Foreign investment Council in Kazakhstan
ASTANA – The 28th session of the Foreign Investors Council of Kazakhstan, focusing on the development of the country’s agricultural sector, was held on June 4-5 in the Kazakh capital and chaired by President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, who called on foreign investors to involve themselves in Kazakh agribusiness and said that despite economic challenges, his country continues to be an attractive investment.
“Despite the difficult external economic environment that we are observing now [and] geopolitical challenges, Kazakhstan continues to show growth and attractiveness to investors, ” Nazarbayev said at the plenary session on June 4. “The choice [to discuss agribusiness development] was not accidental. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world by area that has unique agricultural resources, ” he said.
Among the developments in agriculture in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev announced that the Philip Morris Company had established an agribusiness centre in the Almaty region for the study of drip irrigation, greenhouse production, the use of fertilisers and other new technologies. Projects like this would always receive the support of the government of Kazakhstan, he said.
Nazarbayev also announced that Kazakhstan’s three large agrarian universities would be merged to create a unified agricultural research and education centre to help develop applied science, train specialist and put into practice modern technologies. “We intend to attract the best international partners to create the centre in the next five years, ” the President said, according to BNews. “It will be a useful experience for the entire region and the post-Soviet space.”
The President also cited offers to launch high-quality beef production in the country and noted that the roads, railways and multi-modal transit projects underway in the country (which include the Western Europe-Western China highway project) would support the development of Kazakhstan’s agriculture in providing more ways for the landlocked country to export its products to existing markets and new markets in China, India and the Middle East.
