments to Kyrgyzstan amounted to $30 million in 2012.

State Secretary of Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy Aidai Kurmanova announced the figure at the second joint business forum, Kyrgyz Telegraph Agency reported on Wednesday.

"Investments from Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan grew by 130 percent," Kurmanova said.

According to her, the investment dynamics will increase year-on-year.

"The share of Kazakh investments in the total volume is 6 percent. Businessmen mainly invest money in trade, industry, financial activity and real estate," Kurmanova said.

She added that the Kyrgyz government paid great attention to creating favorable conditions for attracting investments.

Bishkek hosts the second Kyrgyz-Kazakh business forum, which began on Wednesday. The delegation of Kazakhstan includes representatives of 24 companies engaged in engineering, construction, pharmaceutical, chemical and textile industries.

The first business forum was held in 2012 in Bishkek and export contracts totaling over $3 million were signed there.

Managing Director of Kaznex Invest under Kazakh Ministry of Industry, Askar Arynov, said at the business forum that trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan grew by 41 percent in 2012 and amounted to $1 billion.

A number of agreements are planned to be signed with Kyrgyz businessmen, Arynov said.

According to Arynov, the growth of the trade turnover between the two countries is an indicator of Kazakh businessmen's high-level confidence in Kyrgyzstan.

Kazakhstan considers Kyrgyzstan as its strategic and reliable partner, Arynov said.

He noted that Kazakhstan exports food, pharmaceuticals and metallurgy goods and construction materials to Kyrgyzstan.

Kazakhstan's export to Kyrgyzstan amounted to $726 million and the import of Kazakhstan from the neighboring country in 2012 totaled $333 million, which is 38 percent over 2011.