GOVERNMENT: Kazakhstan strives to activate industrial coop with China
ASTANA. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan is going to spend 80% of its budget for creation of basic macro-economic conditions. The government takes measures to develop mass sport and propagate healthy life style in the country. The Ministry of Investments and Development strives to accelerate the launch of the Industrial Cooperation Program between Kazakhstan and China.
First Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev met with Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry of Italy Maurizio Martina in the Ukimet Uyi. During the talks, the sides noted a great potential of both countries in development of cooperation in the sphere of agriculture and implementation of joint investment projects of the agro-industrial complex. The First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan expressed his confidence that after successful organization of the EXPO in Milan the participation of Italy in the exhibition in Astana would be one of the of the most informative. The parties discussed also the development of the agricultural sector of Kazakhstan under the conditions of the country's accession to the WTO.
At an enlarged meeting of the board of the Culture and Sport Ministry, Vice Premier Dariga Nazarbayeva charged the Ministry as well as healthcare and education officials to jointly develop an action plan on mass sport development in Kazakhstan. “We need massive propagation of healthy life style in Kazakhstan. The idea of being healthy, slim and physically strong must be on trend,” she said.
Besides, in her opinion, the state should drastically change the approaches to financing the sport-promotion projects and actively search for investors. The gyms at rural schools must be more available for local residents. The Culture and Sport Ministry was also commissioned to introduce more tough principles of personnel recruitment and change the organizational-legal framework of the institutions of culture and give them more freedom.
This week Beijing hosted the 8th session of the Kazakh-Chinese Joint Commission for Cooperation in Industrialization and Investments with the participation of the Kazakhstan Minister of Investments and Development Asset Issekeshev.
“The visit aimed at soonest launch of the Industrial Cooperation Program initiated by the Head of State. We have a program which includes 52 projects. This year we will start the construction of 11 new enterprises in 9 regions of the country. The total amount of investments is more than 4 bln U.S. dollars,” Issekeshev said in an interview to mass media.
According to him, the first 11 projects aim at manufacturing export-oriented products. The total size of investments for all projects of the Program will exceed 24 bln U.S. dollars.
During the visit, Issekeshev met with the leadership of several Chinese companies for discussing promising projects and terms of cooperation in manufacturing export-oriented high-value-added products, namely in the field of aviation, ore-mining industry, infrastructure construction, agriculture, food stuffs, energy, electric cables production etc. Chinese businessmen expressed interest in interaction with Kazakhstan and noted positive investment climate in our country.
Special attention is given to financing of this program. In December 2015, in the course of Kazakh PM’s official visit to China, JSC KAZNEX INVEST and Silk Way Foundation signed an agreement on establishment of the Kazakhstan-China Fund for Cooperation of Production Assets with the capitalization of 2 bln c.u.
The National Chamber of Entrepreneurs had a telephone conference during which Vice Minister of Investments and Development Rakhim Oshakbayev briefed about the changes in approaches to the implementation of the second five-year plan of the State Industrial-Innovative Development. Henceforth, 80% of budgetary funds will be spent for creation of basic macro-economic conditions.
On January 27, the capital of Turkmenistan hosted the 43rd session of the ad hoc working group for development of convention on the Caspian Sea's legal status. The session was held at the level of Caspian states’ deputy foreign ministers. Delegations from Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan attended the meeting. Joint discussion of the issue allowed the Caspian states to achieve rapprochement in their positions as much as possible and receive certain results regarding the Convention on the Caspian Sea’s Legal Status. During the meeting, the heads of delegations outlined the positions of their countries on some provisions of the Convention called to enshrine the legal norms of interaction in various fields on the Caspian Sea. The meeting discussed also a package of issues related to preservation and protection of water resources of the Caspian Sea raising great concern of all the Caspian states.